BEST-SELLING AUTHOR AND SPP PROFESSOR AWARDED INTERNATIONAL CREATIVITY AWARD

Richard Florida, author of the 2002 New York Times best-seller, “The Rise of the Creative Class,” and Hirst Professor of economics at SPP, was recently presented with the Sid Parnes Pioneer Award by the Creative Education Foundation, a nonprofit membership organization of leaders in the field of creativity theory and practice. The theory at the heart of “The Rise of the Creative Class” was named one of the year’s top breakthrough ideas by Harvard Business Review. “Florida's book broke new ground for those looking to improve our cities and regions,” CEF co-President David Horth has said, noting that Florida was the committee's unanimous choice to receive the inaugural award. “He took a tough topic and made it easy for his audiences to see how creative thinking concepts can be applied to the challenges of our society."

Florida's latest book, "The Flight of the Creative Class," published in April of 2005, examines the global competition for creative talent. Reviewing it, Publishers Weekly remarked, "Florida remains an astute observer of what makes economic communities tick, and he's sure to generate just as much public debate on this new twist on brain drain." Florida is currently a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Previously he had been at Carnegie Mellon University and a visiting professor at MIT and at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is the founder and principal of the Creativity Group and Catalytix. To learn more about him or his books, go to his web site: www.creativeclass.org.