Sascha Haselmayer

About Sascha Haselmayer

Sascha Haselmayer is a social entrepreneur who has led urban innovation, economic development, and government innovation projects in over 40 countries. He trained as an architect at the Architectural Association in London and is a globally recognized expert on social entrepreneurship, social change, and urban and local government innovation. He is a senior change leader at Ashoka, a global non-profit supporting the world's leading social entrepreneurs to empower everyone to become a changemaker.

In 2011, Haselmayer founded Citymart, an organization that transformed expectations and practices of public procurement by reliably introducing civic engagement, diversity, problem-solving, and innovation into a core bureaucratic process. Under his leadership, Citymart implemented innovative procurement practices in 135 cities in 35 countries that led to better community outcomes and connected 30,000 creative small, social, and disadvantaged businesses to participate in government contracting.

Prior to Citymart, he founded businesses and organizations that pioneered inclusive urban innovation and civic service innovation. These entities worked in cities through a global network of living labs and advising governments, investors, and universities throughout Europe and Asia.

Haselmayer’s contributions to urban and civic innovation, smart cities, economic development, and public procurement innovation have been recognized through an Ashoka Fellowship. He has also been a fellow at New America's Public Interest Technology Group. He advocates for change as a keynote speaker at global convenings and lecturing at institutions like the London School of Economics Cities Programme and the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is the author of The Slow Lane, a book on meaningful social change, and has authored two books on service and procurement innovation in cities. He has served as a trusted adviser to organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the Aspen Institute and served on the selection committee of the Bloomberg Mayor’s Challenge and the Advisory Board of the UN Global Compact Cities Programme.