NEW YORK CITY—Former New York City Deputy Mayor and CEO of Bloomberg LP Dan Doctoroff will lead Google's urban innovation initiative Sidewalk Labs as its CEO based here. The new effort will develop physical and digital technology geared at improving city living for residents, businesses and governments.

Sidewalk Labs says it will tackle some of the biggest challenges cities face, such as making transportation more efficient and lowering the cost of living, reducing energy usage and helping governments operate more efficiently. The company will look to develop new products, platforms and partnerships to make progress in those areas.

“We are at the beginning of a historic transformation in cities. At a time when the concerns about urban equity, costs, health and the environment are intensifying, unprecedented technological change is going to enable cities to be more efficient, responsive, flexible and resilient,” Doctoroff says. “We hope that Sidewalk will play a major role in developing technology products, platforms and advanced infrastructure that can be implemented at scale in cities around the world.”

Google CEO Larry Page says, “By improving urban technology, it's possible to significantly improve the lives of billions of people around the world. With Sidewalk, we want to supercharge existing efforts in areas such as housing, energy, transportation and government to solve real problems that city-dwellers face every day. Every time I talk with Dan I feel an amazing sense of opportunity because of his passion for all the ways technology can help transform cities to be more livable, flexible and vibrant. And when you combine that with his experience as an investor, in New York City government, and as CEO of the large information company Bloomberg LP, I can't imagine a better person to lead these efforts.”

As Deputy Mayor, Doctoroff spearheaded the effort to revive New York City after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 through a five-borough economic development strategy and the creation of PlaNYC, New York's sustainability plan that has become a model for integrated urban planning around the world. He was previously a managing partner at private equity investment firm Oak Hill Capital Partners.

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John Jordan

John Jordan is a veteran journalist with 36 years of print and digital media experience.