Eugene W. Grant’s professional experience includes Municipal Leadership, non-profit management, strategic planning and event concept development. He is the longest serving Mayor in Seat Pleasant History, having served the Smart City of Excellence since 2014. He is a forward thinking and visionary leader, who has spearheaded the efforts to transform Seat Pleasant, into the World’s First Authentic Small Smart City! The Mayor’s vision for a $30 Million Smart City program first came to fruition in 2017, when Mayor Grant traveled to Silicon Valley and signed an agreement with IBM for a multi-year digital transformation.
Under his guidance, the City has deployed Smart City technologies that have drastically improved government operations and services. The Mayor’s guiding principal that the citizen is the most important stakeholder, as well as the strategic partnerships he helped forge with private, educational and public institutions, have been the catalyst behind the city’s successful and historic transformation.
As the principal promoter for Seat Pleasant, a Smart City of Excellence, and a recognized thought leader in the Smart City space, Mayor Grant has presented his vision for a center of innovation, information and investment in front of some of the world’s leading tech companies, universities, public institutions, social impact investors, and angel investors. This includes presentations at the United Nations HQ in NYC on three different occasions, where he promoted the city as a model for other small cities, towns and villages, as well as panel discussions and keynote presentations at various Smart City conferences and events, including, Smart Cities Week, IBM Think, IBM IoT Exchange, Verizon Smart Communities 2.0, Smart Cities Connect, Infotech 2019 in China, the American Association of Blacks in Energy, and the first ever TEDx Talk presentation in the history of the Maryland Municipal League Summer Conference. Additionally, Mayor Eugene W. Grant travels extensively throughout the world lecturing and advising government officials, business leaders and NGO’s on developing partnerships that address democratic principles, humanitarian issues and economic development.