Stephen Yarwood

Early life and Education

Stephen was born in Whyalla, South Australia. After moving to Adelaide, Yarwood attended Norwood Morialta High School and graduated from the University of South Australia in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts (Planning), later completing Graduate Diplomas in Regional & Urban Planning and Environmental Studies and an MBA from Masters of Business Administration from the University of Adelaide.

Yarwood is not officially affiliated with any political parties.

Personal life

Stephen is married to wife, Emily, and has two children, Megan and Oliver. He lives within the City of Adelaide.

Early career

Prior to his time on the Adelaide City Council, Yarwood worked in South Australian State Government as an Urban Planner, was the Research Officer to the Environment, Resources and Development Committee of the South Australian Parliament and the Principle Planner at the City of Playford.

His planning experience is exceptionally diverse; from strategy to implementation on many large projects dealing with most land use types and a diverse range of environmental, economic, community, design and development issues.

Yarwood was the recipient of a Multi-Function Polis Scholarship to study “Future Cities” in Japan’s Science and Technology City Tsukuba in 2002 and attended Aarhus Business School Summer School program in Denmark in 2009.

He has researched city planning and governance, worked and/or led delegations to Canada, USA, Scandinavia/Europe, the Middle East, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, China, India and New Zealand.

Adelaide City Council

Yarwood was elected as central ward councillor to the Adelaide City Council in 2007 and served as Deputy Lord Mayor from 2008-2009. Yarwood won the Lord Mayoral election in 2010, with 3169 votes, 884 votes ahead of the second-placed candidate. During his time as Lord Mayor Stephen oversaw the redevelopment of the Rundle Mall and Victoria Square, the implementation of the city-wide Wi-Fi network and CISCO smart cities agreement, the first sister city agreement in 30 years with Qingdao, China, environmental initiatives including accelerated trees plantings and an ambitious carbon neutral action plan, integrated transport vision that included significant walking and cycling infrastructure and hosting the premier cycling conference “VeloCity Global”.

Stephen was the Chair of the Adelaide Park Lands Authority, Dual Chair of the Reconciliation Committee and also sat on the Capital City Committee and Rundle Mall Management Authority.

Later career

Yarwood has continued his work with cities as an Urban Futurist; consulting internationally on future city trends, urban innovation, leadership and creating positive cultural change. He is considered an international specialist on the “future urban citizen” and the relationships between people, technology, infrastructure, society, cities and quality urbanism.

In 2015, Yarwood founded city²⁰⁵⁰,‘a consultancy specialising in long term transformative strategic planning’ for cities. city²⁰⁵⁰ provides training, speaking and consulting services, working with “cities, states, nations, corporations and communities”.

He is a sought-after keynote speaker, trainer and advisor; clients include the Australian and New Zealand Governments, Airbnb, Bloomberg Philanthropies, PWC, Cisco and numerous Australian State Government Departments and Local Government Associations as well as many City Councils across Australia and New Zealand.

Yarwood has worked in Saudi Arabia, India, the United States, New Zealand and throughout Australia.

In 2016, Yarwood was announced as a founding member of the Airbnb Mayoral Advisory Board, alongside three former mayors from the U.S. and Italy. The aims to strengthen Airbnb’s partnerships with cities worldwide; reviewing policies, providing feedback on upcoming Airbnb products and initiatives, and providing Airbnb with ‘valuable insights gained from years leading some of the world’s greatest cities’.