Rick Baker was formerly an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute’s Center for State and Local Leadership and author of The Seamless City. From 2001 to early 2010, Rick Baker was mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida’s fourth largest city. In 2008, he was named America’s Mayor/Public Official of the Year by Governing Magazine.

Baker formerly practiced business law and is now director of the University of South Florida’s Innovation Partnership. He holds a B.S. in management, an M.B.A and a J.D. (with honors) from Florida State University. Baker studied comparative law at Oxford University and was a legal intern to Florida Supreme Court Justice Ben Overton. He and his wife Joyce are raising two teenage children.