Marina Batog is a development professional specializing in planning and local economic development. Over the past 15 years, she has done extensive grassroots work across Romania assisting communities in participatory strategic planning processes. At the same time, she collaborated with international organizations such as UNDP, the World Bank and the Council of Europe in policy design and evaluation processes in the field of integrated planning, urban regeneration and housing, serving government and local authority counterparts. She is co-founder and currently coordinator of Bucharest-based MKBT, an organization dedicated to innovation in the practice of urban regeneration in Romania.