Ziad Moutran holds a bachelor's degree in architecture from the Lebanese American University (LAU) and a Master of  Business Administration (MBA) from ESA Business School Beirut and ESCP-EAP Paris. He specialized in Master Planning and Architectural Design & Management. A Lebanese national as well as Canadian citizen, Ziad has spent 7 years in Montreal involved in projects related to the ecosystem and co-operative design.  In Lebanon, he took part in the planning and re-development of Beirut Central District (BCD) after the Lebanese Civil War and is currently involved with AECOM in the NEOM project, a future planned city to be built in the Tabuk Province of northwestern Saudi Arabia. His involvement in the reconstruction of the BCD and the development of new futuristic cities has awakened and strengthened in him the needs for special arrangements for heritage preservation, the creation of public spaces as well as planning focused on sustainable environments and citizen-oriented smart cities.