Erik Gillberg

Erik has spent 30 years inside the operating reality of property: how buildings live, age, and either serve or fail the people in them. Alongside it he built a 20-year career in technology, business development, and startup leadership, learning to design systems and align teams around outcomes rather than tasks. Now City is the synthesis of the two: districts treated as living systems, where capital, design, and operations are engineered together from the start instead of colliding after the fact.

As master developer of Edgewater, Erik's role is holding the whole: a vision worth committing a decade to, capital structures that let attainable homes pencil, and partnerships aligned enough to survive four phases of delivery. His operating principle is care, for residents, for partners, for the river, and for Salem, backed by the conviction that development done this way is not charity but the strongest financial strategy available.

Ritchie Ju

Ritchie leads design, development, and operations. He holds a Bachelor of Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University, a Master of Science in Architecture and Urban Design from Columbia University, and is currently completing his MBA at Johns Hopkins University. His career spans urban design, mobility, real estate development, and entrepreneurship, including being part of the team that led Citi Bike's expansion at Lyft, supporting capital raising and development with a visionary NYC mixed-use developer with $3B+ in total development project capitalization, and co-founding a 7-figure ecommerce business.

Growing up between New York and Beijing gave Ritchie a unique perspective on how vibrant, walkable districts improve quality of life. Seeing both cities continually invest in dense, mixed-use neighborhoods contrasted sharply with much of America's low-density, car-centric cities. That experience became the foundation for Now City's mission: creating beautiful, sustainable districts where people can live, work, and gather within walkable communities.

Michael H. Shuman

Michael is an economist, attorney, and one of the architects of the 2012 JOBS Act. Adjunct Professor at Bard Business School and author of Put Your Money Where Your Life Is, The Local Economy Solution, and others. He advises Now City on community-rooted ownership, local capital formation, and finance models that keep wealth in place.

Neal Payton

Neal, FAIA, FCNU, directs the western U.S. urban and architectural design practice at Torti Gallas. His work focuses on master plans, form-based codes, and the public realm - especially the revitalization of declining urban centers, brownfields, and aging suburbs. He advises Now City on urbanism, master planning, and entitlement strategy.