Bill Lennertz, President
Bill Lennertz is a nationally respected designer, city planner and urban designer who builds capacity for collaboration by design and transforms how people work together. He is a founder of the National Charrette Institute and the principal author and lead instructor of the renowned NCI Charrette System™, the first structured process for design-based collaborative planning. Through his curriculum development, teaching, publishing, and built work, Bill has developed a proven methodology that accelerates vision to implementation. His integrative approach solves complex problems by harnessing the talents and energies of all interested parties to co-create and support a successful outcome. He has educated thousands of community planners, including top staff from national organizations. With NCI and throughout his career, Bill has managed numerous built projects.
Bill has taught at various universities, including the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he has delivered the NCI Charrette System™ professional certificate course every summer for the past 15 years. He has made significant advances in the field of public involvement through research and publications.
In 2016 Bill orchestrated the acquisition of NCI by Michigan State University. In doing so he transitioned from NCI Director to part-time faculty, remaining in Portland. Bill started Collaborative Design + Innovation LLC to make the Collaboration by Design process available to a broader range of projects from engineering to public policy.