Li Tie is Research Fellow, Doctoral Advisor and the receiver of the State Council Special Expert Allowance. He is Chairman and Chief Economist of the China Center for Urban Development, Chairman of Smart City Development Alliance. Previously, He worked for the Rural Policy Research Office of the CPC Central Committee, the State Commission for Economic Restructuring and the State Commission for Structural Reform.

Mr. Li has been engaged in drafting the Central Government’s urbanization and rural policy documents as well as speeches by major central leaders. He chaired a series of key research projects on China's urbanization strategy, urban planning for healthy urbanization development and migration policy in the process of urbanization. Under his leadership, CCUD keeps a cooperation relationship with international organizations such as the United Nations Development Program, the European Union, the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Economic Forum. Mr. Li led dozens of international cooperation projects.

He has participated in organizing multiple bilateral and multilateral international events such as the EU-China Urbanization Partnership Forum, with a leading or participatory role in promoting China’s cooperation with the European Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Korea, India, ASEAN, Latin America and other countries in such fields as urbanization and smart cities. Mr. Li launched Smart City Development Alliance to advocate cross-industrial and market-oriented development of Chinese smart cities. He also strategized and organized the China Smart City (International) Innovation Conference, China Smart City International Expo and other key events.

His main works include Urbanization: A Comprehensive and Profound Social Transformation, Cities: My Personal Perspective, Paths for New Urbanization, Transformation of Cities, and Macro-policies from the Perspective of Urbanization. He is the chief editor of Urbanization and Social Transformation Series. His new book Internet+ and Smart Cities is coming out soon.