City Manager
Kansas City, MO
Kansas City, Missouri

Meet Brian Platt, city manager for Kansas City, Missouri, where he serves as the chief executive for an organization with a $2.3 billion annual operating budget, 4,500 employees, and more than 500,000 residents. Platt oversees all the services and activities a city provides, including street maintenance, snow removal, two airports, health services, fire and EMS response, and much more. His passion is making life better for people in any way possible.

Under Platt’s leadership, Kansas City is becoming a national example of a successful city. The city boasts a new highly acclaimed airport, one of the largest solar arrays in the United States, and has repaved exponentially more miles of city streets than ever before. Additionally, Kansas City is planting 10,000 new trees over three years, implementing an aggressive new approach to snow removal, converting an old hotel into transitional housing for the homeless, and building a new low-barrier homeless shelter. The city has also established one of the first right-to-counsel programs in the country, hosted the NFL draft, and is one of 11 U.S. cities to host the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Platt enjoys doing some of the same workouts from his days on the Emory Track team and the U.S. Olympic weightlifting team. These activities kept him focused and balanced as an undergrad and continue to be a great way to escape the stress and chaos of daily life today. He also cherishes his time as a member of Dooley’s Guards and still has his white gloves!

Platt finds fulfillment in solving problems for people and making a positive impact on their lives. He says Emory exposed him to new cultures, communities, perspectives, and the challenges people face all over the world. It shaped his understanding of the world and gave him direction and focus.