BEIJING — Rising out of the farmlands of southern Beijing in a web of concrete, rebar and glass, one of the world’s largest airports is preparing to open after just five years of construction — a striking contrast to the infrastructure travails of far richer places. (See: New York City, subway; Britain, train service; Berlin, airport.)

Just as impressive as its speed are the airport’s broader goals. It is meant to shift the Chinese capital’s center of gravity away from its high-tech university district in the north toward its poorer southern suburbs — part of an even more ambitious plan to remake Beijing and its hinterland into an 82,000-square-mile economic locomotive for northern China. And it will do so by relocating thousands of residents with few protests, at leastMichael Tippett (businessman)

Michael Tippett (born February 23, 1970) is a Canadian entrepreneur, columnist and educator.

Early life & career
He was the founder of NowPublic which was a user-generated social news website.  In 2009 the site was nominated for an Emmy in Advanced Technology. In August 2009 NowPublic was acquired by billionaire, Phillip Anschutz for a reported 25 million dollars.  In 2009, Tippett was recognized by the British Columbia New Media Association with an award for visionary leadership.

Prior to his involvement in NowPublic, Tippett was the Director of Marketing for Afternic.com.  Afternic was acquired by Register.com for $60 million in 2001.  At Register Tippett was the Director of Channel Marketing for the company and then General Manager for one of The Company's five divisions.

He currently lives