Co-creating Geospatial Economy in a Digital World

Ronald Bisio is Vice President of Geospatial at Trimble. He joined the company in 1996 and has held several marketing, sales and general management positions prior to taking over worldwide responsibility for Trimble Geospatial in 2015. He earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Denver, a master's in regional planning from the University of Massachusetts and an undergraduate degree in geographic information systems & cartography from Salem State University in Salem, Mass.

As the immediate past president of URISA Caribbean chapter, and member of the UN-GGIM Americas Caribbean project Technical Committee Valrie Grant stands out as an effective contributor to the geospatial community in her region. Using her over 15 years of experience in the realm of Geospatial, Ms Grant actively engages in helping government and corporate entities develop data driven solutions to address organizational challenges and meet corporate goals. This award winning entrepreneur is passionate about the geospatial industry, entrepreneurship, education and in general making a difference.

Daniel Jablonsky is President of DigitalGlobe. He joined the company in 2012. Prior to that, he was a Partner at Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Schreck and led global legal teams while at Flextronics International LTD, a global multibillion-dollar technology supply chain company. Mr Jablonsky holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from the US Naval Academy, a Juris Doctor from the University of Washington School of Law, and was an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law. Additionally, he served as a Surface Warfare Officer and Nuclear Engineer in the US Navy.

John Renard leads the Utilities and Geospatial Business Unit of Cyient, while continuing to have the responsibility for Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. With more than 25 years of IT, geospatial and data engineering experience, Mr Renard specializes in financial management, strategy, business leadership and global outsourcing. Having joined Cyient in 2000, he managed the global business operations of the utilities and telecom, and data transformation and analytics, business units between 2007 and 2014. Prior to working for Cyient, he ran his own consulting practice while living in France, working with companies such as Andersen Consulting, La Poste, ICI and Total. He has a Master's degree from the University of Cambridge, where he first studied Geography and then Management Studies.

Andreas Gerster is leading FARO’s Construction – BIM business. He has more than 20 years of experience in the high tech and electronics industry. Over the years he had a number of leadership positions in business development, product management, sales development and marketing within US-based blue-chip companies. He owns as MSc in Physics from Stuttgart University and has vast experience in optical, electronic and digital Test & Measurement.

As the Chief Operating Officer, Annu Negi is responsible for managing the overall operations of Geospatial Media & Communications while providing strategic leadership to the divisions. She is associated with the company since 2003 and her previous designations include Director Europe, Vice President – Conferences, Regional Manager– South Asia, General Manager – Conference. Ms Negi has an extensive experience of more than 19 years across various functions including advertising, marketing, and event management. She holds a Masters in Mass Communication and Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising and Marketing.

Arnout Desmet is currently Vice President in the Maps unit responsible for global sourcing in TomTom. He joined the company in 1998. The TomTom high-quality, navigable maps cover over 140 countries and are used by thousands of automotive manufacturers, governmental and enterprise customers worldwide. Throughout his long career with TomTom, Mr Desmet took up several leadership roles in project and operations management as well as business and new market development through partnerships with local and regional content providers and aggregrators. Prior to TomTom, Mr Desmet was active in agricultural development and irrigation engineering programs in Africa where he started to appreciate the importance of mapping and location technologies. He holds a master degree in Agricultural Engineering and a postgraduate degree in Economics.

Dean Angelides joined Esri in 2005 and is a Corporate Director with responsibilities of overseeing all aspects of the company’s international operations, and relationships with global alliances and partnerships. He is dedicated to ensuring that Esri’s technology and methods are successfully used to resolve the toughest challenges around the world. In his 30-year plus career in the geospatial industry, he has worked with hundreds of organizations to implement GIS technology to improve their operations and decision-making. He has also served on a variety of advisory councils for GIS at local, regional and national levels. Mr. Angelides is currently on the Advisory Board for the Geospatial Innovation Facility at the University of California, Berkeley, where he did both graduate and undergraduate study.

Johannes Riegl Jr. has been a member of the RIEGL executive team since 2012. He serves as the president of the company's U.S. operations in Orlando, Florida, handling the company’s North American market. He is also the President of RIEGL International, the branch responsible for worldwide marketing activities and the development, support and expansion of the global RIEGL Distribution Partner Network. His position reflects a unique role within the company; to coordinate strategic business development and marketing between the international RIEGL locations. He holds a Master's degree in Business Management from the University of Applied Sciences in Vienna.

Juergen Dold has been a part of Hexagon since 1995 leading the Hexagon Geosystems business with close to 5’000 employees world wide. Before joining Hexagon, he served as academic counsel and assistant professor at Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, and in various management positions within Leica Geosystems. He currently serves as a member of the Supervisory Board of Basler & Hofmann AG, an independent engineering, planning and consulting company. Mr Dold holds a Master of Science and Ph.D. in engineering.

Massimo started in the 1983 at Selenia Spazio (later Alenia Spazio), holding positions of increasing responsibility, up to that of CTO. In Thales Alenia Space, he took up the role of Deputy CTO and VP for R&D, Technology, Product Policy and IPR. In 2013 he was appointed CTO at Telespazio. In 2015 he is appointed Chairman of EarthLab Luxembourg. In 2016, he has been appointed as CEO of e-GEOS to commercialize world-wide COSMO-SkyMed radar Constellation data, applications and services and to provide multimission Geospatial integrated solutions, based on innovative satellite data and advanced information technology processing chain.

As the President of the Association of Geospatial Industry in India, Rajan Aiyer’s primary responsibility is to lead the industry body in identifying and addressing common concerns and interest of the geospatial industry in India. He is also the Managing Director and General Manager (SAARC Region) of Trimble. Mr Aiyer has over 25 years of general management experience and prior to joining Trimble held senior management positions in various companies, including Accordion Networks, Nortel Networks, NET and Digital Equipment. He hold a Bachelor’s in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Texas, Austin, USA and General Management Certification from Harvard Business School.

As Vice President of Engineering for Data Base Server Technologies at Oracle Corporation, a particular strategic contribution of Mr Steven Hagan has been his relentless championing the cause of mainstreaming of Location into Business Intelligence and related applications, and building an extensive network of strategic relationships with nearly all of the key geospatial software and data suppliers. A Master’s degree in Computer Science from University of Southern California, he is also Chairperson of Private Sector Network the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM).

Steven Sawdon is responsible for the European operations of IIC Technologies. A qualified Military Surveyor (Engineering) with the British Army at the School of Military engineering, Mr Sawdon brings his survey and mapping experience to corporate projects. After being involved in a full range of combat and military survey activities, he left the army to join the private sector, working for several organizations and managed projects across multiple sectors, including oil and gas, defense, construction (buildings) and transport infrastructure for prestigious clients such as Ministry of Defense, British Waterways and Network Rail.

Ted Lamboo is a leader in Bentley’s global initiative to develop new markets and strategic partnerships for creating smart and digital infrastructure for road, rail and cities, including the usage of digital twin reality models of the as-built world. He joined the company in 1994. Mr Lamboo previously held positions with Bentley. He served as Bentley’s senior vice president, infrastructure owners, senior vice president of civil and geospatial global operations, senior vice president of international operations, president of Bentley Asia-Pacific, and vice president of sales for Bentley Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Prior to joining Bentley, Mr Lamboo served for 13 years at Intergraph Europe, the european headquarters of Intergraph Corporation. He holds a degree in geodetic engineering from the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands and several post-graduate diplomas in computer engineering and development.

Willy Govender is CEO of Data World. He originates from Durban, South Africa and has over 30 years of experience in the technology, land administration, valuation and consulting related sectors. He is an accomplished entrepreneur having founded multiple start-ups in his career and has a vast amount of international experience. Mr Govender started out in the mapping industry, and initially built his career around spatial technologies, before branching out into software development, consulting and property valuations. He has won numerous awards including the coveted Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur award. As a director on several company boards, he provides excellent leadership and strategic direction and is experienced across many sectors, including public sector and government, local government, telecommunications and education, especially in developing countries.

James Van Rens is the Senior Vice President of RIEGL USA. He has been with the organization since 1997. With his total experience of over 18 years with LiDAR and other various forms of scanning technologies, Mr Van Rens has been key to the seamless leadership transition and the huge growth in the company’s US operations over the past five years. Considered one of the best experts in the applications of airborne LiDAR, mobile laser systems and ground LiDAR’s in the world, he holds a combination of BA and BS degree from Marquette University.

A first-generation entrepreneur, Kamal K. Singh is recognized as a pioneer in CAD/CAM/GIS field in India. As Chairman and CEO, he has spent the last four decades creating the Rolta group of companies as a multi-faceted organization with a strong base of fundamentals and a wealth of Intellectual Property. An Engineering Graduate with a Master’s in Business Administration, Mr Singh is an Executive Committee Member of FICCI, ASSOCHAM and several other prominent trade organizations of India.

Mr. Singh has been conferred with many outstanding awards in his career noteworthy being the awards conferred by The Honorable 11th President of India H.E. Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, The Honorable 12th Vice President of India H.E. Mohammad Hamid Ansari and "Udyog Ratna Award" by The Honorable 11th Prime Minister of India Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Lisa Campbell is chief marketing officer at Autodesk, where she is responsible for business, industry and marketing strategy for the company. She is also responsible for driving brand affinity and loyalty among the current and next generation of Autodesk customers. Lisa has 25 years of software industry leadership experience with extensive knowledge in business and industry strategy in manufacturing, construction and infrastructure, digital go-to-market strategy, building brands, and business development. At both Fortune 500 companies and startups, Lisa has successfully partnered with leadership teams to transform brands, launch new products, and business models in the marketplace.

Most recently, Lisa served as vice president of Design & Manufacturing, Business Strategy & Marketing, focused on the company’s business strategy and marketing for the manufacturing industry. During her tenure, Lisa has held a series of leadership roles at Autodesk, including heading industry strategy and go-to-market for all of Autodesk’s industries and customer segments, as well as leading the architecture, engineering and construction and media & entertainment industry strategy and marketing organizations. She also held other key leadership positions including managing Autodesk’s Global eCommerce business and Autodesk.com, managing the Geospatial Business and infrastructure business for the company.

Prior to joining Autodesk in 2003, Lisa served as the vice president of marketing and product management for Evolve (now Oracle) where she was responsible for all marketing functions for the Service Delivery products, including brand, market strategy, marketing communications, product marketing and product management. Additionally, she held executive-level marketing positions at Sterling Software Inc., and Digital Equipment Corporation. Lisa began her career as an IT professional and product marketing manager at Digital Equipment Corporation, which was acquired by HP. Lisa holds a B.A. in mathematics and computer science from Boston College and an M.B.A. from Babson College.

Rajesh Alla is the Chairman and Managing Director of IIC Technologies Ltd, which he founded in 1994. Today the company provides wide range of Geospatial Engineering Solutions to its clients through its offices in Europe, North America, Middle East, Australia, and India.

Steven Berglund has served as president and chief executive officer of Trimble since March 1999. Prior to joining Trimble, Berglund was president of Spectra Precision, a group within Spectra Physics AB. Berglund's business experience includes a variety of senior leadership positions with Spectra Physics, and manufacturing and planning roles at Varian Associates. He began his career as a process engineer at Eastman Kodak. He attended the University of Oslo and the University of Minnesota where he received a B.S. in chemical engineering. Berglund received his M.B.A. from the University of Rochester. Berglund is a member of the board of directors of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and of the board of trustees of World Educational Services. He is also a member of the board, as well as the construction sector board, of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. In December 2013, Berglund was appointed to the board of directors and compensation committee of Belden Inc., a global provider of end-to-end signal transmission solutions.

Sunil Kumar believes in working closely with the executive team and board of directors to continue the company’s market expansion, growth, and innovation. Before joining GroundTruth (formerly xAd), he was a founder of V-Enable. Mr. Kumar has a BS in Mathematics from the University of Delhi, a Masters in Computer Science from the University of New Hampshire, and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

A landscape architect by training, Jack Dangermond Founded Esri in 1969 with a vision that a mapping and analysis framework could provide a deeper understanding of our world and help us design a better future. As Founder and President of Esri, his leadership and vision stimulate the ongoing innovation of GIS technologies that enable people to make insightful decisions and improve the quality of life across the world.

A pioneer in digital map databases and routing, Alain De Taeye initially headed the Dutch Tele Atlas group, an industry leading map company. Following its acquisition by TomTom, he serves on the Management Board of the group and continues to champion the cause of commoditization and consumerization of geospatial capabilities. Earlier, after having done research in the field of Operations Research at the Business School of the Ghent University, Mr De Taeye had also founded Informatics & Management Consultants (I&M).

Amy Minnick leads the commercial and civil government business and team for DigitalGlobe, which includes product, sales, marketing, business development, partnerships and strategy. Amy focuses on aligning the company’s product portfolio and go-to-market efforts with customers’ evolving needs around the globe. Prior to joining DigitalGlobe, she worked at IHS Markit, most recently as Senior Vice President, General Manager for the technology, media and telecom business. Earlier in her career, Amy worked at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey & Company. Amy has a bachelor’s degree in political economy from Williams College and an MBA from Harvard Business School where she graduated as a Baker Scholar.

As CEO of Geospatial Media and Communications, a global geospatial media company, Sanjay Kumar has been evangelizing the growth of geospatial industry worldwide through policy advocacy and strengthening the industry’s engagement with global development agenda. Mr Kumar co-founded the Association of Geospatial Industries in India in 2009, and serves on the Board of Directors of Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and Radiant Earth. He has been associated with the United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management (UNGGIM) since its inception, where he represented the Private Sector Network as its Chair till July 2018. He is a Masters in Political Science and M.Phil in International Studies from University of Delhi.

Stephen McCarthy balances his time among future planning and fundraising; coordinating contracts with vendors, partners and customers; developing business plans; and supporting all parts of the organization, from engineering and sales to business development and human resources. Under his leadership, GroundTruth (formerly xAd) has raised over $100M in equity investment and grew its valuation by 10X, while only growing its employees by 6X. Prior to GroundTruth, Mr. McCarthy worked in the field of private equity.

Ronald Bisio is Vice President of Geospatial at Trimble. He joined the company in 1996 and has held several marketing, sales and general management positions prior to taking over worldwide responsibility for Trimble Geospatial in 2015. He earned a master's degree in business administration from the University of Denver, a master's in regional planning from the University of Massachusetts and an undergraduate degree in geographic information systems & cartography from Salem State University in Salem, Mass.

As the immediate past president of URISA Caribbean chapter, and member of the UN-GGIM Americas Caribbean project Technical Committee Valrie Grant stands out as an effective contributor to the geospatial community in her region. Using her over 15 years of experience in the realm of Geospatial, Ms Grant actively engages in helping government and corporate entities develop data driven solutions to address organizational challenges and meet corporate goals. This award winning entrepreneur is passionate about the geospatial industry, entrepreneurship, education and in general making a difference.

Daniel Jablonsky is President of DigitalGlobe. He joined the company in 2012. Prior to that, he was a Partner at Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, Schreck and led global legal teams while at Flextronics International LTD, a global multibillion-dollar technology supply chain company. Mr Jablonsky holds a Mechanical Engineering degree from the US Naval Academy, a Juris Doctor from the University of Washington School of Law, and was an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, Sturm College of Law. Additionally, he served as a Surface Warfare Officer and Nuclear Engineer in the US Navy.

John Renard leads the Utilities and Geospatial Business Unit of Cyient, while continuing to have the responsibility for Europe, Middle East and Africa regions. With more than 25 years of IT, geospatial and data engineering experience, Mr Renard specializes in financial management, strategy, business leadership and global outsourcing. Having joined Cyient in 2000, he managed the global business operations of the utilities and telecom, and data transformation and analytics, business units between 2007 and 2014. Prior to working for Cyient, he ran his own consulting practice while living in France, working with companies such as Andersen Consulting, La Poste, ICI and Total. He has a Master's degree from the University of Cambridge, where he first studied Geography and then Management Studies.

Andreas Gerster is leading FARO’s Construction – BIM business. He has more than 20 years of experience in the high tech and electronics industry. Over the years he had a number of leadership positions in business development, product management, sales development and marketing within US-based blue-chip companies. He owns as MSc in Physics from Stuttgart University and has vast experience in optical, electronic and digital Test & Measurement.

As the Chief Operating Officer, Annu Negi is responsible for managing the overall operations of Geospatial Media & Communications while providing strategic leadership to the divisions. She is associated with the company since 2003 and her previous designations include Director Europe, Vice President – Conferences, Regional Manager– South Asia, General Manager – Conference. Ms Negi has an extensive experience of more than 19 years across various functions including advertising, marketing, and event management. She holds a Masters in Mass Communication and Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising and Marketing.

Arnout Desmet is currently Vice President in the Maps unit responsible for global sourcing in TomTom. He joined the company in 1998. The TomTom high-quality, navigable maps cover over 140 countries and are used by thousands of automotive manufacturers, governmental and enterprise customers worldwide. Throughout his long career with TomTom, Mr Desmet took up several leadership roles in project and operations management as well as business and new market development through partnerships with local and regional content providers and aggregrators. Prior to TomTom, Mr Desmet was active in agricultural development and irrigation engineering programs in Africa where he started to appreciate the importance of mapping and location technologies. He holds a master degree in Agricultural Engineering and a postgraduate degree in Economics.

Dean Angelides joined Esri in 2005 and is a Corporate Director with responsibilities of overseeing all aspects of the company’s international operations, and relationships with global alliances and partnerships. He is dedicated to ensuring that Esri’s technology and methods are successfully used to resolve the toughest challenges around the world. In his 30-year plus career in the geospatial industry, he has worked with hundreds of organizations to implement GIS technology to improve their operations and decision-making. He has also served on a variety of advisory councils for GIS at local, regional and national levels. Mr. Angelides is currently on the Advisory Board for the Geospatial Innovation Facility at the University of California, Berkeley, where he did both graduate and undergraduate study.

Johannes Riegl Jr. has been a member of the RIEGL executive team since 2012. He serves as the president of the company's U.S. operations in Orlando, Florida, handling the company’s North American market. He is also the President of RIEGL International, the branch responsible for worldwide marketing activities and the development, support and expansion of the global RIEGL Distribution Partner Network. His position reflects a unique role within the company; to coordinate strategic business development and marketing between the international RIEGL locations. He holds a Master's degree in Business Management from the University of Applied Sciences in Vienna.

Juergen Dold has been a part of Hexagon since 1995 leading the Hexagon Geosystems business with close to 5’000 employees world wide. Before joining Hexagon, he served as academic counsel and assistant professor at Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, and in various management positions within Leica Geosystems. He currently serves as a member of the Supervisory Board of Basler & Hofmann AG, an independent engineering, planning and consulting company. Mr Dold holds a Master of Science and Ph.D. in engineering.

Massimo started in the 1983 at Selenia Spazio (later Alenia Spazio), holding positions of increasing responsibility, up to that of CTO. In Thales Alenia Space, he took up the role of Deputy CTO and VP for R&D, Technology, Product Policy and IPR. In 2013 he was appointed CTO at Telespazio. In 2015 he is appointed Chairman of EarthLab Luxembourg. In 2016, he has been appointed as CEO of e-GEOS to commercialize world-wide COSMO-SkyMed radar Constellation data, applications and services and to provide multimission Geospatial integrated solutions, based on innovative satellite data and advanced information technology processing chain.

As the President of the Association of Geospatial Industry in India, Rajan Aiyer’s primary responsibility is to lead the industry body in identifying and addressing common concerns and interest of the geospatial industry in India. He is also the Managing Director and General Manager (SAARC Region) of Trimble. Mr Aiyer has over 25 years of general management experience and prior to joining Trimble held senior management positions in various companies, including Accordion Networks, Nortel Networks, NET and Digital Equipment. He hold a Bachelor’s in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, a Master’s in Computer Science from the University of Texas, Austin, USA and General Management Certification from Harvard Business School.

As Vice President of Engineering for Data Base Server Technologies at Oracle Corporation, a particular strategic contribution of Mr Steven Hagan has been his relentless championing the cause of mainstreaming of Location into Business Intelligence and related applications, and building an extensive network of strategic relationships with nearly all of the key geospatial software and data suppliers. A Master’s degree in Computer Science from University of Southern California, he is also Chairperson of Private Sector Network the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM).

Steven Sawdon is responsible for the European operations of IIC Technologies. A qualified Military Surveyor (Engineering) with the British Army at the School of Military engineering, Mr Sawdon brings his survey and mapping experience to corporate projects. After being involved in a full range of combat and military survey activities, he left the army to join the private sector, working for several organizations and managed projects across multiple sectors, including oil and gas, defense, construction (buildings) and transport infrastructure for prestigious clients such as Ministry of Defense, British Waterways and Network Rail.