Co-creating Geospatial Economy in a Digital World

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.

As Founder Chairman, BVR Mohan Reddy contributes to the organization’s global brand and purpose. Mohan acts as a sounding board, mentor, and critic in the spirit of enabling sustainable growth, especially in matters related to strategy, values, policy, CSR and government relations. Mohan promotes the highest standards of integrity and corporate governance, particularly at the board level. Mohan founded Cyient (earlier, Infotech Enterprises) in 1991, with the vision of providing engineering services to global markets. He established the “Engineered in India” brand and led Cyient to contribute more than $5 billion in cumulative exports to several international customers, including many Fortune 100 companies. Mohan served as Chairman of NASSCOM in 2015-16 and has been a member of its Executive Council since 2003, and continues to shape the industry agenda. He served as the Chairman of CII, Southern Region, in 2008-2009 and currently serves as the National Education Council Chairman. Mohan is also the Founding Director of T-Hub, the largest start-up incubation center in India. Mohan has taken up several leadership positions to promote higher education. At present, he is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Hyderabad and IIT Roorkee. He is a member of the Leadership Advisory Board (LAB) at the University of Michigan College of Engineering, USA, and a member of the Court of Governors of Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI). Mohan received the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award, in 2017 for his contribution to trade and industry. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Leadership Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (CIE Division). He was conferred Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Hyderabad Management Association (HMA), Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HySEA), and the Centre for Organization Development (COD), recognizing his industry leadership, corporate excellence, and institution building. A recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Kanpur, Mohan is also a fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India). Mohan holds postgraduate degrees in engineering from IIT Kanpur and the University of Michigan, USA. He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from JNTU Hyderabad, JNTU Kakinada, Andhra University, and KL University.

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.

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 with Hexagon since 1995. In 2020, after leading Hexagon’s Geosystems division since 2010, he assumed a new senior leadership role managing Hexagon’s Geosystems, Geospatial, and Safety & Infrastructure divisions where he’s responsible for the vision, strategy, and portfolio roadmaps of all three businesses. Before joining Hexagon, he served as academic counsel at Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, and held management positions within Leica Geosystems. 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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

Alexis Smith is the founder and CEO of automated business intelligence company, IMGeospatial, which creates market-leading data intelligence products via machine learning, artificial intelligence, automatic feature extraction, and remote-sensed data for multiple industries, globally. She is passionate about stimulating creativity and innovation to create change for a better world, and in 2019 accepted the Geospatial World Start-up of the Year Award. Partners and clients include The European Space Agency, The World Bank, and numerous utility companies. Alexis champions diversity and inclusion, and the geospatial sector’s potential to create positive change for individuals, communities, and society.

Ken Mooyman has been a part of Hexagon since 2000 and is currently in the role of EVP at Hexagon Geosystems. He has held several positions in the company including President of the Scanning Division and of the NAFTA region. Mr. Mooyman has won many awards including an Honorary Doctorate for his work in mainstreaming GPS and scanning in the Geospatial industry. He graduated from the Surveying Program at Algonquin College (Canada), Leadership Development at IMD (Switzerland), and holds a Bachelor of Science in International Marketing.

Andrea Bersan is currently Vice President Global Industry Business Development at Maxar Technologies. with the responsibility to define strategy in emerging vertical markets and new major commercial accounts, he was previously covering the role of VP sales for the EMEAR region at DigitalGlobe (former imagery business unit of Maxar) until January 2018, in that capacity Mr. Bersan developed the regional direct and indirect sales channel and structured the company presence in the EMEAR region. Prior to DigitalGlobe Andrea served as Sr. Director of Solution Engineering at Autodesk Inc. developing innovative solutions as part of the Location Services division. leading the implementation of key projects in the US and European markets. Mr. Bersan has been working in the field of GIS and Remote Sensing for more than 20 years, as founder and CEO of successful start-ups in Location Based Services and GIS markets.

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.

Jim Steiner is vice president of product management in the Oracle Server Technologies Division. He has been responsible for the direction of Oracles spatial technologies for over 20 years. He currently heads product management and strategy of Oracles Spatial, Graph, and a number of Oracles Big Data technologies producing leading enterprise spatial and graph solutions for cloud and on-premise deployment. Mr. Steiner joined Oracle in 1995 as Director of Product Management and Marketing for the Rdb database products. Prior to that, he held a variety of product marketing, product management and business development positions at Digital Equipment Corporation including product managing the introduction of relational database, SQL and IBM Database Interconnect technologies into the market. He is a graduate of Brown University.

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.

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.

Robert leads Bentley’s Digital Cities organization, which provides infrastructure engineering digital twin software and services to help cities with going digital enabling more efficient city and regional operations for more connected and resilient infrastructure. Bob has over 20 years’ experience in software development and is a co-inventor of seven patented technologies. He joined Bentley Systems in 2004 as part of Bentley’s acquisition of Haestad Methods, a pioneer in object-oriented hydraulic analysis software, where he served as chief technology officer. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from Drexel University and is a licensed professional engineer.

Born in 1963, Paolo Minciacchi joined Telespazio in 1990. Graduated in Electronic Engineering, in his firsts years in Telespazio he managed several important space missions such as ITALSAT, SAX, SICRAL. In 2002 entered in the Earth Observation business, holding several roles in the Programs & Application domain. In 2009 he steps on as Head of Operational Planning, Industrial Management and Value Added Production at e-GEOS, the ASI/Telespazio joint venture. In 2011 joined Spaceopal (the DLR GfR/Telespazio joint venture) as technical director. At the end 2016 he won the GSOp (Galileo Service Operator Contract) in the Spaceopal team and in 2018 he became CEO of the Spaceopal. In 2020, is appointed CEO of e-GEOS.

Brian Nicholls has over 25 years’ experience in the geospatial industry, and has been has been at the forefront of AAM’s technology leadership, as well as the expansion of AAM internationally over the past 15 years. Brian has a particular passion for promoting geospatial technology as a fundamental ‘enabler’ for business, government, and society in general.

Matt is Professor and Associate Dean (Geospatial Sciences) in the School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. Prior to moving to RMIT University in 2015, he was Professor of Geographic Information Science at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He moved to Melbourne in 2004 from the NCGIA (National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis) at the University of Maine, USA. He was the recipient of a prestigious ARC Future Fellowship (2010-2014). His research is in the area of distributed spatial computing with big spatial data, with expertise in applications to emergency management, transportation and health, defense, and environmental monitoring.

Ken Mooyman has been a part of Hexagon since 2000 and is currently in the role of EVP at Hexagon Geosystems. He has held several positions in the company including President of the Scanning Division and of the NAFTA region. Mr. Mooyman has won many awards including an Honorary Doctorate for his work in mainstreaming GPS and scanning in the Geospatial industry. He graduated from the Surveying Program at Algonquin College (Canada), Leadership Development at IMD (Switzerland), and holds a Bachelor of Science in International Marketing.

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.

Steven Berglund serves as executive chairman of Trimble’s Board of Directors. From March 1999 to January 2020, he served as Trimble’s president and chief executive officer. Under his leadership, the Company’s revenue grew from $270 million to over $3.1 billion. Prior to joining Trimble, Mr. Berglund was president of Spectra Precision, a group within Spectra Physics AB. Mr. 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 BS in chemical engineering. Berglund received his MBA from the University of Rochester. Mr. Berglund is a member of the board of directors of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. He is also a board member and vice chairman of the Association of Equipment Manufacturers. In December 2013, Mr. Berglund was appointed to the board of directors of Belden Inc., a global provider of end-to-end signal transmission solutions, and he currently serves on the audit committee.

Dr Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse holds a pivotal role as an adviser to various National and International spatial organisations. He is President of Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute, Australia’s peak professional body. Zaffar has 20 years of experience in client management, strategic consulting studies, business development, project management, systems review and integration for Utility Industry and Government, design, development and management of spatial databases, review data framework policies, develop spatial analyses techniques and technology including GIS applications development for major clients in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Saudi Arabia. He has led several Multi-Million Dollar National Mapping projects for State and Federal governments globally. Zaffar has published research papers focusing on GIS applications to support such areas as: spatial data infrastructure, data quality, groundwater management, water resources, rural administration; asset management; field data capture; public health management and disaster management. He is also a member of several boards and technical committees in Australia and overseas.

Robert Hoddenbach is Fugro’s Global Business Line Director for Land Asset Integrity. Together with a 1000+ team, he is supporting critical asset (roads, rail, utilities) owners reducing risk and cost of operation. Focused on finding geospatial data solutions for global challenges in Energy Transition, Sustainable Infrastructure and Climate Change adaption, to contribute to a safe and livable world. As an all-round collaborative business leader, with a 18 year career of managing geospatial and information service businesses in the age of digitalization, Robert is leading Fugro’s global strategy to unlock insights from Geo-data by integrated digital solutions for our Land Asset Integrity Business Line.

Adina leads GHGSat’s European Business Development, recently directing GHGSat’s initial expansion into London’s Financial District. She also oversees institutional engagement and key strategic partnerships. She previously oversaw large government proposals as Institutional Strategist for Earth-i Ltd; supported customers with refining their Earth observation (EO) business cases as Head of EO Applications & Science for Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL); and, managed development of operational services as Head of Product Development in DMC International Imaging. Adina also is supporting and liaising with the UN’s International Methane Emissions Observatory, COP-26 High Level Champion’s Secretariat and the Oil & Gas Climate Initiative.

Shafik is the Executive Vice President for International GIS Business Development at Rolta, he has been fostering successes in the GIS industry for the last 30+ years. Prior to joining Rolta in 2007, Shafik was co-owner and Chief Operating Officer of Orion Technology Inc, a GIS technology company purchased by Rolta given its excellence in providing web-based GIS solutions. Prior to that, Shafik was part of building a Societal GIS in the State of Qatar through its early years with GIS technology, earning them international recognition. He possesses a dynamically evolving vision of what the GIS industry can become, he has the energy and drive to make it happen, and an inspiring integrity in leadership that invites the ingenuity of others.

Benoit Fredericque is a senior director of product management with Bentley Systems, leading an international team of product managers and application engineers responsible for product planning, development, and the go-to-market strategy of Bentley’s Reality Modeling & Mapping solutions and cloud services. He received his bachelor’s degree in land surveying and his master’s in GIS. In 2007, he received his doctorate from Université Laval, where he studied 3D GIS and 3D imaging. Having worked for Bentley for over 13 years, Fredericque has successfully managed teams specializing in geospatial, mapping and reality modeling technologies.

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.

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.

Dr Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed-Ghouse holds a pivotal role as an adviser to various National and International spatial organisations. He is President of Surveying & Spatial Sciences Institute, Australia’s peak professional body. Zaffar has 20 years of experience in client management, strategic consulting studies, business development, project management, systems review and integration for Utility Industry and Government, design, development and management of spatial databases, review data framework policies, develop spatial analyses techniques and technology including GIS applications development for major clients in Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Indonesia, India and Saudi Arabia. He has led several Multi-Million Dollar National Mapping projects for State and Federal governments globally. Zaffar has published research papers focusing on GIS applications to support such areas as: spatial data infrastructure, data quality, groundwater management, water resources, rural administration; asset management; field data capture; public health management and disaster management. He is also a member of several boards and technical committees in Australia and overseas.

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.

As Founder Chairman, BVR Mohan Reddy contributes to the organization’s global brand and purpose. Mohan acts as a sounding board, mentor, and critic in the spirit of enabling sustainable growth, especially in matters related to strategy, values, policy, CSR and government relations. Mohan promotes the highest standards of integrity and corporate governance, particularly at the board level. Mohan founded Cyient (earlier, Infotech Enterprises) in 1991, with the vision of providing engineering services to global markets. He established the “Engineered in India” brand and led Cyient to contribute more than $5 billion in cumulative exports to several international customers, including many Fortune 100 companies. Mohan served as Chairman of NASSCOM in 2015-16 and has been a member of its Executive Council since 2003, and continues to shape the industry agenda. He served as the Chairman of CII, Southern Region, in 2008-2009 and currently serves as the National Education Council Chairman. Mohan is also the Founding Director of T-Hub, the largest start-up incubation center in India. Mohan has taken up several leadership positions to promote higher education. At present, he is the Chairman of the Board of Governors of IIT Hyderabad and IIT Roorkee. He is a member of the Leadership Advisory Board (LAB) at the University of Michigan College of Engineering, USA, and a member of the Court of Governors of Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI). Mohan received the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian award, in 2017 for his contribution to trade and industry. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Leadership Award of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (CIE Division). He was conferred Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Hyderabad Management Association (HMA), Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association (HySEA), and the Centre for Organization Development (COD), recognizing his industry leadership, corporate excellence, and institution building. A recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from IIT Kanpur, Mohan is also a fellow of the Institution of Engineers (India). Mohan holds postgraduate degrees in engineering from IIT Kanpur and the University of Michigan, USA. He is the recipient of honorary doctorates from JNTU Hyderabad, JNTU Kakinada, Andhra University, and KL University.

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.

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 with Hexagon since 1995. In 2020, after leading Hexagon’s Geosystems division since 2010, he assumed a new senior leadership role managing Hexagon’s Geosystems, Geospatial, and Safety & Infrastructure divisions where he’s responsible for the vision, strategy, and portfolio roadmaps of all three businesses. Before joining Hexagon, he served as academic counsel at Technical University of Braunschweig, Germany, and held management positions within Leica Geosystems. 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.