Geospatial Symposium Speakers

Prof. Ian Dowman
First Vice President
ISPRS
Turkey
Prof Ian Dowman BSc, PhD, FRICS has graduated in Geography at University College London (UCL) in 1963, with a Diploma in Photogrammetry in 1964. He worked as a photogrammetrist in Australia for six years before returning to the UK to embark on a highly influential academic career at UCL. He made significant inputs to the successful and internationally recognised MSc course in Photogrammetry and in 1983 assisted the development of a pioneering intercollegiate University of London MSc in Remote Sensing, the first postgraduate course of its kind in the UK, which he has coordinated since 1985. He served as Reader in Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, University of London (1983-91) during which time he was also Dean of Engineering at UCL (1989-91). He was promoted in 1991 to the position of Professor of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing.

Prof. Dowman has worked as a photogrammetrist for 40 years in the field of applying photogrammetric techniques to a wide range of image sensors for surface and feature extraction. Since 1972, Prof. Dowman has been closely involved with the UK Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society and its predecessors in furthering the development, teaching and promotion of photogrammetry and remote sensing. He has achieved an international profile as one of the UK's most eminent experts in this field through his long-standing contributions to the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS). This was recognised in 1992 when he received the ISPRS Schermerhorn award. He is currently ISPRS President Elect for 2004-2008 after serving four years as Secretary General.

Nikolaus Faller
Chief Operations Officer
Infoterra
Germany
Nikolaus Faller holds an engineering degree in electrical telecommunications from the University of Applied Science in Constance, Germany. He joined Dornier Satellitensysteme (now EADS Astrium Satellites) as a project manager in 1993, leading large-scale airborne radar remote sensing projects around the Globe. From 1998 he was responsible for the worldwide marketing of such services. From its very beginning, Nikolaus Faller has been deeply involved in the Infoterra/ TerraSAR initiative. Having led the team that defined the corresponding elements of the business plan, he became Marketing & Sales Director when Infoterra was founded in 2001. Since 2003, he has been the companies' Chief Operations Officer. Since 2007, he has additionally served the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC) as vice-chairman.

Paolo E. Colombi
Vice President - International Sales
GeoEye
USA
Paolo E. Colombi joined GeoEye in March 2006 and is responsible for all international business development and sales. Mr. Colombi has over 25 years of experience in sales, operations and international management in high-technology and telecommunications systems and services.

Prior to joining GeoEye, Colombi was senior vice president of International Sales for Telular Corporation. Before that he was executive vice president of Sales for Lotus Interworks LLP and also served in various executive-level positions for Teleglobe International Corp. Previous to that Mr. Colombi had 12 years’ consecutive tenure for Sprint International and both for its predecessor company (GTE Telenet), and for its successor company (Global One). During this tenure he held the positions of president of Global One in Mexico; managing director of Sprint International France and vice president, System Marketing and Sales for Sprint International Southern Europe in Italy, among other executive positions. Mr. Colombi has lived in Italy, France, and Mexico and is fluent in four languages. He holds a Doctoral Degree in Electrical Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Turin (Italy), a Master of International Management degree from the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird), and a Master of Business Administration degree from Southern Methodist University. Mr. Colombi was a Fulbright Scholar at both graduate schools in the USA.

William Jefferies
Chief Technical Officer
Director, Strategic Development
MDA Geospatial Services, Richmond, British Columbia
William Jefferies is a senior executive responsible for developing and implementing company’s technical strategy including development of new satellite capabilities and applications. Mr. Jefferies has over 30 years experience in managing the development and delivery of operational Remote Sensing solutions to commercial and government users worldwide. He has worked with a wide variety of operational systems, including radar, optical, laser, thermal, magnetic, gravity and electro-magnetic sensors in over 35 countries throughout the world. Mr. Jefferies joined RADARSAT International in 1994 as the Production Manager responsible for the establishment of the CDPF production facility at the Gatineau Satellite Station. He became Director of Operations in 1997 and was responsible for radar and optical satellite programs, for applications development and international projects and for information technology. From 2001- 2002 he acted as the Chief Operating Officer responsible for the company’s daily business operations. In 2003 he became the Chief Technical Officer and is responsible for planning and developing the company’s strategy to incorporate new technologies, including RADARSAT 2. Mr. Jefferies has a Bachelor of Science in 1978 and a Master of Science in 1980 from the University of Toronto specializing in Remote Sensing.

Eve Douglas
Senior Program Analyst
Office of Space Commercialisation
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
United States
Eve Douglas is a Senior Program Analyst in the Office of Space Commercialization, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Department of Commerce, in Washington, D.C. Her responsibilities include advocating and promoting economic interests of the U.S. commercial space industry in accordance with U.S. national policy, focusing on the commercial remote sensing satellite industry. In 2004, Ms. Douglas separated from active duty with the U.S. Air Force. She currently serves in the U.S. Air Force Reserves as the Reserve Assistant Attaché to France at the US Embassy in Paris. While on active duty from 1996-2004, Ms. Douglas served as an Air Force officer in France, Germany, Texas, and Florida. Ms. Douglas received her Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Air Force Academy in 1996 and received her Master of Arts degree in French from Middlebury College's School in France in 1998.

Akio Yasuda
Professor
Emeritus - Laboratory of Satellite Navigation, Tokyo University of Marine Science & Technology
Japan
Dr. Akio Yasuda is an emeritus professor at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology. He is also the director of laboratory of satellite navigation in the university and the president of the Institute of Positioning, Navigation and Timing of Japan. He is organizing GPS/GNSS symposium in Tokyo annually since he first organized it in November 1996. He also organized international symposium on GPS/GNSS twice in 2003 and 2008 respectively in Tokyo. He has been working for various committees on satellite navigation systems. Co-chair of Asia Oceania Regional Workshop on multi-GNSS is one of them. He is conducting the researches on multipath analysis and mitigation, improvement of RTK-GPS positioning algorism, GPS assisted communication systems and the other GPS/GNSS related subjects. He is also involved in the development of QZSS related technologies.

Philippe Hamet
Scientific Officer
European Commision
Brusells
Philippe Hamet; scientific officer in the European Commision, working in the Unit in charge of the GNSS applications and international actions. Especially in charge of the applications in the road transport domain. Contact point for India and Japan in the Galileo team.

Dipl.-Ing. Markus Seifert
Landesamt für Vermessung und Geoinformation
Denmark
Markus Seifert holds a Degree in Surveying Enginering from the Technical University of Munich. He was a Trainee and preparation phase for surveying officers in the Bavarian Surveying and Mapping Authority. He did his Doctoral study at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology Zurich during the employment at the Bavarian Adminsitartion for Surveying. Presently he is a representative for the German Surveying and Mapping Authorities (AdV) in national and international standardization organizations for geoinformation and spatial data infrastructures (SDI Germany, OGC, ISO/TC 211, CEN/TC 287 etc.). He is also a project coordinator of the working group “SDI Standards” of the AdV for data modelling and the semantic harmonisation of the official surveying data in Germany. He is serving as the head of the standardisation working group „Cartography and Geoinformation“at the German Standardisation Institute (DIN) and head of the department „Surveying and Geoinformation“at DIN. He also heads the SDI coordination office for the establishment of a spatial data infrastructure in Bavaria.

Prof. Dr. Saleem Mustafa
Director
Borneo Marine Research Institute
Malaysia
Prof. Saleem Mustafa, PhD. Specialised in Fisheries and Aquaculture and pursued post-doctorate research at Centre de Recherche en Ecologie Marine et Aquaculture de L'Houmeau and Charles Darwin University. Currently, Professor at Borneo Marine Research Institure of Universiti malaysia Sabah, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia.


Gerry Mitchell
President
PhotoSat
Canada
Gerry has worked at the senior technical level in both mining and hydrocarbon exploration. He was BP Canada's Senior Mining Geophysicist for Canada in the early 1980's, and BP's Senior Seismic Specialist for West Canada Basin Oil and Gas Exploration in the late 1980's. In the early 90's Gerry worked as a Remote Sensing Specialist for Frontier and International Oil and Gas Exploration in BP's head offices in London England.

Mike Mc Gill
President
Surveil
United States
Mike McGill has 22 years of Sales, Business Development, Marketing and Product Management experience, including several years of developing customer relationships in the international defense and intelligence community. McGill has held senior positions at Space Imaging and DigitalGlobe including Vice President of North American Sales and Sr. Director of International Defense and Intelligence Sales at DigitalGlobe. Mike has also carried out senior positions at Autodesk where he was a Market Development Manager for Autodesk MapGuide and Director of Sales and Business Development for Autodesk Location Services. McGill is currently President of Surveil; a US based company focused delivering North American based Unmanned Aerial Systems to select international markets for Surveillance, Intelligence and Target Acquisition applications.

Dr. Pravakar Mishra
Scientist-E
ICMAM-PD
India
Dr. Pravakar Mishra is presently working at ICMAM-Project Directorate, Ministry of Earth Sciences as a Scientist. He got his Ph.D. from the ocean Research Institute, University of Tokyo, Japan. His research interest is on Coastal processes and coastal environement modelling. At present he is involved in the ICZM plan for Orissa coast funded by World Bank.

Dr. A. K. Singh
IAS
Deputy Director General, CAPART
India
Dr. Ajay Kumar Singh is currently working as Director (Land Reforms), Department of Land Resources, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. His areas of responsibility include modernization of land records, property titling reforms, land acquisition, rehabilitation and resettlement of the involuntarily displaced and agrarian reforms. He has been closely involved in the design, approval, launch and stabilization of the National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP), one of the largest such initiative in the world, with an initial cost estimate of INR 56.56 billion. The programme would involve large-scale application of geospatial technology for updating of cadastral records and establishing a seamlessly integrated land information system in the States and Union territories in India. A medical doctor by training, Dr. Singh holds an MBA, a Masters in Health Services Administration (MHSA) and a PhD from the USA. He is a member of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).

Dr G S Rao
Vice President - Geographic Information Systems
Lavasa Corporation Limited
India
Dr G S Rao has over 25 years of experience in the geospatial field. After completing his post graduation from IIT-B, he did his Ph D from Univ of Manitoba, Canada. His earlier posting was as Asst. General Manager with Larsen & Toubro Infotech Limited. He was responsible for leading a team that built customized GIS, GPS and RFID applications for customers around the globe. Presently he is Vice President - GIS at Lavasa Corporation Ltd. with the mandate of building a GIS-based e-governance solution which will be used to operate and manage the hill city which Lavasa is building near Pune. One of the challenges in this deployment of enterprise GIS is integration of GIS with Customer Relationship Management, Document Management System, ERP etc. In 2007, ESRI, USA listed Lavasa GIS as one of the ten best practices of enterprise GIS worldwide.

Terry Moloney
President and CEO
PCI Geomatics
Canada
Terry Moloney has over 20 years of experience in the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing industry. Prior to joining PCI Geomatics, Moloney served in various capacities, including Chief Operating Officer and Vice President of Operations and Administration of TYDAC Research Inc. Moloney was a member of the committee responsible for the Innovation Agenda for the Canadian Space Agency presented to the Government of Canada. He was also a member of the Space Industrial Strategy Task Force for the Canadian Space Agency as well as the Earth Observation Ground Segment Infrastructure Steering Committee for the Canadian Space Agency and the Canadian Centre for Remote Sensing. Moloney obtained his Honours Degree in Applied Geography from Ryerson Polytechnic University in 1987.

Dr. Ayon Kumar Tarafdar
Associate Professor
School of Planning and Architecture
India
Dr. Ayon Kumar Tarafdar (Associate Professor, Planning) completed his doctorate degree from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU, Norway) between 2006 and 2010 with the acclaimed Norwegian Government Research Fellowship. He had completed his Bachelors degree from the School of Planning and Architecture (Delhi) in 2000. Thereafter, he finished his M.S. in Urban Ecological Planning in 2002 from the NTNU, Norway with NTNU scholarship. Then, he worked for 4.5 years as an urban planner and GIS analyst in the private industry. His professional practice includes field experience in India, North America, UAE, South East Asia, China, and Europe. His experience span the domains of environmental management, infrastructure planning, disaster preparedness and use of GIS in urban development.
Rene’e Aziz Ahmad
Deputy Manager
Plus Expressway
Berhad
RENE’E AZIZ AHMAD is a Deputy General Manager at PLUS Expressways Berhad, the largest toll expressway operator in Malaysia responsible for the maintenance and management of 973 km of expressways in the country, including the North-South Expressway. A graduate of the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, Rene’e holds a BSc. Degree in Civil Engineering. She joined PLUS in 1998 as the Head of the then GIS Unit. In the same year, she was appointed Project Coordinator for the development and implementation of the first phase of the Total Expressway Maintenance Management System (TEMAN), a data management and decision support tool utilizing GIS technology for the visualization of highway engineering assets. The Phase 1 Project was successfully completed and rolled out in September 2000. Rene’e is currently the Head of the Routine Maintenance Monitoring Department at PLUS.
Raja Ram Chhatkuli
Director General
Survey Department
Nepal
Raja Ram Chhatkuli is Director General, Survey Department of Nepal. He previously served as Joint Secretary in-charge of planning and geoinformation coordination at the Ministry of Land Reform and Management and as Director of National Geoinformation Infrastructure of Nepal. He is Faculty Board Member of School of Engineering of Kathmandu University. He has M.Sc. in geoinformatics and post-graduate study in surveying, cartography and geoinformation production. He has presented various articles on surveying and mapping, geoinformation and cadastre issues of Nepal in different forum at home and abroad. His academic and management interests are in SDI and land administration.
Kevin D Pomfret
Executive Director
Centre for Spatial
Law & Policy, United States
Kevin Pomfret focuses his practice on the representation of a broad range of businesses, from early stage companies to public companies, in matters including transactions, equity and debt financings, licensing agreements, joint ventures, employment agreements and a number of related business issues. He has negotiated numerous mergers and acquisitions for both public and private companies and has assisted private equity funds and venture capital funds in making investments and acquisitions. Prior to attending law school, Mr. Pomfret worked on developing the U.S. Intelligence community’s imagery collection and exploitation requirements. He also served as a satellite imagery analyst and a Soviet analyst for the U.S. government. Currently, Mr. Pomfret represents a number of spatial technology companies and works closely with leaders in the spatial community to identify solutions to the industry’s unique legal issues.
Bernard Griesmar
Marketing Manager
Trimble
USA
Bernard Griesmar completed a Bachelor of Surveying degree in Strasbourg, France. He has been with Trimble for over 25 years, working in various support and sales management positions, responsible of the survey markets in France and Belgium. He is currently based in the USA, working out of the Trimble Colorado office, as a Market Manager in the Survey Division, looking after the customer needs in the Public Sector market segments.
Dato' Dr Hj Ahmad Sabirin bin Dato' Hj Arshad
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn. Bhd (ATSB)
Malaysia
Y. Bhg. Dato’ Dr. Ahmad Sabirin Arshad is currently the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Astronautic Technology (M) Sdn. Bhd. or better known as ATSB®. He was involved in Malaysia’s first micro satellite programme TiungSAT-1, as the Project Manager (1997-2001). His previous appointment prior to ATSB® was the Deputy Dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering in University of Science, Malaysia (1996-1997). Under his leadership, another historic moment was recorded by Malaysia when ATSB® manage to design, manufacture and launch RazakSAT® successfully on July 14 2009 as the world 1st remote sensing satellite launched into the Near Equatorial Orbit (NEqO). He is currently the Chairman of the Space Technology Committee for JPAAA, National Space Agency, Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation. During the course of his career, he continues to maintain close rapport with the local universities and assist local universities as well as the international universities. He has been conferred Darjah Johan Negeri (Penang, 2006) Darjah Indera Mahkota Pahang (Pahang, 2006) and Darjah Setia Pangkuan Negeri (Penang 2009) which carries the title Dato’. Dato’
Prof. Mitrasen BHIKAJEE
Director
Mauritius Oceanography Institute
Mauritius
Dr. Mitrasen BHIKAJEE is the Director of the Mauritius Oceanography Institute (MOI) since 2004 and the Chairman of IOGOOS (Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observing System) as from this year. He holds a Ph.D. in Marine Biology and was Associate Professor in Marine Sciences at the University of Mauritius from 1988 to 2003. He has carried out consulting assignments for various organisations including the UNEP, UNDP, GEF and the Indian Ocean Commission. Through the EU funded AMESD (African Monitoring of the Environment for Sustainable Development) project, the MOI, as the Regional Implementation Centre of the ocean component will provide technical expertise and training in satellite image processing to the staff of the Ministry of Fisheries of Comoros, Madagascar and fisheries research institutes of Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique Seychelles and Tanzania.
Peter Rabley
President & CEO
International Land Systems, Inc
USA
Peter Rabley is a Land Administration Systems Specialist with more than 24 years of experience working worldwide. He has designed and implemented land administration systems since 1984, most recently based around the LADM/STDM models. Mr Rabley is the founder and President of International Land Systems a company with offices in the Washington DC area, Bolivia and Ukraine that focuses on delivering low cost, appropriate systems for land administration worldwide. Mr Rabley has Master’s degrees in Geography and Economics.”
M Dharma Raj
Addl Survey General
Survey of India
India
Completed Masters degree in Mathematics from Madurai University in the year 1976 and M. Tech degree in Computer Science from the Institution of Electronics & Telecommunications Engineers( IETE), Hyderabad in the year 1998. Served as Lecturer in Mathematics in Government college Port Blair, Andaman Nicobar Islands from 1976 to 1983, before joining Survey of India in 1983.

Prersently functioning as the Additional Surveyor General, Survey of India, at Bangalore as well as the Project Director for the World bank assisted ICZM project of MoEF, Govt. of India and in-charge of SOI's Coastal Hazard Line Mapping component of the ICZM project.

Dr. John Townshend
Dean, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Department of Geography
University of Maryland
United States
Dr. John Townshend is Professor of Geography and Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Sciences at the University of Maryland USA. Previous positions were held at the University of Reading UK, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and the University of Dar es Salaam. He is a long time member of NASA's MODIS Science Team. His research interests focus land cover change and environmental information systems. He is also the PI of the Global Land Cover Facility (www.landcover.org).
Ron Hatch
Director of Navigation Systems Engineering & Principal & co-founder
NavCom Technology, Inc
United States
Ron was one of the founders of NavCom Technology (now a John Deere company) where he is a Senior Research Engineer. He has previously worked at Magnavox, Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory and Boeing, as well as a few years as a consultant. His work emphasis is on high-accuracy applications of GPS. He has authored or co-authored over forty papers on navigation topics. He has obtained 26 patents as the inventor or co-inventor. Except for two, all of these patents relate to GPS. Ron received a B.S. in Math & Physics in 1962 from Seattle Pacific College. He has served the Institute of Navigation as President and as Chair of the Satellite Division. He was the 1994 recipient of the Satellite Division Kepler Award for sustained and significant contributions to satellite navigation. He has also received the Thurlow award and is a Fellow of the Institute of Navigation.
Hussein Farah
Director General
RCMRD
Kenya
Dr. Hussein Omar Farah currently holds the position of Director General, RCMRD. His education qualifications and awarding institution are as follows: PhD in Water Resources Surveys from the University of Wageningen and the International Institute for Aerospace Surveys and Earth Sciences, The Netherlands. MA in Geography from the University of Waterloo, Canada. BSc in Surveying and Photogrammerty, University of Nairobi
Mark Reichardt
President and CEO
Open Geospatial Consortium
United States
Mark Reichardt is President and Chief Executive Officer of the Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. (OGC). Mr. Reichardt has overall responsibility for Consortium operations, overseeing the development and promotion of OpenGIS® standards and working to ensure that OGC programs foster member success. He works with other standards development organizations and professional associations to establish alliance agreements to assure that OGC standards and other standards work together fluidly. Such coordination is critical, for example, to support standards that enable the full integration of geospatial information with real time sensor data and Building Information Models (BIM) used in architecture, engineering, construction and full life cycle management of buildings and other physical infrastructure. Mr. Reichardt joined the Consortium in November 2000 as Director of Marketing and Public Sector Programs; became the President of OGC and a member of the Board of Directors in September, 2004; and was appointed President and CEO in January 2008.

Before joining the OGC, Mr. Reichardt was involved in technology modernization and production programs for the US Government. In the mid 1990's, he was a member of a DoD Geospatial Information Integrated Product Team (GIIPT) formed to help transition the DoD mapping mission to a more flexible and responsive geo-information based paradigm. Under Mr. Reichardt's leadership, the GIIPT Production Team validated the ability of commercial off the shelf hardware and software to meet many of the DoD functional requirements for geospatial production operations. Mr. Reichardt serves on the Board of Directors of the Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association and on the BuildingSmart Alliance Board of Direction.
Dr. Herbert Landau
Engineering Director
Trimble Navigation
Germany
Herbert Landau is actively working in research and development on GNSS positioning since 1984. He has been involved in a large variety of GNSS product developments. His professional interest is focused on high-precision real-time kinematic positioning and Network RTK processing.
Basanta Shrestha
Division Head/Geoinformation Specialist, MENRIS
Integrated Knowldge Management
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
Nepal
Basanta Shrestha has a Masters of Engineering in Computer Science from the Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand in 1989 and a Bachelors of Engineering in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1985 from Madras University, India. He has joined ICIMOD in 1990 and at present, he is a Division head of MENRIS programme – recognized as one of the flagship programme of ICIMOD promoting integrated and innovative solutions for informed decision-making to improve the livelihoods of mountain communities and conservation of mountain environment in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan region. He has long and extensive managerial experience and played an instrumental role in promoting modern decision support tools, technologies and methodologies for improved access to natural resources and environmental data and information in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region and beyond. Under his leadership, he has mobilized resources and planned, developed, managed and implemented a number of programmes related to mountain development policies and practices. He has a wealth of experiences in networking of partners in the region and key individuals and institutions around the world and led the highly successful capacity development programmes for planning and decision support for sustainable mountain development. He has led numerous projects and published a number of publications on issues of integrated development planning, impact of climate change on Himalayan glaciers, Himalayan atlas, and environment assessment and natural resources management. His current areas of foci are GIS and RS application in the field of climate change in the Himalaya, mountain ecosystem modeling and protected area management, spatial decision support system and spatial data infrastructure in the Himalaya.
Aida Opoku - Mensah
Director-ICTs & S&T Division (ISTD)
UN Economic Commission for Africa
Ethiopia
Based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Aida Opoku-Mensah is Director, ICT, Science and Technology Division of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) responsible for ECA's programmatic activities in Africa in the areas of geoinformation, Science, Technology and Innovation and Information Society issues. Led by her, the division's key role is to promote STI for economic development in Africa, examining the concepts of the knowledge economy and innovation society and their economic impacts on African development. She has held previous positions working on ICT4D initiatives throughout Africa, including serving as Team Leader for the Development Information Services Division of ECA as well as having worked for the Ford Foundation’s West Africa office in Lagos, Nigeria. Ms Opoku-Mensah established the Panos Southern Africa regional office based in Lusaka, Zambia, serving, as the first director of this regional office. Prior to this she lectured at London’s City University on Communication Policy and for many years covered African political, economic and social issues reporting for the BBC World Service for Africa and Radio Nederlands International – the Dutch World Service. She has edited and contributed to publications including the following publications, African E-Markets: Information and Economic Development, African Networking: Development Information, ICTs and Governance, African Media and ICT4D: Documentary Evidence, Twin Peaks: WSIS From Geneva to Tunis, Benchmarking the Information Society in Africa: Implementing the WSIS Plan of Action, E-commerce challenges in Africa: issues, constraints, ICTs as Tools for Democratisation for African Women. She is currently spearheading the work of ECA in the area of scientifc development and the knowledge economy in Africa.
Dr Prithvish Nag
Director
NATMO
India
Obtained M.Sc. degree in Geography (Gold Medalist)in 1972 and subsequently awarded Ph.D in 1976 from Banaras Hindu University. He has also did the Post Doctoral Research from School of oriental and African Studies, University of London (1982-83). He joined NATMO in June 1976 as a Research officer. He was selected as a Director of the National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organization, Kolkata of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. in 1994. He was also Surveyor General of India between December, 2001 and February, 2005. He is one of the recipient of Commonwealth Bursary by the Geographical Society on its 150th. anniversary. He has more than 105 research papers and 30 books to his credit. Having a vast experience in digital mapping and remote sensing from the early age which has helped him to joined as Scientist / Engineer in ISRO. He was an UN Consultant in Oman. He was Chairmen of international commissions : ICA, PCGIAP, ISCGM. and was member of IGU Commission(1980 - 88). He was also the President of the Indian National Cartographic Association ( INCA ) and Fellow Geographical Society of India, Kolkata. He has also awarded Uttaranchal Ratna by Uttaranchal Nagarik Parisad, Recipient of the Technology Excellence Awarded by Technocrat Association of India, Recipient of a Joint Citation from centre for land use management, Hyderabad. Dr. Nag is also Chairman and patron of several national organizing Committees of the scientific conferences. He delivered 36th Convocation Address of the North Bengal University. The vision of Dr. Nag can be stated as an instrumental in transforming this national mapping (NATMO) set up to a vibrating institution; introduced digital technologies; New mapping program initiated; Research, development and training in thematic cartographic activities added. he reorganized the whole set up into 14 divisions on different activities. He first introduce digital techniques in mapping, remote sensing and GIS in NATMO.
Ragunath Babu Guduru
Vice President
Surbana International Consultants Pte Ltd
(Urban Planning Group)
Singapore
Raghunath babu got a rich experience handling major spatial technology initiatives in Singapore, Middle East, south Asia and India. Raghu previously worked for ESRI, Reliance Communications and HCL. He played a key role in optic fiber planning for Reliance. In Singapore he delivered and managed award winning projects for Urban Redevelopment Authority and Land transport Authority. He is first GIS certified professional ( GISP) in Asia.

Currently he heads Geospatial and related technologies practice at Surbana International Consultants, Singapore; which is a leading urban planning company in Asia. Raghu currently works on G to G initiatives and helps the governments in bringing up spatial technology in planning and developmental aspects. His interest is in technology for Eco-cites and green technologies

Raghu got master in earth sciences from Andhra University India and Masters in Global Business Management from Indian Institute of Management(IIM), Bengaluru, India
Wu Chen
Department of Land Surveying and Geoinformatics
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Hong Kong
Prof. Wu Chen is a professor at Department of Land Surveying and Geoinformatics (LSGI), Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He received his BSc degree from Chinese University of Science and Technology, MSc from the Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics, China, and PhD from University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. He has been actively working on GNSS related research for over 25 years and has been working on a large number of research projects funded by universities, governments, and industries. His main research interests are GNSS applications, GNSS performance evaluation, and system integration. He has published over 200 technical papers in various journals and international conferences. Currently he is deputy director of joint navigation laboratory of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Pankaj Kr Borah
Enterprise Geospatial and Defense Solution
Rolta
India
Pankaj Kr Borah obtained his Master Degree from the Gauhati University and is presently pursuing Ph D. He is currently working in Rolta India Ltd. in the Enterprise Geospatial and Defense Solution Business Group. Prior to joining Rolta, he was working with NERIWALM, and Dept of Geography as Research Fellow. In his career, he has lead many projects in GIS, and Remote Sensing in the field of Water, Land and Forest Management.
Dr Ashok Kaushal
Senior Executive Director
Rolta
India
Dr. Ashok Kaushal has 27+ years of experience in developing applications using IT and Geomatics. He has in-depth knowledge in executing Turnkey Solutions using Parallel Processing, Grid Computing, Digital Signal Processing, Digital Image Processing and Geomatics in e-Governance, Healthcare, Natural disaster management, Agriculture, Surveillance and others. He was a founding member of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) with experience in development of applications on supercomputers (PARAM) with distributed memory message passing paradigm. Subsequently, he had worked as General Manager, in the capacity of Group Head, Geomatics and IT at ASL Advanced Systems Pvt. Ltd for development of geo-intelligent solutions for transport and applications of Geomatics in road infrastructure. Till very recently, he was Managing Director, PCI Geomatics [India] and Member Executives, PCI Geomatics Inc. In this capacity, he was responsible for promotion of geoimaging products and solutions in SAARC and Central Eurasia. Currently, Dr Kaushal is a Senior Executive Director at Rolta India Limited and is responsible for Pre-sales, POCs and implementation of Rolta GeoImaging suite of products. Dr. Ashok Kaushal has a PHD in Computer Science from Kiev Polytechnic Institute, Ukraine and M. Tech, Combined (Computer Science) with Honors from Lvov Polytechnic Institute, Ukraine. He has over 100 publications/ presentations in leading journals, newsletters, seminars and workshops and vast traveling across India and abroad (40+ countries).
Dr. Luiz Paulo Souto Fortes
Phd, Diretor de Geociźncias Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatķstica – IBGE
Brazil
Luiz Paulo Souto Fortes holds a BSc in Cartographic Engineering (1981), a MSc in Computer Science (1997), and a Ph.D. in Geomatics Engineering (University of Calgary, 2002). He has been working during the past 28 years for IBGE, in Brazil, where he currently holds the position of Director of Geosciences. He is also the President of the Permanent Committee for the Spatial Data Infrastrucuture of the Americas (CP-IDEA).
Sandip T. Aghav
PhD student
Department of Electronic Science
University of Pune
India
Senior Research Fellow and a PhD student in the Department of Electronic Science, University of Pune on project "Autonomous Satellite Navigation System for Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite using Global Navigation Satellite (GNSS)"¯ funded by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Junior Research Fellow (JRF) in the Department of Electronic Science, on project "Development of Ground Station for ANUSAT"¯ funded by ISRO.
Surendra Jena
General Manager
Omnistar
India
Twenty five years in Dept of Space and SOI as a senior scientist in the field of Geomatics. A professional Master with Distinction in Photogrammetry) from ITC ,the Netherlands and certified for Scientific GPS data processing from University of Berne, Switzerland.Headed the team in DOS for establishing 31 ITRF zero order GPS stations covering India for space technology applications. Presently working as General manager , Technical and supports for Omnistar India Region.
Chaminda Saman Rathnayake
Assistant Superintendent of Customs
Sri Lanka Customs
Sri Lanka
Chaminda Saman Rathnayake is working as an Assistant Superintendent of Customs at the ICT Division of Sri Lanka Customs. He was graduated from the Faculty of Science, University of Peradeniya and also holds a Masters degree in GIS & RS.Research fields of interests are GIS & Remote Sensing, GPS Tracking Systems, Landmine Detection and Mapping and Risk Management in Customs Administration.
Philippe Campenon
Director - Asia Pacific Business Development
Astrium
Graduated from “Ecole Centrale de Paris”, Philippe started his career as a RADAR and Optical sensors engineer. After working on satellites such as Spot 5 and Meteosat 2nd Generation, he moved to the Business development department of Astrium Satellites. He then joined Spot Image to establish data distribution partnerships with NSPO of Taiwan for FORMOSAT-2 and KARI of Korea for KOMPSAT-2. He became deputy to the commercial director before being relocated in Singapore in his present assignment. In the meantime, Spot Image has been integrated in the Geo-Information Services division of Astrium.
Gottfried Konecny
Emeritus Professor
University of Hannover
Germany
Prof. Gottfried Konecny received his PhD in photogrammetry at the Ohio State University in 1958. Then, he spent a summer internship at the NASA Johnson Space Center where he became aware of the potential for space systems to advance mapping and remote sensing, and made contacts that would prove useful later. He started his first academic position at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) in Canada, where he became Professor of Photogrammetry and eventually the Chairman of what is now the Department of Geomatics Engineering. In 1971 he returned to Germany to become Chairman of Institute of Photogrammetry and GeoInformation at Hannover Technical University.
Nathalie Marthe Bismuth
General Manager
IGN France International
France
Chief engineer of bridges and roads with an MBA diploma from the HEC group, Nathalie Marthe-Bismuth is at the head of IGN France International since October 2007. She previously held the position of Commercial Director for the French National Geographic Institute (IGN).
Iara Musse Felix
Business Development Director
Santiago & Cintra Consultoria
Brazil
Iara Musse Felix has graduated as a Biologist and later as Master in Remote Sensing through the Brazilian National Institute of Spatial Research (INPE) in 1993. During her studies in INPE she has worked developing models for environmental monitoring and management. A specialist in the conceiving and development of methodologies using Geospatial technologies and IT resources, she has successfully coordinated and managed important programs and projects in Brazil in her nineteen years of experience using a management approach of strategic planning. One of them was one of the largest Market Research for GIS Software and Remote Sensing, Data and Services, which was developed during 2006 and 2007 through Intare Tecnologia e Informaēćo. She was a consultant for the World Bank, KFW, as well as an international consultant for other private companies on the Natural Resources Management segment. Currently she is the Business Development Director of Santiago & Cintra Consultoria.
Narendra P. Singh
Chief Manager (Remote Sensing)
Central Mine Planning & Design Institute
India
Narendra P. Singh is presently working as Chief Manager (Remote Sensing) in Central Mine Planning & Design Institute (CMPDI) of Coal India Ltd. He played a key role in establishing the Geospatial Technology in coal industry. Mr. Singh has a rich experience in the fields of satellite remote sensing, Airborne thermal infra red survey, LiDAR, GIS, GPS and digital Photogrammetry. Mr. Singh is overseeing the application of geospatial technology in coal mining sector like topographical mapping, mineral exploration, water resource survey, land use and vegetation cover mapping, coal mine fire mapping, excavation measurement, slope stability of OB dumps, land reclamation monitoring, disaster and utility management. Mr. Singh has Undergraduate and Postgraduate degree in Geology from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He has M.Phil degree in Applied Geology from Indian School of Mines University, Dhanbad and Post graduate diploma in human resource management from IGNOU, India. He obtained a professional certificates in Remote Sensing & GIS from ISRO. He is the life member of Mining, Geological & Metallurgical Institute of India (MGMI) and Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS). He is also the member of TPS site selection committee of Ministry of Power. Mr. Singh has over 30 technical and managerial publications in International and National Journals and Seminars. Born in 1958, Mr. Singh has nearly three decades professional experience in mineral and mining sector especially in the field of Geospatial technology. He has played a key role in selection of TPS sites in the country using Geospatial technology as well as locating coal mine fire in Jharia coalfield based on thermal infrared and Sodic land mapping in state of Uttar Pradesh for World Bank funded project.

Dr.rer.nat. Claudia Feix
Head of Department
IVU Traffic Technologies AG
Germany
Dr. Claudia Feix has been working for 14 years for IVU Traffic Technologies AG in the Logistics and GIS department. Since 2001 she is the head of the Information Logistics department and is responsible for the development of software systems for various industries – Public Transport, Logistics and chain store companies. She studied Geography in Berlin and Berkley and did her master in GIS at the University of Salzburg. That followed she earned a PhD in Geo Business Intelligence in Logistics at the example of the Deutsche Post World Net at the Freie Universität Berlin.
Richard Zambuni
Global Marketing Director – Geospatial
Bentley Systems
USA
Richard has spent all of his career in marketing, and the last 15 years in hi-tech marketing living and working in the USA and Europe. Richard has covered a broad range of technology from network hardware, to telecommunications inventory and provisioning software, to geospatial and infrastructure engineering software. At Bentley, Richard is responsible for marketing the company’s solutions for energy utilities, water utilities, communications service providers, and government, all of which involve the deployment and application of geospatial technology.
Anand Kumar
Senior Programme Manager and Head
Geomatics Division
Development Alternatives
India
Anand Kumar is a Senior Programme Manager in Development Alternatives (DA) and also heading the Geomatics group of the organization. He is a post graduate in geology from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi and post graduate diploma in Remote Sensing & GIS from Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS), Dehradun. He is an Indian National and has had more than 10 years of experience in Environmental assessments, remote sensing & GIS applications and development issues. He has been extensively involved in State of the Environment and regional assessments; evaluation and assessment of regional and national sustainable development actions and capacity building for integrated environment assessments; Participatory Planning, Natural Resource Management; Watershed management, Risk Management, Development of environment management plans, Database management, preparation of National, State and District level planning and resource atlases, Remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) applications in Natural Resource Management (NRM), Disaster Management (Landslide Hazard Zonation and management), Climate Change vulnerability assessment, Environmental Impact Assessment including landuse/landcover change detection studies, Web based GIS applications, Preparation of local area resource profiles using GIS for formulation of action plans for state governments, NGOs and individuals. He has imparted various trainings and capacity building programmes on GIS to Government and NGOs. He has designed and developed the first interactive State of Environment Atlas of India for Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. He has also been involved in using GIS for rural development programmes primarily focusing on resource mapping for NREGA implementation, programme monitoring and evaluation, developing decision support tools for district planning. Prior to working with DA, he worked as a research scholar at IIRS, Dehradun, where he was associated with the National Landslide Project and was extensively involved in the Landslide Hazard Zonation mapping and management plan using Remote Sensing and GIS.
Sathya Prasad Nanjundaiah
Practice Head - GeoSpatial Technologies
TCS
India
Sathya Prasad Nanjundaiah, Practice Head of Geospatial Technologies, joined TCS in March 2008 with an industry experience of 18 years. Prasad has past experience in GIS, Utility, Government and IT companies. He has worked outside India for 14 years in Qatar and USA. Aligning with company’s vision, Prasad aims to harness the strengths of geospatial technology in TCS and achieve excellence in providing innovative solutions to customers in the specialized technology areas. With a global track record of working with government and utility industries and service delivery record in GIS and IT software vendor firms, Prasad brings a hybrid of skills in achieving the company’s vision. Prasad had implemented GIS for the Planning Department of the Ministry in Qatar. While working for Boston Gas Company, Prasad had helped in assessment and integration of GIS systems that were acquired by Boston Gas. With a stint in IT software Development Company in US, he had worked on offshore outsourcing models with companies in India. After relocating to India, he had worked with various clients globally in implementing global delivery model for GIS outsourcing. Prasad manages the alliance partnerships with GIS vendors and professional relationships with clients and GIS industry professionals. He is an associate member of Institute of Town Planners, India. His academic credentials include a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India, a Masters degree in Urban Planning from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India.
Dr. T. P. Singh
Associate Professor
Symbiosis Institute of Geomatics
India
Dr. T.P. Singh working as Associate Professor in Symbiosis Institute of Geoinformatics , Symbiosis International University, He has more than 11 years experience in field of GIS and Remote Sensing in different application in India and abroad. He is alumni of Paris University VI, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing and college of Engineering Vizec. He has vast experience in Geospatial application in Natural Resource Management specially Eastern Himalaya Region and Western Ghat and also worked in Geospatial application in infrastructure management. Prior to this he has worked with NRDMS centre, SACON and Indian Institute of Remote Sensing. He has expertise in automatics object extraction on LiDAR data and their application in Urban and Forest management. Dr. Singh has guided more than 100 M.Sc. students in different Geospatial fields and supervising Ph.D. students in field of Data Mining, Data Security and Carbon sequestration. He has published many national and international papers in peer reviewed journals.
Dr Dinesh Kumar
Programme Director
Institute for Resource Analysis & Policy (IRAP)
India
M. Dinesh Kumar is a Ph. D in Water Management, and has 20 years of professional experience undertaking research, field implementation and consulting in the field of water resources. He has vast experience working on physical, economic, institutional and policy issues in water management. He had worked with engineering consultancy organizations, national and international research/academic institutions and NGOs, and had worked very closely with many reputed international and national agencies, viz., UNICEF, the Ford Foundation, the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Aga Khan Foundation, New Delhi, Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Mumbai and Arghyam, Bangalore. He is currently the Executive Director of Institute for Resource Analysis and Policy (IRAP), a non-profit research organization working on natural resource, based in Hyderabad. He was earlier with the International Water Management Institute, and used to head the IWMI-Tata Water Policy Research program from June 2007 to July 2008. He has nearly 120 publications to his credit, including three books; one edited volume; many book chapters; and several papers in international peer-reviewed journals. His books are: Groundwater Management in India: physical, institutional and policy alternatives (Sage Publications, New Delhi); Water Management in India: What Works, What Doesn’t (Gyan Books, New Delhi); and Managing Water in River Basins: Hydrology, Economics, and Institutions (Oxford University Press, New Delhi). His internationally acclaimed works are on: assessment of water productivity in agriculture; hydrological and economic aspects of small water harvesting and groundwater recharging; energy-groundwater nexus; blue and green water use in river basins; and economic valuation of water in agriculture.
Jayalakshmi Chittoor
Consultant
Wipro Consultancy Services
India
Ms Jayalakshmi Chittoor currently is a Subject Matter Expert and Change Management Consultant to Wipro Consulting Services. She has over 29 years of experience of which the last three assignments have been to lead ICTD programmes in India, Nepal, South Asia, Asia and Canada. She has been engaged actively in conceptualising and developing eGOV Change Management and Capacity Building programmes, and in Designing Scalable activities in the domain of ICT in Education. Jayalakshmi has written, edited and researched extensively on ICT for Development issues, and has been spent over five years (2004-2009) leading the editing teams of i4d magazine, telecentre magazine, and digital learning magazines. Besides she has led policy related dialogues and consultations on ICT for D thematic communities of practice. She is a professionally qualified Facilitator and Change Management Specialist., and trained in GIS for Development from ICIMOD. She is also responsible for steering and developing partnerships for large scale certified capacity building programme design for telecentre/ CSC operators in IGNOU. She has in-depth understanding of Project Management, ICTD Methodologies for Research, Documentation and Lessons Learned through participatory methodologies as well as professionally trained/and worked as trainer on monitoring and evaluation methodologies, including Outcome Mapping, Rapid Assessment techniques for E-gov projects, Action Research for Tracking Progress. She has led monitoring and evaluation studies on ICT4D programmes.
Matt Ball
Editor
Vector1Media
USA
Matt Ball, editor and co-founder of Vector1 Media has a bachelor's degree in Journalism from Miami University, and earned a magazine publishing diploma from New York University. Matt worked for GeoTec Media for ten years, as editor-in-chief of GeoWorld magazine for seven years and also managing all aspects of the GeoTec Event, Canada's largest geospatial industry event. He steered GeoTec Media into the book publishing business, editing and compiling two volumes. Prior to that he was in charge of marketing and exhibit sales for the Geological Society of America’s annual meeting. Matt is located in Denver, Colorado and serves as editor for both V1 Magazine and Asia Surveying & Mapping, blogs regularly as Spatial Sustain, and enjoys focusing on the utility of geospatial technology for issues of infrastructure and the environment.
Dr G.Padmanabhan
Emergency Specialist
UNDP
India
G. Padmanabhan joined UNDP in 1992, and has been handling Disaster Management portfolio of UNDP-India since 1995. Apart from handling the core functions of UNDP in this field, he was the leader of the Team involved in implementing the GOI-UNDP Disaster Risk Management, a multi-donor programme of US$ 41 million, which was being implemented in 176 districts in 17 states. He was also closely involved in developing UN’s Tsunami Recovery Framework in India and has a good understanding of the concepts of DM and integrating DRR activities in development. He also moderates the activities of an electronic network of about 2500 DM practitioners in India under an UN system initiative called Solution Exchange. Padmanabhan has been providing advice to Governments of countries in the Asia region. He has Masters Degrees in Geography, and in Urban and Regional Planning. Before joining UNDP, he was involved in research activities in the field of Transportation, Urban Development and Energy. He also worked for 2 years as a consultant to the Government of India.
K R T Achar
GM (Engineering)
Lanco Infratech
India
K.R.T Achar is a post-graduate civil engineer from IIT, Kanpur, India, with specialization in Hydraulics and Water Resources. He has over 25 years of experience in engineering consultancy services in the projects ranging hydro power, thermal power, water supply, sanitation and urban infrastructure. Achar has experience of working in projects funded by International Funding Organizations involving World Bank, DFID, OECF, JBIC and ADB. He was responsible for the JBIC funded BWSSB - Cauvery Water Supply Project, Phase-IV, Stage-1, mainly in the design of the transmission main to the city. He has experience of working in several hydro and thermal power projects across the country. Achar’s interests include water resources and water hammer studies of pipelines. Mr. Achar has experience of working in Indonesia for a flood control project. Achar has over 20 publications in National and International Journals / Seminars and Conferences. He has been awarded with the Best paper Award three times. Mr. Achar is also a Topic Editor for the portal Encyclopedia of Earth. Achar has about 22 years of work experience with Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE) Mumbai and Bangalore. Currently, Mr. Achar is working as General Manager (EPC, Civil Engineering) with LANCO Infratech Limited, Gurgaon, Haryana, India.
Dr. Kaushalya Ramachandran
Principal Scientist & ICAR national Fellow
CRIDA - ICAR
India
Dr. Kaushalya Ramachandran is currently working as Principal Scientist and ICAR National Fellow at the Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA), an ICAR institute located at Hyderabad. She was awarded the ICAR National Fellowship in 2005 and 2010 for developing a Framework for Evaluation of Sustainability of Watershed Projects in Rainfed regions. She was a DAAD Fellow and a DAAD Visiting Scientist at the University of Saarland, Germany where she was also conferred a Doctorate in Application of GIS and Remote Sensing for Environment Impact Assessment. In 2006 the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Min. of Agri., Govt. of India, conferred on her the Punjabrao Deshmukh Best Women Scientist Award. Dr. Kaushalya has 25 years of research and teaching experience and has published numerous papers in Indian and International journals. She is an active member of several associations and networks like IHDP, GLP, DFG, DAAD, INSA, GISIndia, PERN, UNCCD, and the Indo-German Bilateral Collaboration program. Her current interest is the Use of Geo-informatics for Vulnerability Assessment studies under Climate Change Scenarios.
Tapas Paul
Sr. Environmental Specialist
Team Lead of Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project
World Bank
India
Tapas Paul is currently serving as Senior Environmental Specialist, The World Bank. He has been associated with the Bank since 2001. His professional affiliation is in the environment sector. He holds a Bachelor degree in Architecture from Maulana Azad College of Technology, India and completed his Masters in Regional Planning from University of Delhi, India.