Barbara Ryan
Secretariat Director
Group on Earth
Observations (GEO)
Switzerland





BIO
Barbara J. Ryan is Secretariat Director - Intergovernmental Group on Earth Observations located in Geneva, Switzerland. In this capacity, she leads the Secretariat in coordinating the activities of nearly 90 Member States and 50 Participating Organizations who are striving to integrate Earth observations so that informed decisions can be made across nine Societal Benefit Areas including agriculture, biodiversity, climate, ecosystems, energy, disasters, health, water and weather. Prior to this, she was the Director of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Space Programme. Before joining WMO in October 2008, she was the Associate Director for Geography at the U.S. Geological Survey in Virginia. As the 2007 Chair of the international Committee on Earth Observation Satellites she led the space-agency response to the Global Climate Observing System satellite requirements for sustained measurement of the GCOS Essential Climate Variables. She holds a Bachelor´s degree in Geology from the State University of New York at Cortland, a Master´s degree in Geography from the University of Denver, and a Master´s degree in Civil Engineering from Stanford University.

BIO
Prof. Josef Strobl is an academic teacher and researcher at the Centre for Geoinformatics, University of Salzburg, and as a full member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences serves as director of its department for Geographic Information Science. He holds degrees in Geography from Vienna University and has been teaching GIS and related subjects at various universities since 1985. Current research is focused on terrain modelling, GIS and RS methodology and applications, distributed GIS on the Internet and dynamic process modelling. As chair of the UNIGIS distance learning network, Professor Strobl is contributing to the education of future generations of GIS professionals.

Saskia J. Stuiveling
President
Court of Audit
The Netherlands





BIO
Saskia J. Stuiveling has been president of the Netherlands Court of Audit since May 1999, having first been appointed to the Court's Board at the end of 1984. Before her appointment to the Court of Audit, Ms Stuiveling coordinated the parliamentary enquiry into the Rijn-Schelde-Verolme group on behalf of the House of Representatives as from March 1983. From September 1981 until May 1982, she was State Secretary for the Interior in the second Van Agt government, with particular responsibility for the financing of local authorities, cities and the decentralisation plan.

Ray O'Connor
President & CEO
Topcon Positioning System
USA






BIO
Ray O’Connor is President and Chief Executive Officer of Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc. (TPS), a subsidiary of Topcon Corporation. He has held this position since 2002. In 2012 he was also named Senior Managing Executive Officer of Topcon Corporation and President of its global Positioning Operations Company. Additionally, he has been Chairman of Topcon Europe Positioning Business and is a Director of Topcon America Corporation and Topcon Europe BV. In 2006, he was the first person of non-Japanese descent to receive Toshiba Corporation’s Business Performance Award. In 2012, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Dublin (Ireland) Institute of Technology for his “global leadership in precision measurement technology.

Amar Hanspal
Vice President - IPG Product Group
Autodesk
USA





BIO
A member of the CEO executive staff, Amar Hanspal is responsible for Autodesk’s largest product organization, which is charged with developing an integrated product portfolio focused on information modeling, including Autodesk solutions for civil infrastructure, architecture, engineering and construction. This organization is focused on ensuring an outstanding user experience and accelerating innovation across Autodesk’s products. Hanspal has held several executive positions within Autodesk since joining the company in 1987, most recently as Senior Vice President, Platform Solutions and Emerging Businesses. Prior to this, he served Vice President of Autodesk Collaboration Solutions, which included Autodesk’s collaboration offerings Autodesk Buzzsaw, Autodesk Constructware and Autodesk Design Review. Prior to Autodesk, Hanspal was the co-founder and VP of Marketing of RedSpark Inc., a startup focused on building a collaborative product development system for the discrete manufacturing industry.

Ramon Bartolome Pastor
Vice President and General Manager - Large-Format Printing Business
Hewlett Packard
Spain






BIO
As the Vice-President and General Manager of HP’s Large Format Printing Business for the Technical and Creative Market Ramon’s position includes worldwide responsibility of the Research and Development, Marketing, Finance and Operations of the full range of Large Format Printers HP Designjet. Previously, Ramon was the worldwide R&D Director for the Large Format Printing business. Before this position, Ramon was the Strategic Marketing Manager responsible for this business, where he led the definition and implementation of the strategies and products to achieve the business goals both at short and long term. Ramon holds a Master in Engineering from Universitat Politècnica of Catalunya, as well as formal training in Product Development and Strategy by INSEAD and MIT.

BIO
Ingrid Vanden Berghe started her professional career as a scientist at Leuven University, Belgium. In 1989 she joined the public service in the Flemish region. One of her tasks was the practical implementation of the European law on environmental impact studies. She also took the first steps in the implementation of GIS in the department. In the nineties she was an advisor to the Cabinet of the Regional Minister of Environment and Land Use Development (1991-1992), the regional minister of Public Works, Town and Land Use Planning (1992-1995) and the regional minister of Environment and Employment (1995-1996). During this time she solved the difficult issue of the implementation of the nitrate directive in Flanders.She moved even more into the core of the Belgian political world in 1996 when was appointed director of the Centre for Political, Economic and Social Studies (CEPESS). In 2002 she returned to her ‘first love’ of Geographical Information, when she was appointed General administrator at the Belgian national mapping agency, National Geographic Institute. She is also the President of EuroGeographics.

Ted Lamboo
Senior Vice President - Civil and
Geospatial Global Operations
Bentley Systems
USA





BIO
Ted Lamboo is Bentley's senior vice president of Civil and Geospatial Global Operations. From 2000 through 2007, Mr. Lamboo served as Bentley’s senior vice president of International Operations. From 1998 until 2000, Mr. Lamboo held the role of president, Bentley Asia/Pacific. From 1994 through 1997, Mr. Lamboo served as vice president of Sales for Bentley Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Previously, 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.

ABSTRACT
Monetizing geospatial technology in information modeling
Certain technologies such as point clouds and mobile devices are well used in discrete segments of the infrastructure development process. However information mobility adds value throughout the lifecycle of infrastructure by managing the data produced and making it available in all phases of the project. Data is enhanced and managed as opposed to used and discarded improving the ROI on all technologies. Point cloud technology has become the de facto method of acquiring existing conditions for a new development or enhancement to existing infrastructure. But the use of point clouds does not stop at documenting existing conditions. Hybrid workflows, presentation materials, development of detailed terrain models all extend the use of point clouds in the infrastructure lifecycle. Similarly, mobile technology is commonplace in the consumer realm from smartphones to tablet computers. Such acceptance is driving requirements for access to infrastructure data in the field. How can large internal systems and databases be leveraged for use on smaller mobile devices operated by users not familiar with spatial concepts? The presentation will concentrate on these two technologies; point clouds and mobile devices, to show how these technologies fit within the infrastructure lifecycle and benefits received.

Ola Rollen
President and CEO
Hexagon
United Kingdom





BIO
Ola Rollén has served as the President and CEO, as well as a member of the Board of Directors, of Hexagon since 2000. As President and CEO, Rollén is responsible for driving the company’s growth, both organically and through strategic acquisitions that continue to transform Hexagon into a leading global provider of design, measurement and visualisation technologies. Prior to joining Hexagon, Rollén held the positions of President of Sandvik Materials Technology, Executive Vice President of Avesta-Sheffield and President of Kanthal. He also previously served as a board member of Vestas Wind Systems A/S. Rollén holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics.

ABSTRACT
How Data Can Change a Nation
Geospatial data is truly revolutionary when it can fundamentally change a national government’s relationship with information. Hexagon can help governments capture data from multiple sources and synthesise it into actionable intelligence allowing governments and its citizens to make informed choices. Such intelligent decisions based on geo-enabled information have a far-reaching, positive impact across a wide array of industries and applications, ultimately allowing a nation to be more competitive and move towards its productivity and development goals.

Dr. Vanessa Lawrance CB
Director General & Chief
Executive
Ordnance Survey of Great Britain
United Kingdom





BIO
Vanessa Lawrence, Director General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey, Great Britain’s national mapping agency is the adviser to the British Government on mapping, surveying and geographic information and was instrumental in the delivery of Place Matters: The Location Strategy for the United Kingdom, the medium to long-term strategy for geographic information. She received her business training from the publishing company Pearson plc. Prior to joining Ordnance Survey, Vanessa held senior positions at Autodesk Inc. Vanessa is the Honorary Vice-President of The Geographical Association and a member of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society and the University of Cambridge. She is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton and Kingston University. In January 2008, Vanessa was appointed as a Companion of The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB) in the Queen’s New Year Honours List.

ABSTRACT
National Geospatial Information: Underpinning the economic and social growth of nations
Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB will focus her presentation on how Ordnance Survey has developed over the last 220 years to become the content provider of choice for Geographic Information in the Great Britain. As Great Britain’s national mapping authority, Ordnance Survey collects, maintains, and distributes the most up-to-date geographical information for England, Scotland and Wales, that is relied upon by Government, businesses and individuals. Examples highlighted within the presentation will include: the Public Sector Mapping Agreement, a 10 year agreement to provide core geographic datasets to the Public Sector; GeoVation, promoting innovative uses of Geographic Information through a series of challenges; and specific user case studies in the growth of GI within Great Britain.’

Stephen Wood
Vice President
Analysis Center
DigitalGlobe
USA




BIO
Stephen Wood has served as the Vice President of DigitalGlobe’s Analysis Center since January, 2011. A career imagery analytic professional with 25 years of satellite imagery experience, Stephen was previously responsible for DigitalGlobe’s US Defense Sales and Business Operations since January, 2007. He joined DigitalGlobe in July, 2000 after nearly fourteen years with the Central Intelligence Agency and has held a range of defense sales and marketing positions at DigitalGlobe.

ABSTRACT
Imagery, Information and Insight: Response to Real-World Demands
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but in the hands of an expert analyst who is able to provide context and insight, it can be worth vastly more. Regardless of your area of focus, geospatial insights and applications will play a role in your future. From aiding in disaster preparedness, response & recovery, to global development, to real-time situation monitoring, geospatial data is being used today to help businesses, governments, rescue workers, and the international community better understand the world around them and create optimal innovations that respond to real-world demands. Geospatial analysis can inform and spur innovations by offering answers to critical questions across a wide array of commercial, public, and governmental issues. Mr Wood will highlight a diverse set of case examples from DigitalGlobe to show how imagery, information and insight is already being applied for civil agencies, defense and intelligence, oil and gas exploration, infrastructure management and humanitarian response.

Maria Betti
Director
Joint Research Center
IES – Institute for Environment and Sustainability
European Commission
Italy




BIO
Maria Betti has a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Pisa (Italy), where she is a Professor of Instrumental Analytical Chemistry for Environmental Research. She has published over 200 scientific articles regarding environmental chemistry and protection. From 1991 to 2008, she led the Analytical and Environment Section of the Institute for Transuranium Elements (ITU) of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Karlsruhe (Germany). In August 2008, she became Director of the IAEA Marine Environment Laboratories (Monaco), where she headed the Environment Laboratories division. ln October 2012 she took up the position of Director of the JRC’s Institute for Environment and Sustainability in Ispra (Italy).

ABSTRACT
Joint Research Centre: Lessons Learned and New Directions for Research
The Joint Research Centre is the in-house science service of the European Commission. It is composed of seven institutes, and the one for Environment and Sustainability (IES) has the mission is to provide scientific and technical support to EU policies for the protection of the European and global environment. The IES carries out research to understand the complex interactions between human activity and the physical environment, and how to manage strategic resources (water, land, forests, food, minerals, etc.) in a more sustainable manner. Given this remit, the IES is an extensive user of geospatial information in all our areas of research: agriculture, water, forest, climate change, air quality, and soils. A major contribution to the European and global geospatial community is our work as technical coordinators of the INSPIRE Directive, which is the legal framework establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe. INSPIRE is a distributed infrastructure based on those of the 27 member states, and operating on 34 data themes relevant to environmental policy in 23 languages. Developing interoperability across such heterogeneous platforms is not easy, but we are succeeding, and the address will reflect on some of the lessons learned and new directions for research.

Steven Hagan
Senior Vice President
Server Technologies
Oracle Corporation
USA




BIO
Steven has been at Oracle since 1994, and is vice president in engineering responsible for advanced technology development for areas of Spatial/Geospatial, Semantics, Graph Databases, Imaging, and portions of the Big Data, Cloud, and High Availability technologies within the Oracle product set. He is representing Oracle on the Open Geospatial Consortium board of directors where he actively pursues evolving the standards in support of customer geospatial needs and he is leading the development team that rapidly evolves Oracle product to keep pace with those standards. He is also an industry observer on the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (GGIM). Before joining Oracle, Steven spent several years at Digital Equipment Corporation, where he managed and led the engineering of the database products.

Siebe Riedstra
Secretary General
Ministry of Infrastructure &
Environment
The Netherlands





BIO
Since the 15th of October 2010 Mr. Siebe Riedstra is the Secretary-General of the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment. Beforehand he was Secretary-General of the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management. In the period before Mr. Riedstra became Secretary-General he was Director General Mobility at the same ministry. Before that he held positions as Director-General on Transport of Persons and Director of Transport of Goods. Mr. Riedstra studied Political Science at the VU University of Amsterdam.

ABSTRACT
Unify and Building the Digital Environment
In The Netherlands, a small country with a high-density land-use, spatial planning is all about precision. Every square metre of land ‘must’ be used well. In order to make the right decisions, geo-information helps to understand issues of complex nature. To make sure the right information is in place for this matter the national geo-information policy strives to the realization of some major developments. Key registers on addresses, buildings and topography were realized, the implementation of the European directive INSPIRE is fully going and open data initiatives make more and more data publicly available. At the moment there are interesting developments concerning the connection of geo-information and geo-ict to the policy on Environmental Planning. A new Environmental Planning Act is being prepared. The purpose of this ambitious new law is to combine, unify and modernize the many conflicting current regulations concerning our physical environment. The new law is to combine areas as environment, water, traffic, building, nature and monuments into a unified whole. Part of making the Environmental Planning Act is building the digital environment needed for such a broadly reaching law. For this matter INSPIRE and geo-information play important roles. This will be elaborated further on during the presentation.

Dr. Li Pengde
Deputy Director General
National Administration of Surveying
Mapping and Geoinformation
China





BIO
Dr. Li Pengde is currently Deputy Director General of the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation of China. He has been working at different technical administration positions in provincial and national mapping agencies for the past 30 years. He holds a Ph.D. degree from Wuhan Technical University of Surveying and Mapping and a M.Sc. degree from ITC. He is now President of the Regional Committee of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management for Asia and the Pacific (UN-GGIM-AP).

ABSTRACT
Dynamic Mapping and Open Geoinformation Service in China
New national development goals are changing the strategic directions of surveying, mapping and geoinformation in China. Ecological protection and sustainable development call for national geographical status survey, monitoring and analysis. Information society progress needs public geospatial information service platform for data sharing. Rapid growth of the geomatics industry drives the improvement of the supporting policy environment. And scientific and technological innovations lead the new paths of surveying, mapping and geoinformation development.