Speaker Bio & Abstract

Neil Ackroyd Interim Chief Executive Officer
Ordnance Survey
United Kingdom

BiographyNeil became Interim Chief Executive Officer in June 2018 and has held key senior roles at Ordnance Survey since joining in 2001, including Acting Director General and CEO from April 2014 to June 2015.

He is responsible for leading strategic growth for both GB and international markets, as we deploy ongoing investment in new data and services. He also develops propositions for Managed Services in Geospatial Production, Land Administration and Infrastructure.

Previously, as Chief Operating Officer, he led information gathering, maintenance and updates to our digital mapping database and was responsible for the cartographic production activity within the business.

Neil was previously employed by the GPS and location-based services company Trimble® as their European, Middle East and African (EAME) Technical Director and as the responsible business manager for the construction and machine control market segments. He was heavily involved in the adoption of GPS across many varied downstream applications during a period of rapid growth for the company.

Neil is the author of many papers and the book Global Navigation: A GPS user’s guide. Abstract2019 has already seen two significant announcements from Ordnance Survey which are set to pave the way for near real time mapping in the future. From a new agreement with Mobileye which is set to deliver high precision road network data, to Astigan, a solar powered high-altitude pseudo satellite which will transform the way we look at the Earth.

From the ground to stratospheres the geospatial industry is moving at pace and the demand from customers across the globe for greater currency of data and near real time information is increasing every year.

We are entering an era of ever increasing technology disruption in data capture and automation, and one which will again challenge the future role of the geospatial professional.