Moderator
Rob van de Velde
Director
Geonovum
Netherlands

Biography
Rob van de Velde (1961, The Hague, The Netherlands) is currently director of Geonovum, the Dutch National SDI Executive Committee. Geonovum?s mission is to realize better access to geo-information in the public sector and full integration of its services to public and industry. Geonovum has been mandated by the National GI-Council to implement the EU Inspire-directive in The Netherlands and to develop a National Georegister. Furthermore Geonovum develops and manages the national framework of geo-standards. In his current role as director Mr. Van de Velde is strongly engaged in stimulating location awareness and organizing strategic cooperation amongst leaders in national and local government, academia and industry. He has a part-time position as lecturer in Spatial Informatics at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Department of Economics. Since 2008 he is member of the Board of Directors of the Open Geospatial Consortium. Graduated as a human geographer (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam), he started his career in geospatial technology when joining the National Planning Agency in 1985, the first Governmental Agency in the Netherlands to acquire GIS technology from ESRI inc. In 1988 he led the development of the first Dutch National Digital Atlas, presented by the Minister of Spatial Planning and Environment to national parliament, local politicians and leaders of industry. Later he served the National Environmental Protection Agency, responsible for developing a corporate geographical information system. He directed a consortium that developed the 10 Minutes Pan-European Land Use Database and was managing partner of an international collaboration between governmental agencies and universities under the EU-INTERREG3 program, entitled 'Participatory Spatial Planning in Europe'. In 2000 he joined the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Conservation and Food Quality, heading the GIS Competence Center. In 2005 he initiated the development of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure for Disaster management, a joint effort of several public agencies, which was awarded with the Public Safety Innovation Award in 2007. In 2008 he was quartermaster of the National Public Map Services programme.