Dr.Vanessa Lawrence CB
Secretary General
Ordnance Survey International
UK

Biography
Dr Vanessa Lawrence CB, HonFREng, FRGS, FRICS, FCInstCES, CCMI, CGeog, is the Secretary General of Ordnance Survey International, which is the international part of Great Britain’s national mapping authority. Vanessa was, from 2000 to 2014, the Director General and Chief Executive of Ordnance Survey and the adviser to the British Government on mapping, surveying and geographic information. She was the longest-serving Director General since 1875 and she was the first woman to hold the post. Dr Lawrence received her business training from the publishing company Pearson plc. and then moved to developing, for Pearson, a successful start-up new technology business; prior to joining Ordnance Survey in September 2000, she held senior positions with international software company Autodesk Inc. In the New Year’s Honours of 2008 she was appointed by Her Majesty the Queen as a Companion of The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB). Among her many external positions, she is currently the Co-Chair of the United Nations Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management, the Honorary Vice-President of The Geographical Association and a member of the Council of the Royal Geographical Society, the Honorary Colonel of 135 Independent Geographic Squadron, Royal Engineers as well as being a Visiting Professor at the University of Southampton and at Kingston University. Vanessa is one of the few recipients of the Scottish Geographical Medal, a prestigious award conferred only occasionally since 1890 by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. In addition, she has eight Honorary Doctorate degrees and is an Honorary Fellow of University College London. In December 2008, she was named South-East Director of the Year by the Institute of Directors and in January 2011, Vanessa was awarded the GeoSpatial Personality of the Decade 2000–2010.

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