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Speakers
Aaron Addison
Executive Director
World Geospatial Industry Council
Aaron Addison is the Executive Director of the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC), where his focus is geospatial industry outreach working with companies and organizations around the globe on challenges related to the policy, implementation and communication of geospatial data. His 30 years of international experience includes extensive work in the public and private sectors as well as NGOs and higher education institutions. Addison currently provides program management leadership for WGIC activities in education, workforce development, digital twins and recently initiated GeoAction Africa project examining the contributions that geospatial tools and services may provide to countries in Africa. In addition to his operational and project management roles, he also staffs the WGIC Industry\Academia committee working to bring education and research together with geospatial industry. Prior to joining WGIC, Aaron served as the Director of Data Services for Washington University in St. Louis. In 2006 he joined WU to build a university-wide geospatial program for teaching, research and administration. His teams delivered analytic and technical services to faculty, students and staff as well as leading the creation of a GIS Certificate curriculum and teaching courses at multiple universities.
Nadine Alameh
Executive Director
Taylor Geospatial Institute
Dr. Nadine Alameh is the Executive Director of the Taylor Geospatial Institute (TGI) – founded in St. Louis to fuel geospatial science & technology for global impact. Nadine is a recognized geospatial leader with experience in Disaster Preparedness, Climate Impact, Earth Observations, and Defense. Prior to TGI, she was CEO of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), senior advisor to NASA, entrepreneur and startup founder, and Chief Innovation Architect at Northrop Grumman. Nadine sits on the board of the Private Sector Network of the UN Committee of Experts on Global Geospatial Information Management (UN-GGIM); and is an appointed member of the US National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC). She’s the recipient of the OGC 2024 Service Excellence Award, the prestigious 2023 Women in Technology Leadership award, the 2022 Geospatial World Forum Diversity Champion award, and the 2019 Canada Geomatics Leadership award. Nadine holds a Ph.D. and 2 M.S. degrees from MIT.
José Luis Blanco Álvarez
Senior Partner, Global Leader of Engineering, Construction and Building Materials Practice McKinsey & Company
José Luis Blanco Álvarez leads McKinsey’s engineering, construction, building materials (ECB) and construction technology work in North America and is a leader of their real estate practice. Before joining McKinsey, José spent almost 10 years as a Project Manager and Senior Project Manager at ACS-Hotchief, Europe’s largest E&C conglomerate, where he led hundreds of engineers and workers in completing some of the company’s most complex projects. This included transforming a former bullring into a shopping mall in 2009 and constructing Agbar Tower, one of Barcelona’s skyline landmarks, in 2006. Since he joined the firm, he has extensively served players across the construction value chain across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. His clients include investors, architecture shops, engineering and construction firms, construction equipment firms (OEMs & Equipment rentals), building materials and construction software firms. José has served construction equipment firms with focus on strategy, operational excellence, mergers and acquisitions, and digital transformations. He brings deep expertise in optimizing performance and unlocking value through embedding digital capabilities and deploying and scaling up new technologies. He spearheads McKinsey’s construction technology landscape scan which periodically maps emerging construction technology solutions against innovation and investment patterns, and McKinsey’s global E&C performance benchmark, which periodically reviews the financial and operating health of the world’s top construction firms.
Dean Angelides
Corporate Director, International
Esri
Dean Angelides has worked with thousands of organizations to implement GIS technology to improve their operations and decision-making over his 40 year professional career. Over 30 years ago he co-founded a GIS services company located in California. He joined Esri in 2005. Dean has worked with many different types of organizations and industries – local, regional and national governments, utilities, transportation and logistics firms, natural resources companies, engineering firms, agricultural concerns, conservation organizations, and health organizations. He has helped them devise strategies for incorporating GIS into their business, and then assisted them to successfully apply new methods to transform their organizations. Mr. Angelides has advised many executives and business unit leaders on how to get the most from their GIS investments. He has also served on a variety of advisory councils for GIS at local, regional, national, and global levels. He is currently on the Advisory Board for the Geospatial Innovation Facility at the University of California, Berkeley, where Dean did both graduate and undergraduate study. Dean also serves on the Executive Board of the World Geospatial Industry Council. In 2009, Dean was appointed as a Corporate Director by Jack Dangermond with responsibilities for overseeing all aspects of ESRI’s international business. He is dedicated to ensuring that Esri users are successful in their endeavors, and that The Science of Where and GIS technology and methods are successfully applied to overcome our toughest challenges around the world.
Andy Deacon
Co-Managing Director
Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy (GCoM)
Andy Deacon has been part of the Global Covenant of Mayors secretariat team since January of 2020 and as Co-Managing Director is working to guide programme management and delivery across all of GCoM’s areas of activity. GCoM is the largest global alliance for city climate leadership and is built on the commitment of over 13,500 cities and local governments. Andy has worked for 25 years across a range of environmental protection issues focusing on climate change, energy and air quality in local, regional and central government, academia and NGOs. He has advised Mayors and Ministers on city scale carbon reduction and climate adaptation, community energy, home retrofit and air quality. Andy has a BSc in Geography and Environmental Studies from the University of Surrey Roehampton Institute and an MSc in Applied Meteorology and Climatology from the University of Birmingham.
Bryn Fosburgh
Board President
World Geospatial Industry Council
Bryn Fosburgh holds the position of Board President at the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC) and is a Senior Vice President at Trimble, where he serves as an Advisor to the CEO. Since 1994, Bryn has led various sectors at Trimble, including Geospatial, Construction, Transportation and Logistics (T&L), and Agriculture. He is a founding member of Trimble’s joint ventures with Caterpillar, Hilti, and Nikon, having spent over twenty years on those joint venture boards. Bryn also founded Trimble’s consolidated construction and T&L businesses, overseeing profit and loss centers that generated more than a billion dollars in revenue. Prior to joining Trimble, Bryn worked for nearly ten years in the Federal and State Government at the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and Defense Mapping Agency (DMA). He received a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Purdue University and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. His achievements have been recognized with the Purdue University Civil Engineering Alumni Achievement Award and induction into the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) Hall of Fame. Bryn is passionate about mentoring early-stage companies, helping them achieve their market potential and realize their vision and objectives.
U.S. Senator John Hickenlooper
U.S. Senator, Colorado
John Hickenlooper took an unconventional path to public office. After starting out as a geologist, John took a chance by opening the first brewpub in Colorado. As a small business owner, he gained a deep understanding of the local community and the value of collaboration. John entered public service because he knew he could listen to the diverse array of Colorado voices and get things done. As Colorado's U.S. Senator, John is committed to bringing people together to solve our country's toughest problems.
John started his career in Colorado as a geologist. After being laid off in the long recession of the mid-80s, he opened the state's first brewpub in a neglected warehouse district in Lower Downtown (LoDo) Denver. He and his partners started multiple businesses, renovating nearly a full block of LoDo warehouses in mixed-use developments that included 90 units of affordable housing. His company led the renovation efforts of more than a dozen historic buildings in cities across the Midwest. In 2003, John was elected Mayor of Denver. As Mayor, he focused on bringing people together to get things done, just as he'd done as an entrepreneur. He unified all 34 metro mayors to fund and build FasTracks, the most ambitious U.S. transit initiative in modern American history with 119 miles of new track. John made Denver the first large city to provide quality early childhood education for every 4-year old, initiated the most significant police reforms in the City's history, and opened one of the first offices of sustainability in the country.
John served as Governor of Colorado from 2011 to 2019. During his tenure, Colorado's economy recovered from ranking 40th in job creation during the Great Recession to become the number one economy in the country (U.S. News & World Report). As Governor, he expanded health care to half a million Coloradans, established climate pollution limits that served as a national model, and enacted commonsense gun safety measures. He also oversaw the creation of the first regulatory framework in the U.S. for the legalization of recreational marijuana, which has become the gold standard.
John is honored to serve the people of Colorado in the U.S. Senate. From traveling the state to sit down with farmers and small business owners to chairing committee hearings in Washington, John serves in the Senate with the appreciation that when he casts a vote, he represents all of Colorado.
Joe Oddi
Director, Partner Strategies - Government
EagleView
Joe Oddi is Director, Partner Strategies - Government with EagleView. He joined Pictometry (later merged with EagleView) in 2012 as a Technical Trainer, then moved in 2016 into Sales as a Regional Technical Manager (RTM) in the NY/New England territory, where he helped customers with deployment, integrations, GIS, and all technical matters. In 2019, Joe relocated to Denver, assuming the western regional RTM role. In 2021, he assumed his current role heading up Partner Management, where he drives strategy in the government business unit.
Melody Olson
Senior Engineering Director, Geo Perception
Google Maps
Melody Olson is a Senior Engineering Director at Google, leading the Geo Perception team with a mission to transform how we understand the physical world. Melody's teams are responsible for Street View & Aerial hardware, global imagery collection, 3D and applied machine learning to create foundational data for Google Maps, which serves over 2 billion users worldwide. This data is also used for automotive mapping, sustainability initiatives, and enterprise applications. Melody's has expertise in sensor data and large scale infrastructure for mapping applications. She holds a Bachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Eve Psalti
Senior Director, Artificial Intelligence
Microsoft
Eve Psalti is a 20+year tech and business leader, currently the Senior Director at Microsoft’s Azure AI engineering organization responsible for scaling & commercializing artificial intelligence capabilities and solutions. She was previously the Head of Strategic Platforms at Google Cloud where she worked with F500 companies helping them grow their businesses through digital transformation initiatives.Prior to Google, Eve held product and business development leadership positions at Microsoft and startups across the US and Europe leading 200-people teams and $600M businesses. A native of Greece, she holds a Master’s degree and several technology and business certifications from London Business School and the University of Washington. Eve currently serves on the board of WE Global Studios, a full-stack startup innovation studio supporting female entrepreneurs and she’s an advisor at VSN Hub, an education management company focused on leadership development inspired by Ancient Greek teachings.
Will Sarni
Practice Lead, Water and Nature
Earth Finance
Will Sarni is the Practice Lead, Water and Nature at Earth Finance. Prior to Water Foundry's acquisition by Earth Finance, Will served as the firm's founder and CEO. He was a managing director at Deloitte Consulting where he established and led the global water strategy practice. He was the founder and CEO of DOMANI, a sustainability strategy firm, prior to Deloitte. Will is a visionary leader in corporate water and nature strategy, technology innovation, and technology investing. He is an investor in water and ag tech companies and has been a sustainability and water strategy advisor to multinationals, water technology companies, investors, and non-governmental organizations for his entire career. He is the author numerous publications on water strategy and innovation, and is a host of the podcast 'Distilled by Qatium' and co-host of 'The Stream with Will and Tom'. He is on the board of Hydraloop, an advisor to FIDO Tech, Ketos, True Elements, and WaterMarq. He was the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board for the WAITRO Global Water Innovation Summit 2020 and was on the Scientific Program Committee for Stockholm World Water Week from 2013 through 2019. His advisory work includes working with the 2020 X-PRIZE (Infinity Water Prize), as a Bold Visioneer for the 2016 X-PRIZE Safe Drinking Water Team, and a Technical Advisor for the Climate Bonds Initiative: Nature- Based Solutions for Climate and Water Resilience. He is also on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Water Security. He was ranked as Worth Magazine Worthy 100 for 2022, A Key Player Pressuring Businesses to Care About Water, and one of the Top 15 Interviews In Smart Water Magazine 2019.
Jefferson Wang
Chief Strategy Officer of Cloud First,
Accenture
Jefferson Wang is Accenture’s Chief Strategy Officer of Cloud First, where he helps organizations harness a cloud-powered digital core to drive innovation and efficiency. He is passionate about the convergence of modern networks, cloud & edge, data & AI, security and geospatial intelligence services (GIS). As a leader in technology-driven business transformation, Jefferson focuses on simplifying complexity - helping organizations leverage Geospatial Information Systems (GIS), AI, and real-time data analytics to solve some of the world’s most intricate challenges. His expertise lies in identifying emerging technology patterns, enabling clients to navigate change, optimize decision-making, and create new growth opportunities. Jefferson is the lead author of the best-selling book, The Future Home in the 5G Era and previously led Accenture’s Global Network Practice, where he scaled a multi-billion-dollar business and united 13,000+ experts across industries. Jefferson is a regular speaker at Mobile World Congress (MWC) and Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and a guest lecturer at Georgetown University. His insights have been featured in CNN, Mobile World Live TV, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Forbes, Fortune, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
Sean Young
Director, AECO, Geospatial, and AI Solutions Industry Marketing
NVIDIA
Sean Young is the global director of business development for the manufacturing industry at NVIDIA, responsible for linking the world’s product development innovators with revolutionary NVIDIA VR, visualization, simulation, engineering, and AI technologies. Sean has 20 years of manufacturing hardware and software experience, with prior management roles at HP, Autodesk, and Corel, focused on 3D graphics and design visualization. Sean resides in Colorado and holds an MBA from Queen’s University in Canada.
Kate Zimmerman
Generative AI Innovation Center (GenAIIC) Geo Leader
AWS (Amazon Web Services) Worldwide Public Sector
Kate Zimmerman is the Generative AI Innovation Center (GenAIIC) Geo Leader for Worldwide Public Sector (WWPS) at AWS. She leads a team of GenAI strategists and scientists, architecting innovative solutions for public sector organizations globally, combining strategic leadership with hands-on technical expertise, working directly with Director, VP, and C-level executives to drive GenAI adoption and deliver mission-critical outcomes. Prior to rejoining AWS, Kate was Chief Scientist & VP of Data and Analytics at HawkEye 360, where she led 50+ software developers and launched the company's first production AI/ML capabilities. Her previous tenure at AWS included leadership roles as Senior Manager & Principal Architect of the ML Solutions Lab, where she accelerated AI/ML adoption among national security customers. Kate also served in the USAF on active duty for 5 years developing advance satellite systems and continues to serve as a reservist supporting USSF/SSC on strategic AI/ML initiatives as a member of the Reserve Strike Team (RST).
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