Leading UK Geocoding Expert Gary Gale Joins what3words

British geocoding expert and former director of Places at HERE, Gary Gale, has joined the innovative global addressing company what3words as chief technology officer. The boost to what3words’ management team comes as the company enters a new phase of global growth. Gale joins what3words from the Ordnance Survey, the UK’s national mapping agency, where he was head of APIs. 

As what3words’ business and consumer base is fast becoming global, Gary’s experience integrating geo-technology at an enterprise and national government level will be invaluable, as the company expands how organisations and consumers can interface with 3 word addresses, commented Chris Sheldrick, co-founder and CEO of what3words.

Gale has worked in the mapping and location space for more than 20 years. Before joining what3words from the Ordnance Survey, he was the geo-technologist at Lokku (where he devised and launched the OpenCage Data geocoding service), and director of places and director of global community programs for HERE. Before joining HERE, he led the Geo-technologies group for Yahoo!

Gary Gale said he is excited to join what3words at this crucial stage in the business’s growth, and continue their work to integrate this solution into more and more mainstream services across the globe. What this company has done is revolutionary: it has developed a coordinate system that is truly user-friendly. what3words will make a huge difference, especially in poorly addressed parts of the world, where people right now are struggling with addresses based on landmarks and directions, he added.