Open Geospatial Consortium Elects Directors

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) recently held its biennial election of directors. Of the 18 elected members of the consortium’s 2010-2012 Board of Directors, 15 serving members were re-elected and three new members have been seated. The new OGC board members are Christopher Holmes, Walter Scott and Geoff Zeiss.

Chris Holmes is the chairman and founder of OpenGeo, a social enterprise that builds web-based geospatial technology. Chris is a Global Spatial Data Infrastructure Association (GSDI) Board Member, an Open Internet Tools Steering Committee Member, and the chairman of the Project Steering Committee of GeoServer. He has given keynote addresses at geospatial and open source conferences around the world. Chris is a Stanford graduate and a 2005 Fulbright Scholar.

Dr Walter S Scott is executive vice-president and chief technical officer of DigitalGlobe, which he founded in 1992. Dr Scott is responsible for the development of its spaceborne imaging systems, US Government strategy, leadership of DG Labs (DigitalGlobe’s R&D efforts), and technical oversight for engineering and technology across DigitalGlobe. He has been responsible for a number of industry “firsts” in commercial and defence related Earth imaging. A member of the National Research Council Committee on Implementation of a Sustained Land Imaging Program, Dr Scott is also on the Committee on Earth Science and Applications from Space (CESAS) and was a member of the Committee on Earth Studies in 1997-98.

Geoff Zeiss, PhD, is Principal at Between the Poles, a thought leadership consulting firm. Geoff has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial industry and 15 years experience working in enterprise geospatial infrastructure management with some of the largest utilities and communications organisations in the US and around the world, primarily as Director Utility Industry Program, Autodesk, Geoff has served on the boards of directors of the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITA US), Geospatial Industry Association of Canada (GIAC) and the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGEO). He has participated on the Public Advisory Committee for the Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI), and supported open standards through several organisations, including the OGC, in which he represented Autodesk at Technical Committee meetings. Geoff is a frequent speaker at major geospatial industry events around the world.

Returning to the OGC board are: Philippe Delclaux, Steve Hagan, Jeffrey Harris, Mike Jackson, Michael Jones, Sanjay Kumar, Vanessa Lawrence, Jacqueline McGlade, Jack Pellicci, Jeff Peters, Kevin Pomfret, Francois Robida, Velu Sinha, Christopher Tucker, and Rob van de Velde.

Two OGC staff members, Jeff Burnett and Mark Reichardt, are members of the Board by appointment.

Jeffrey Harris, Chairman of the OGC Board of Directors, said he is delighted that Walter Scott, Geoff Zeiss and Chris Holmes have joined the Board. Their expertise and comprehensive understanding of geospatial technologies will allow the OGC Board to anticipate and address the needs of the consortium in this dynamic, global, interoperable marketplace.  It's important for the Board to have intimate knowledge about the markets OGC serves. Harris said he looks forward to Chris, Walter and Geoff’s leadership as members of the OGC Board.

The OGC Board and staff thank Dr John Curlander and John Olesak for their valuable service as they depart the Board. The Board and staff and the whole OGC community mourn the passing of Board member Stefano Morisi, who died 13 January 2013.