Jonathan Marshall (Chair)
GIS Manager, British Waterways
Jonathan has been interested in maps and geography since an early age. He is currently GIS Manager at British Waterways, responsible for the management and strategic direction of geographic information and associated systems. He joined British Waterways in 2001 as a GIS Assistant and has held a number of roles within the organisation all focussing on GI and Information Management. Prior to this he worked at the MoD’s Defence Geographic Centre in Feltham. Having read Environmental Science and Geography at University, he completed a secondary qualification in GIS as well as being a PRINCE2 practitioner and has a Diploma in Management Studies. Jonathan has been a member of the AGI for many years, he Chaired the Environmental Special Interest Group for 4 years before becoming Junior vice Chair in 2010.
Anne Kemp (Senior Vice Chair)
Director and Group Chair - Geospatial and Integrated Digital Solutions, ATKINS
Having worked in the GI and environmental industry for 25 years I am currently, as a Director, the Chair for Atkins' Geospatial and Integrating Digital Solutions Network. Whilst growth of the Geospatial business has been my focus for the larger part of my time in Atkins (15 years), I am now focused on delivering work winning, technically excellent IM solutions across the whole life cycle of infrastructure projects through the convergence of digital technologies, such as CAD, GIS and BIM. In fact, this is what BIM (Building Information Modelling and Management) should be about - it is NOT a software package, but the overall process of generating and managing information through a project. So I am very excited at the prospect of rolling up our sleeves in bringing like-minded people together for the newly-created I-BIM SIG, to discuss and rise to the challenges and opportunities across the infrastructure industry in delivering BIM to deliver faster, better, cost-effective and carbon-efficient solutions. Oh – and my weakness - I still love using paper maps to navigate across France on our family camping holidays to obscure, isolated and scenically breath-taking country
David Henderson (Junior Vice Chair)
Head of Product Management, Ordnance Survey
Maps, exploration and the great outdoors have been a lifelong passion for David. Following more than 10 years providing environmental consultancy he joined Ordnance Survey in 2003 and after several customer facing consultancy roles, he is now responsible for their product management team and for overseeing the management and development of Ordnance Survey’s portfolio of geospatial products and services. This is David’s second stint on AGI Council having previously served on as AGI’s Honorary Secretary from 2004 until 2007.
Andrew Trigg (Hon Treasurer and Past Chair)
Chief Geographic Information Officer, HMLR
Andrew joined Land Registry in 2005 from Ordnance Survey where he had worked for nearly ten years in a variety of posts, most recently as Head of Products and Consultancy. He has also worked for Wiltshire County Council, Laser-Scan (now 1 Spatial) and the Natural Environment Research Council since graduating with a PhD in GIS in 1987. Andrew is responsible for the GI Strategy and the GI programme which deliver key improvements and changes to Land Registry's operational and commercial infrastructure and practice. He has a strong belief in the importance of high data quality and professional data management practices. Andrew is also a member of the Pan Government Agreement (PGA) Steering Group and the Champion for the Land and Property SIG.
Angela Baker (Hon Secretary)Community Programmes Manager, ESRI (UK)
Angela is responsible for promoting geography and GI within the education and communities sector. This includes facilitating and increasing the knowledge and use of GI. Angela is passionate about getting young people excited about mapping and geographic information. Angela has an MSc in Cartography and GeoInformation Technology from the University of Glasgow and has worked in the GI industry since graduating in 1998. She is also a Chartered Geographer and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the British Cartographic Society Council.
Robert Barr
Bob retired from a thirty year academic career at the University of Manchester in 2005 to spend more time with the university spin out company, Manchester Geomatics which he founded. He is now the non-executive Chairman of MGL, Borough Councillor and Executive Board Member on Warrington Borough Council and an independent member of the board of Helena Housing, the stock transfer housing association for St Helens. Bob is a past chair of the AGI and a former member of the Cabinet Office Social Exclusion Unit Policy Action Team 18 which led to the establishment of the ONS Neighbourhood Statistics Service. He amused the GI community for over 12 years with his regular Dangling Segments commentaries. Bob is a Chartered Geographer and was awarded an OBE for services to geography in the 2008 New Year Honours.
Lars Calvert
Lars has held a number of roles at CLG and Ordnance Survey including hands-on technical and consultancy in the UK and countries throughout Eastern Europe, Asia, South and Central America. I also spent 2 years at MEGRIN in Paris working on pan-European issues.
As well as leading the, PSMA and PGA, my time at CLG has included involvement in such diverse initiatives as the National Interest Mapping Services Agreement (NIMSA); the GI Panel (now UK Location Council); IGGI (central government's forum for GI); and national addressing.
Andy Coote
ConsultingWhere
Andy has over 25 years experience in the development and use of Geographical Information Systems both in the UK and overseas. He is currently Managing Director of ConsultingWhere, an independent IT consultancy specialising in the provision of strategic information technology and business advice. As a council member, he believes that outreach and collaboration, particularly with the rest of the IT industry, are fundamental to the future well-being of the AGI. Also important is to create a sustainable financial platform for the AGI, without which, the many great ideas within the community will remain merely aspirations.
Steven Eglinton
Steven is the Geographic Information Manager at Tube Lines, part of Transport for London (TfL). Steven is working to ‘geo-enable’ Tube Lines’ asset management activities as part of a corporate SDI programme. This includes the integration of Tube Lines’ Asset Management System (AMS), EDRMS and GIS to improve decision-making and provide real-time asset condition information.
Prior to this role he has worked as a GIS Consultant, Cartographer, Senior Cartographer and Regional GI Coordinator, most of this time with Defra (part of the UK Central Government) managing and developing environmental and cadastral GIS activities.
Steven is passionate about the application of maps and GIS, reminding himself that the technical aspects of GIS and mapping should not overshadow their purpose and the opportunities of their application.
Following time in Brazil as a volunteer developing GIS and survey capabilities for rainforest conservation, Steven remains active with this work via the charity ‘Amigos de Iracambi’, of which he is a trustee of the UK chapter. In addition, Steven remains proactive in promoting cartography as a valued discipline, he actively participates with both the Society of Cartographers and The British Cartographic Society.
Chris Ewing
Catastrophe Model Developer, Aon Benfield
Chris is a Catastrophe Model Developer for the Impact Forecasting team at Aon Benfield in London, specialising in the use of geographic information and spatial analysis for catastrophe model development for the insurance sector. He has more than 7 years experience of working with, and promoting the use of, geographic information in the insurance, engineering and local Government sectors. Chris has been involved with the AGI as a member since 2003, but has recently taken a more active role with the AGI Technical SIG. As a council member, Chris hopes to bring new and fresh ideas to the role whilst representing the views of all AGI members. Chris is a Chartered Geographer (GIS) and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. Away from work, Chris a volunteer for MapAction, the disaster mapping charity.
Gary Gale
Director of Places, Nokia
A self professed geek with a life, I've had a lifelong love affair with maps since discovering the Harry Beck map of the London Underground on the back of the London A-Z street atlas at an early age. I now live in Teddington in South West London with my family and work in London, Berlin, Boston, Chicago and Sunnyvale as the Director of Places for Nokia’s Location & Commerce group. I'm the co-founder of WhereCamp EU, the chair of AGI W3G and sit on the AGI Council.
Prior to Nokia, I was at Yahoo!, leading their Geo Technologies group in the UK, releasing GeoPlanet and Placemaker and providing the geo heavy lifting for Flickr and Fire Eagle; I've also been at Digicon, developing geophysical technologies to aid in the search for natural resources and at the European Space Agency Research Institute in Rome, Italy, participating in the development and launch of ERS-1, Europe's first remote sensing satellite. Outside of the location and geo field, I've been at companies including the BBC World Service, Reuters, Factiva and Network Associates.
As well as being the creator of the WP Biographia WordPress plugin and occasional contributor to the Mapstraction mapping API, I speak at a wide range of conferences including Nokia World, Where 2.0, State of the Map, AGI GeoCommunity, Geo Loco and Social Loco, GeoMob, mashup*, the BCS Geospatial SG, WhereCamp EU, the Location Business Summit and FOWA.
A fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, I blog as regularly as possible on location, places, maps and other facets of geography at www.vicchi.org and you can find me on Twitter as @vicchi
Rollo Home
Rollo has been an enthusiast of Geography since his youth, where he enjoyed looking at (and sometimes even understanding) how the landscape appeared as it did while traipsing over his native Dartmoor. This led him to read geography at university. It was while studying at UCSB that he first became introduced to GIS, and that, as they say, was that. He returned to the UK to undertake an MSc at Edinburgh, and has worked in the GI sector ever since. He has been fortunate to have worked on GI applications around the world and in a range of sectors for both large (Halcrow) and small (CityGRID) companies, and more recently as an independent consultant. Rollo has been involved in the AGI for a number of years, (re)establishing the #AGI_NG and working on the GeoCommunity and W3G conferences. He is now coordinating the #Geo_SW group, and blogs (not all that regularly) at www.rollo-home.co.uk
Angus McDonald
Managing Director, Knowledge Mappers Ltd
I have been a self-employed Spatial Information Consultant (to use my Sunday job title ;-) since 1999, when I re-located back to my native Scotland. Prior to that I began my career in Geographic Information (GI) when I helped to set up and eventually run an internal GI services bureau within Somerset County Council, a local authority in the SW of England. This eventually got privatised to WS Atkins as part of the Compulsory Competitive Tendering (CCT) process within local government in the late 90's. I thus understand how the GI industry and the (usually beleagured!) GI professional operates in both public and private sectors.
As a graduate of geology, chemistry and environmental science I have a broad knowledge and understanding of the science behind the natural and man-made processes that shape the world (the "great dance of the Earth" as one of my old professors nicelly put it), and how geospatial techniques and technologies can help us to make sense of, and ultimately "manage" them in a better way.
As a GI consultant I find that my main skillset is in bridging the gap between the ordinary punter - who though (usually!) intelligent and knows of "maps", has little idea of the power of current GI technology and how it can transform their professional and personal life - and the technical GI (and wider information) development community who often do not see beyond the nuts and bolts of the technology and how it fits in to the "big picture". I believe that knowledge mapping techniques like mind mapping etc. have a major part to play in bridging this gap.
John Pepper
John trained as a Land Surveyor with Ordnance Survey and spent over 25 years in a variety of disciplines. He joined the UKHO in 1998 as a Snr Products Manager for their worldwide series of navigational and thematic charts. John is now an independent consultant.
His main focus within AGI is on developing the Marine and Coastal Zone special interest group as the use of GI is now beginning to become a legitimate activity in coast and offshore planning and asset management.
He is also a member of the INSPIRE Working Group.
David Roberts
Deputy Head of Cartographics , Welsh Assembly GovernmentDave started work in digital mapping and GIS industry shortly after graduation in the mid 1990s. He has worked in the private and public sector during this time including some time overseas.
Dave joined the Welsh Assembly Government via the Welsh Development Agency (WDA).He made the leap from the WDA Land Division just prior to the Welsh Assembly Government - WDA merger in 2006. Dave has managed the day to day running of the Cartographics team which includes GIS analysts, Graphics Mapping specialists and an Aerial Photography Unit during this time. The Cartographics is a central resource of the Welsh Assembly Government offering specialist advice and services to the rest of the Assembly, including developing a new Corporate GIS infrastructure.
Dave's role on AGI Council is to represent the views of the Welsh AGI Community, he was the AGI Cymru chair for 2010.
Gesche Schmid
LGA
Over the last 15 years Gesche has been involved in geospatial information in the UK across all sectors; first in the academia as a lecturer at the University of Greenwich, then in local government at Medway Council as GIS, ICT and information manager, followed by two years in the private sector as principal consultant for Atkins. Recently, Gesche has returned to the public sector to lead on the implementation of GI policy in local government. She is not only coordinating the implementation of the INSPIRE regulation and the location programme in local government sector but the LGA Group also aims to provide strategic direction for GI Services to meet the challenges of modern service delivery.
Simon Wheeler
GIS Administrator, Department of Environment Northern Ireland
Simon has been the GIS Administrator for Department of Environment Northern Ireland for the past 5 years. He has been a long standing member of AGI, an active member of the AGINI Committee since its inception in 2002 and held positions of Secretary and now Chair since April 2011. Simon represents AGINI on the implementation board for the NI GI Strategy. He has used GI in a number of sectors, including coastal research, water quality management planning, Utilities and within private sector GI consultancy.
