We would like to take this opportunity to welcome our six new AGI Council Members, Richard Flemmings, Helen Griffiths, Fergus Craig, George Firth, Anne Robertson and Stuart Tosney.
Richard Flemmings joins us from 4 Earth Intelligence and has over 20 years’ experience working across the geospatial sector. His background includes managing airborne surveys in remote parts of Africa, delivering complex and multi-faceted national mapping projects, and more recently within his current role as CTO at 4 Earth Intelligence (4EI), using satellite remote sensing data to solve challenging environmental problems.
He is excited to join the AGI council and take the opportunity to get involved in a thriving geospatial community. Working alongside like minded people, he hopes that his experiences can contribute to wider geospatial advocacy, and the core mission of AGI. He is particularly passionate about applying geospatial data to support societal and environmental sustainability, and intends to use his position on the AGI council to continue to influence technology development in the right way.
Helen Griffiths works for Arcadis and has a passion for pushing the boundaries of what problems we can solve using spatial data. As part of her current role in the GIS team of AEC consultancy Arcadis, Helen champions sustainable solutions. She was introduced to the power of GIS in 2002 and her previous employers have included Natural England, the World Health Organisation and Halcrow. While working in the field of disaster management she found innovation and digital transformation were vital in ensuring an effective response. Working with sensitive data gave Helen great insight into the importance of ethical use of geospatial data and how crucial it is to have robust policies and standards. She is looking forward to supporting the community in exploring what sustainability means for GIS professionals as we journey through the 5th industrial revolution.
Fergus Craig joins us from Cyclomedia and believes that the AGI has the capacity to support a sustainable future through the use of technology. Working together is key in achieving goals, at an organisational level, those that collaborate and partner, make a stronger community, which is why he is enthusiastic to be more involved with the AGI and support the progress of the geospatial sector. Fergus graduated with a degree in GIS with Business Management and held several technical GI roles before being moving to the commercial side when he joined MapMechanics (now CACI). He then spent 13 years at the GIS and Web Mapping developer, Cadcorp, in various business development, account management and partner roles across several sectors. In 2018 he graduated with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) further building and developing my business skills.
This year he started in a new position as Sales Manager for the UK with Cyclomedia, a mobile mapping company who operate across Europe and USA. The technology is exciting as it proves genuine use cases around 3D content, therefore further pushing the sector into the next level of geographical information. He is looking forward to bringing his academic, technical, and commercial skills to the AGI to progress the organisation to ensure it continues to support the GI community and beyond.
George Firth works for the Ministry of Defence and is thrilled to be joining the AGI council and looks forward to contributing to the organisations efforts. Joining council allows him to be a part of a great team, promoting, developing and educating in the GI community. His day job as a Geospatial Analyst and Data Manager within 42 Engineer Regiment (Geographic) working under Strategic Command sees him provide geospatial support to the tri-service organisation, and a secondary role as Trustee and GIS Lead for CPRE North and East Yorkshire allows him to use his skillset in a new sector to promote GI. George hopes to facilitate the communication between Defence organisations, the AGI and the GI community to provide insight and information, but also explore how we assess skills within the GI field.
Anne Robertson joins the AGI Council with 25 years’ experience working in the GI sector within the UK and overseas. In the early stages of her career, based in Western Australia, she worked in geospatial consultancy in the oil and gas, environmental and mining industries. From consultancy she moved to government policy setting – working with agencies to develop and embed interoperable data and metadata policies. A significant part of her career has been in the UK the education sector. Initially managing EDINA’s Digimap for Schools service, and now having responsibility for EDINA’s full portfolio of services and a particular interest in how geospatial data can be an excellent resource upon which to teach data and coding skills. Anne currently oversees the development of a number of innovative geospatial solutions especially in the areas of IoT data integration and green infrastructure mapping. She has an undergraduate degree in Geography from University of Strathclyde Glasgow and a Master of Science in Geographical Information Systems from The University of Edinburgh. She values the AGI as a diverse membership organisation where people with a passion for geographic information come together to share and collaborate on knowledge, ideas and opportunities. She feels that the AGI is a thriving, welcoming organisation providing excellent networking opportunities. With her responsibility for running leading geospatial services in the UK education sector and growing a portfolio of geospatial solutions, AGI Council membership is a role that she very much looks forward to taking on.
Stuart Tosney joins the AGI from Point 2 Surveyors with 13 years’ experience within the geospatial industry. He has led and delivered major geospatial projects throughout the world, including UK, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland. Now back in the UK with Point 2 Surveyors as Associate Director, he is continuing to grow clients understanding of the importance of data management and information. Having recently joined the AGI, he is proud to be a part of a wider team helping to grow the industry and further push the boundaries. With a strong passion for data he believes his position as council member gives him me a greater platform to use his skills and experience to share these beliefs.