Aaron Kelley is a geospatial open-source advocate, speaker, and President of UpSlope Advisors, a mission-first engineering firm serving federal agencies with innovative GEOINT and IT solutions. With nearly two decades of experience supporting the Department of Defense and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), Aaron has led initiatives in outreach, training, and product management—most notably as the NGA QGIS Program Manager, where he helped grow adoption 10x.

A Certified GEOINT Professional and PMP, Aaron champions the use of FOSS tools like QGIS and GeoServer in mission-critical environments. He serves on several geospatial working groups, including OSM US Government, OGC, and the USGIF Diversity & Inclusion Working Group (as co-chair). His career reflects a deep commitment to empowering government users with open, flexible, and community-driven geospatial solutions.

When he’s not advancing open-source GEOINT, Aaron is a proud husband, father of two, and competitive triathlete. He holds degrees in Electrical Engineering from Morgan State University and Michigan State University.

Adele Birkenes is a Geospatial Data Science Consultant with Bridges to Prosperity. She received her Graduate Certificate in GIS from The George Washington University in May 2025 and will complete her MS in Geography & Environment in 2026. Adele previously worked as a Geospatial Analyst at the US Agency for International Development for over four years.

Alyssa is the Program Coordinator at OpenStreetMap US. When she's not supporting OSM US programs like TeachOSM and Mapping for Impact in her day job, she's exploring the beautifully mapped bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in her home of Richmond, Virginia.

Open source enthusiast with strong experience in Java development and GIS. Personal interest range from high performance software, managing large data volumes, software testing and quality, spatial data analysis algorithms, map rendering.
Full time open source developer on GeoServer and GeoTools, regular presenter at F0SS4G.
Received the Sol Katz's OSGeo award in 2017.

Andrew Turner is the Chief Technology Officer of ArcGIS Hub and Director of Esri's R&D Center in Washington, DC, where he leads development of technologies for open data sharing and geospatial web collaboration. He previously served as CTO of GeoIQ (acquired by Esri in 2012) and co-founded CrisisCommons.

Andrew is an elected charter member of the OSGeo Foundation and has served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Geographic Sciences Committee. His work enables organizations worldwide to provide public digital infrastructure for citizen and community engagement, spanning global organizations like World Resources Institute and World Bank to federal agencies and local governments.

Andrew holds a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering and Computer Science from the University of Virginia and a Masters in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech. He is a longtime advocate of open standards and open data, actively involved in organizations like OpenStreetMap, Open Geospatial Consortium, and OSGeo.

Ben Scholer is a geospatial software engineer, working on the backend processing team at DroneDeploy. There, he works closely with PROJ, datums, continental drift, and high accuracy mapping using RTK and PPK. His hobbies include building and flying FPV drones, 3D printing, and more.

Benjamin Stewart is the Sr. Geographer leading the World Bank's Geospatial Operational Support Team in DECDG. His primary focus is the analysis of satellite imagery in various development projects, but he has lots of experience in various forms of geospatial analysis focusing on energy, urban, and transport. He holds a BSc in Biology and the History of Science from the University of King’s College, and a Masters of Geography from the University of Victoria.

Ben Webb is a software developer with the Internet of Water (IoW) project at the Lincoln Institute’s Center for Geospatial Solutions. Ben is working to develop core CGS and IoW software for water data management exchange to support state and federal agencies, as well as nonprofit organizations, addressing key climate resilience, conservation, and water management outcomes. A graduate of Colby College with a B.A. in computational biology, he is used to seeking answers to complicated questions by developing software and common data standards.

Bernie Drahola is a geospatial technology strategist and founder of yey'maps, a cloud-based GIS platform empowering municipalities and utilities with intuitive mapping, data management, and AI-enhanced decision support tools. With over 15 years of experience in the geospatial industry, Bernie specializes in helping small and mid-sized utilities modernize their operations through scalable, user-friendly digital solutions.

Known for bridging the gap between technical innovation and practical application, Bernie has led GIS implementations across Europe, the U.S., and Canada, focusing on infrastructure management, utility networks, and public-sector transformation. His work emphasizes automation, cross-team collaboration, and long-term sustainability through the smart use of cloud and AI technologies.

Bernie is passionate about making powerful geospatial tools accessible to non-experts and equipping utility directors with the insights they need to deliver reliable, efficient services in today’s data-driven world.

Brad Andrick is a Senior Software Engineer at Earth Genome, where he builds software at the intersection of geospatial technology, AI, and user experience to bridge Earth data with real-world decision-making. With over a decade of experience in digital cartography, UI/UX, and full-stack development, Brad has worked with startups, nonprofits, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies to deliver impactful geospatial applications. His current work aims to turn complex environmental data into insights that support a more sustainable and resilient future.

With twenty-five years in various branches of the Geospatial ecosystem such as defense, telecom, energy, and local government, Brian has accumulated a variety of opinions on map interfaces, data quality, enterprise anthropolgy, and the persistent usefulness of SQL. His writing appears at Mapbrief.com and monologues from various geo gatherings are available online as well.

Bruce Momjian is co-founder and core team member of the PostgreSQL Global Development Group, and has worked on PostgreSQL since 1996. He has been employed by EDB since 2006. He has spoken at many international open-source conferences and is the author of PostgreSQL: Introduction and Concepts, published by Addison-Wesley. Prior to his involvement with PostgreSQL, Bruce worked as a consultant, developing custom database applications for some of the world's largest law firms. As an academic, Bruce holds a Masters in Education, an honorary doctorate, was a high school computer science teacher, and lectures internationally.

Christopher J. Seeger, (cjseeger@iastate.edu) PLA, GISP is a Morrill Professor and Extension Specialist in Landscape Architecture and Geospatial Technology at Iowa State University. He leads the ISU Extension and Outreach Indicators Program and is the director of the Data Science for the Public Good Young Scholars Program. Professor Seeger specializes in the integration of geospatial technologies, collaborative design technologies, crowd-sourcing (Public Participation GIS and Volunteered Geographic Information) and data visualization to develop local current datasets and indicators that can be used in the community planning and design process.

Tucker thinks and works at the intersection of technology, strategy, geography, and national
security. Tucker serves as Chairman and CEO of GeoRobotix, Inc which provides an open SaaS
and OnPrem/Self Hosted solution for connecting all systems (sensors, things, robots, drones,
satellites, control systems, devices and platforms across space, air, land, sea, cyber and
electromagnetic domains) on and around the planet Earth, as spatiotemporally-enabled, web
accessible services that help augment and automate humans’ ability to tackle critical mission and
business challenges, whether hyper-local, regional, or global in scale. Tucker helped bring
OpenSensorHub to life as the open source implementation of the OGC API – Connected
Systems Standard, and the core to the GeoRobotix open core SaaS platform.

Tucker is Chairman of the American Geographical Society (www.AmericanGeo.org), where he
launched Geography2050 a multi-year strategic dialog about the vital trends shaping the
geography of our planet. At AGS, Tucker has also helped launch its EthicalGEO Initiative
(www.EthicalGEO.org), and the Locus Charter as an international charter for the responsible use
of location technologies.

Tucker serves, or has served on a variety of other private sector, government, and non-profit
boards including the Open Geospatial Consortium, the United States Geospatial Intelligence
Foundation, National Geospatial Advisory Committee, the Defense Science Board Intelligence
Task Force, the DNI’s Intelligence Community Strategic Studies Group (ICSSG), the Senate
Select Committee on Intelligence Technical Advisory Group, served as an NGA Independent
Advisor, and served on the National Academy of Science’s Committee on NGA’s GEOINT
Research Priorities.

Previously, Tucker was the President and CEO of a high-technology firm in the area of geospatial
intelligence that he took from startup to acquisition. Prior to his time in industry, Chris was the
founding Chief Strategic Officer of In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture fund. And prior to that, Chris
served as the Special Advisor to the Executive Vice Provost of Columbia University.

Tucker is the author of A Planet of 3 Billion (www.Planet3Billion.com), and spends his abundant
spare time working to bend the global population curve, to save our planet and our species from
climate catastrophe and ecological annihilation, through empowering strategies focused on
women and girls.

Dr. White is a research software engineer and lecturer from the Center for Geospatial Analytics at North Carolina State University and founder and CEO of OpenPlains Inc., which provides open-source geospatial modeling services. His research focuses on geospatial participatory modeling and simulation, geomorphometry, UAS mapping, and open-source software development. Dr. White is an active contributor to GRASS and serves as a member of the NSF-funded Pathways to Enable Open-Source Ecosystems (POSE) grant, which aims to improve the long-term sustainability of GRASS.

Dan Baston is a maintainer of GDAL and other open source geospatial projects such as GEOS and exactextract.

Dan leads GreenInfo Network, a nonprofit team of analysts, designers, and developers working for 80-100 groups annually, including those engaged in environment, land and water conservation, public health, social justice, and philanthropy. Previously Project Director at Stamen Design, a nationally known map-focused design firm in San Francisco, and editorial director of Bay Nature magazine, which covers conservation in the SF Bay Area. Dan serves on the board of iNaturalist, one of the world’s largest community science projects.

Science Systems Engineer at NASA/JPL-Caltech
PhD in Geology
30+ years experience in the geospatial field in local, state, and federal government as well as private industry
10+ years experience in Mars surface operations over four missions
Geospatial lead in three Mars surface missions
PI for the Multi-Mission Geographic Information System (MMGIS)

Elodie Nix is the Technical Projects Manager at YouthMappers and a Research Analyst at Arizona State University (ASU). At YouthMappers, she supports global mapping initiatives that strengthen students’ abilities to use open geospatial data to address humanitarian and environmental challenges. In her role at ASU, she develops maps and geospatial tools that support research and community-focused projects across the state. She has also worked as an instructional designer, creating interactive learning modules and training materials on 3D geospatial data applications.

Elodie’s work blends geospatial analysis, education, and science communication to make complex environmental data more accessible and actionable. She is passionate about using maps, visual storytelling, and technology to advance climate adaptation, disaster preparedness, and conservation efforts, with the goal of making geospatial data more meaningful and impactful.

I am a senior GIS/GPS Technician and Software Engineer at Remington & Vernick Engineers, and have been in the professional GIS industry since 2019. I am active in the FOSS and GIS community, having been on several QGIS Open Day sessions, won the first QGIS Freestyle Map Contest, and currently serve as a moderator in the GIS Discord. When not at work, I daily drive Fedora KDE with my editor of choice being neovim.

Galen Scott began federal service in 2003 as a Presidential Management Fellow
for NOAA’s National Geodetic Survey. Starting off in the NGS Front Office as a
geek translator, he explained the complex science and critical applications of
geodesy for non-technical audiences, particularly in the strategic planning and
budgeting process. Since 2004, Mr. Scott has worked with coastal scientists and
managers to build the geospatial infrastructure necessary to obtain accurate
coastal elevations and water levels for long-term ecosystem monitoring and
coastal management decisions. He has forged diverse partnerships to help
coastal communities use NOAA’s authoritative data, services, and tools to
understand and address impacts of sea level rise. He currently serves as the
NGS Constituent Resources Manager, responsible for engaging stakeholders
about NGS products and services, and generating feedback to better serve our
users’ needs. Mr. Scott led the NGS GPS on Bench Marks program, a crowd-
sourced data collection effort to help the geospatial community prepare for the
Modernization of the National Spatial Reference System. He holds Masters
Degrees in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from Johns
Hopkins University and the University of Rhode Island.

Principal Data Scientist, New Light Technologies

GIS specialist and software architect at GeoSolutions, where I lead the Python team.
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I've started my career as a GIS/EO data scientist and Spatial Data Infrastructures specialist, based for the most part on open source technologies and business models. In this context, I've worked as a consultant, developer, and solutions provider for several public institutions and private companies.

I've had the opportunity to contribute to and lead the development of several projects, ranging from mobile apps and web platforms to data infrastructures and distributed data processing pipelines.
Whatever the kind of product it is, I enjoy translating a customer's idea into an effective and concrete solution.
My current main technical focus is software design and product management.

Hobbies? Sound design, music technologies, and electronics.

Huidae Cho is a Professional Engineer (PE) licensed in Maryland, Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (M.ASCE), Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM), and Certified GIS Professional (GISP). He is an avid Open-Source advocate and enjoys scientific programming to solve computational problems. He has been part of the Geographic Resources Analysis Support System (GRASS) development team since June 2000, is a member of the GRASS Project Steering Committee, and has special interests in developing and contributing geospatial modules to the Open-Source community. He is also a senior ArcGIS developer.

Indraneel Purohit is currently a Software Engineer at Development Seed, where he builds frontend web applications for NASA and other partners to visualize and analyze Earth observation data. Previously, he served as a Software Engineer at Two Sigma's Data Clinic, where he led engineering teams on geospatial data projects and managed nonprofit partnerships, including launching the Mobility Database API with MobilityData. Prior to that, he was Senior Software Engineer at Princeton University's Electoral Innovation Lab, where he led development of the Redistricting Report Card platform that reached 500,000 page views during the 2021 redistricting cycle. Earlier in his career, he was the first employee at SharedStreets, where he led the Road Closures project, and spent three years as Software Engineer 2 at AppNexus leading native ad management development. Indraneel is a recognized geospatial technology expert who has presented at conferences including State of the Map, SXSW, and UN Maps. Indraneel Purohit has over 10 years of experience as a software engineer with extensive expertise in geospatial data visualization, web mapping technologies, civic technology, and building data platforms for social impact.

Isaac Brodsky is co-founder and CTO of Fused, building serverless compute for Python. He was previously co-founder of Unfolded, and previously software engineer at Uber on Marketplace Data. He maintains the H3 open source library and the DuckDB extensions h3-duckdb and duckdb-zipfs.

Dr. Jae Sung Kim is Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering at Michigan Technological University. His research areas include GIS, remote sensing, photogrammetry, and geospatial cyber-infrastructure.

Jake Adelgren is a Software Engineer at Cesium/Bentley Systems working on 3D Tiling Pipelines.

I'm a software developer working on open-source software that supports the OpenStreetMap project - a free map of the world that anyone can edit.

Jarrett Keifer is a Senior Geospatial Software Engineer at Element 84, a commercial geospatial consultancy that uses open-source to build effective customer solutions. His interests include education and outreach, geospatial data formats, and high-performance systems/network programming. He enjoys designing systems to operate at scale, particularly to support remote sensing data processing and earth science applications, and has over ten years of experience contributing to open source projects.

Jason is the AI/ML Applications Lead at Element 84. Along with his team members, he's been developing innovative approaches for building natural language enabled geospatial applications. He's built systems for organizations like NASA and NOAA and made contributions to open specifications like STAC.

Jason Newmoyer is the CEO of NGS LLC, a company he founded in 2009 to deliver modern geospatial solutions for US defense and intelligence agencies. Jason has extensive experience in software development, GIS, C4ISR, and enterprise architecture. His career includes work with organizations such as ESRI, DIA, NGA, MCIA, the US Army and US SOCOM. At NGS, he leads the development of CoreSpatial, a modular geospatial platform built on open standards, supporting mission-critical operations across various federal agencies.

Dr. Hogland is a Research Forester working for the Rocky Mountain Research Station. His research interests revolve around quantitative methods within geographic information systems (GIS) and understanding the relationships between landscape patterns and forested ecosystems processes. Current projects include: 1) quantifying forest characteristics at fine spatial scales, 2) designing, developing, and building new procedures that integrate machine learning and statistical modeling with fast raster processing (Function Modeling) to streamline spatial modeling and reduce storage space associated with GIS analyses, and 3) developing sampling strategies focused on reducing the cost of sampling while maintaining the characteristics of a representative sample.

John Robison Hoopes is a researcher, engineer, and co-founder focused on decentralized geospatial infrastructure.

He co-leads a research group at the University of Maryland studying proof-of-location systems, peer-to-peer spatial data, and verifiable geocomputation. He co-authored Towards a Decentralized Geospatial Web (GISRUK 2025) and is founder of Astral, an open-source project building a spatial extension for the decentralized web.

Previously, John co-founded Toucan, a leading platform for climate-linked digital assets, led developer relations at Ordnance Survey, and worked with an international NGO analyzing global vessel traffic for maritime awareness. He holds an MSc in Spatial Data Science and Visualisation from UCL (with distinction).

Today, he collaborates with teams around the world — offering strategic and technical guidance on geospatial systems, decentralized infrastructure, and emerging technologies.

Dr. Joshua S. Campbell is the Founder of Sand Hill Geographic, a consultancy providing advisory services on geospatial technology, policy, and product management. Dr. Campbell has over 25 years of geographic information science and technology experience working across a range of national security, diplomacy, international development, and academic contexts. Most recently he served as the Senior Scientist in the Foundational GEOINT Office of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency's Research and Development Directorate. In this role he helped direct a research portfolio across a range of geospatial data and technology topics, including 3D production and analysis, advanced spatial data monitoring and modelling, and geophysics. Prior to NGA, he served as a Senior Advisor in the State Department’s Office of the Geographer and Global Issues. In this position he supported the Department’s Geographer, helping write the Department's first Geospatial Data Strategy, and managing several geospatial technology initiatives related to cartographic production, web-based GIS, and management of the official International Boundaries dataset. He is a Councilor of the American Geographical Society, voting member of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team (HOT), and a charter member of the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo). He holds a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Geography, Master of Arts in Geography, and Bachelors of General Studies in Anthropology, each from the University of Kansas.

I have worked in the scientific Python ecosystem as an environmental researcher, an open source contributor, and a web developer. I am passionate about finding creative ways to enhance understanding of the physical world. My past experience includes maintaining Dask (open source distributed computing tool) and HoloViz (open source high-level visualization tool). In my current role at Element 84 (formerly Azavea), I work on the maintain django/react web applications and push forward tooling and open source best practices for scientists.

Leo is a co-author of several books on PostGIS, pgRouting, PostgreSQL, and SQL.
He is a lecturer at Tufts University and teaches a master's course on SQL and database design.
He is a co-founder of Paragon Corporation, a consulting company in Boston, MA, USA specializing in PostGIS and PostgreSQL support.

Maggie Cawley serves as the Executive Director for OpenStreetMap US, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the democratization of geospatial data by catalyzing collaborative action around OpenStreetMap between individuals, government agencies, nonprofits, corporations, and academia. With a background in urban planning, GIS, and community engagement, Maggie is passionate about leveraging the power of open data and open source technology to create more inclusive and innovative solutions for all.

Margo Atkinson has been with the Center for Geospatial Solutions at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy since 2023, currently in the role of Manager, Research & Analysis. She specializes in taking spatial processes to more reproducible, comprehensive, and growth-ready forms. As a project incubator, Margo has worked with policy and data specialists to increase the analytical rigor of spatial dataset creation and spatially informed project scoring systems. With a particular focus on the social and physical infrastructure that shape our communities, Margo’s core motivation is to increase social equity in policy and metrics through data tool access and new ways of understanding the world we live in.

Mark Wong is a Software Development Engineer at EDB. He is also a Major Contributor with PostgreSQL.

With a background in computer science and a long-standing interest in maps, Martin has contributed to the QGIS project since 2005. As CTO at Lutra Consulting, he remains dedicated to building the open-source geospatial ecosystem.

Matt Hanson is the Director of Aerospace at Element 84, a commercial geospatial consultancy that utilizes open-source to build solutions. With an education in Remote Sensing at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he has been working with geospatial data for nearly 30 years. As an author and contributor to multiple open-source projects (starting with GeoNode in 2012), he has gone on to help create open standards, like STAC, as well as the open-source ecosystem around data interoperability.

Matthew Mills is a Geography student graduating from Middlebury College in February 2026. They are interested in critical geography and GIS, geospatial data analysis, and open-source and participatory research.

Matthew Powers is a Staff Developer Advocate at Wherobots, where he champions Sedona and Iceberg. He develops open source libraries and writes blogs about open source technologies.

Michael Mann is an Associate Professor of Geography at George Washington University, specializing in agriculture, land use, and GIS. He holds a PhD and MA in Earth & Environment from Boston University, and a BA in Economics from the College of Wooster. Dr. Mann's research, funded by various grants, focuses on fire probability modeling, OpenStreetMap, the ecology of MERS-CoV, and the use of remote sensing for agricultural and urban sustainability. His publications explore the integration of geospatial data and machine learning in environmental studies, and is the author of pygis.io, an open access textbook on python for geospatial analysis in python.

Michele Tobias holds a PhD in geography from University of California Davis, as well as an MS from University of Michigan, and a BA from UCLA. She currently works at UC Davis DataLab as a geospatial data scientist helping researchers with their data needs. Her personal research interests include using open source tools to understand California’s sandy beach vegetation and geomorphology. She also has an interest in using her geospatial skills to help underserved research communities. Michele has served on the board of directors for OSGeo (international) and Technocation (OSGeo US), as well as arts non-profit organizations, and is a founding member and coordinator of #maptimeDavis.

Nuno earned his BS and MS in Software Engineering from University of Minho. He started his career in the telecommunications industry by developing solutions for managing and monitoring telecommunications infrastructures. Currently he works at GeoSolutions where he develops advanced solutions for GIS challenges using open source software. In the last years he focused on distributed systems, big data technologies, maritime data processing and GIS. He contributes to several open source projects and is a committer of GeoServer, MapStore and GeoTools.

Paul Ramsey co-founded PostGIS in 2001, and has been developing and promoting open source geospatial software solutions ever since. He currently works as a Executive Engineer for Crunchy Data, supporting their many customers and continuing to improve PostGIS and other associated projects.

Pete is a geospatial engineer at Development Seed who focuses on open-source software, data access, and high-performance algorithm development. He loves helping the geospatial community use, improve, and fix our shared software stack. Previously, Pete has researched novel ways of using lidar data to measure glacier surface velocities, assess slopes for avalanche hazards, and quantify water resources held in the snowpack.

Peter serves as CEO of Mergin Maps, the open-source field data collection platform developed by Lutra Consulting. His background includes contributions to QGIS as a QGIS core developer, notably working on features such as the Mesh Layer. While his current role is now more centered on management, Peter continues to champion innovation within the open-source geospatial community. Based in Czechia, he enjoys spending his free time with his family and playing chess.

Randal Hale is owner operator of North River Geographic Systems, Inc. He’s been in the Geospatial Industry for far too long. He also hates talking in the third person. He’s currently on the board for a few organizations around the US (Georgia Geospatial, OSGEO US, and whatever QGIS US looks like). In my spare time I tend to go canoeing, possibly map something in OpenStreetMap, or go for increasingly long walks. We should go canoeing sometime.

Regina is a member of the PostGIS, pgRouting, and GEOS open source geospatial projects.
She is also a member of the Open Source Geospatial (OSGeo) system administration committee.

She is an co-author with her husband Leo Hsu of several books on PostgreSQL, PostGIS, pgRouting, and SQL.

She is also president of Paragon Corporation https://www.paragoncorporation.com which provides consulting and application development services for PostGIS and PostgreSQL.

Rich has extensive expertise in architecting and building end-to-end systems. His experience ranges from visualization to distributed computing, and he has primarily focused his career toward enriching geospatial content and delivery. Rich has embraced open source technologies as an effective means to provide cutting edge solutions.

Rob Dzur is a Senior Vice President at Bohannan Huston, where he has led mapping and geographic projects since 2004. His career began at the University of Arkansas’ Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, followed by four years in Bolivia working on land tenure initiatives with the World Bank. Rob holds a B.A. in Spanish and an M.A. in Geography from the University of Arkansas. He also serves on the Board of the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber and currently chairs the Chamber’s International Trade Committee.

Sergio Rey’s research focuses on spatial data science, geocomputation, the dynamics of spatial inequality, regional science, and open science. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Spatial Econometrics Association, and the Regional Science Association International. His work has been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Justice, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, among other sources. Rey served as editor of Geographical Analysis (2015–2018) and the International Regional Science Review (1999–2018). He is the Founding Director of the Center for Open Geographical Science and the co-founder and lead developer of the open-source Python Spatial Analysis Library (PySAL). He has taught PySAL workshops around the world.

Seth Lawler is a surface water modeler and computational scientist at Dewberry.

Simone Giannecchini is Founder and Managing Director of GeoSolutions, specializing in open-source geospatial software. A computer engineer by training, he serves on the Project Steering Committees for GeoServer and GeoTools, contributing actively to their advancement and regularly presenting at international conferences on geospatial innovation.

Taylor is a Senior Technical Program Manager at Microsoft focused on building digital infrastructure for planet Earth. He is currently Program Manager for Microsoft’s Planetary Computer, an open, cross-domain geospatial data platform for transforming the way we measure, monitor, and model Earth’s natural systems.

Prior to joining Microsoft, Taylor worked with a broad range of organizations including the United Nations, University of Oxford, Stanford University, and numerous national governments to develop analytic solutions focused on issues ranging from disaster management to polio eradication. Taylor also recently taught graduate courses focused on data visualization as an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy.

Taylor is an Associate Professor of Geographic Information Science at the University of Maryland. In addition to researching spatial data science methods, he is interested in developing open source software, promoting open science practices, and building a decentralized geospatial web.

Tim Steward is a Principal Enterprise Data Architect at Fujitsu Enterprise Postgres with over 30 years of database experience. During this time, he has developed a true passion for databases, and the evolution of technology. Tim enjoys the excitement he receives by knowing he helped a customer solve complex IT challenges by using his knowledge of database technology. Fresh out of college, Tim became an Oracle DBA within the fundraising industry, which is where he learned to pay attention to details and be an effective listener. As his career evolved, he became a consultant within the healthcare industry where he expanded his database skills to Sybase. During his consulting years, Tim added SQL Server and the MySQL database to his skill set. In recent years Tim has spent the past 8 years helping customers with PostgreSQL and their journey to opensource.

Senior software engineer and project manager at GeoSolutions with sixteen years experience. The main areas of expertise: GIS, backend and frontend applications with enphasis on the Web Application solutions.

Geographer, Web Developer

With a career spanning over 30 years as a civil engineer, I have accumulated extensive experience in hydraulic modeling, water resource management, and infrastructure optimization. Over the last 15 years, my primary focus has been on designing and building open-source software solutions tailored for the water industry. My conviction is that technology should be accessible to all, regardless of the size or maturity level of the utility, enabling equitable access to innovative tools that drive sustainable water management.

My mission is to empower water utilities worldwide by leveraging open technologies, collaborative development, and data-driven decision-making to foster resilient, efficient, and sustainable water management practices.

As a Giswater Creator & Core Developer and Network Twin Consultant, as well as a Hydraulic Model Expert at BGEO, I am deeply passionate about transforming and optimizing water utilities through digital solutions driven by open innovation. My work focuses on developing and implementing open-source tools that empower utilities to enhance their operations, improve efficiency, and make data-driven decisions.

At BGEO OPEN GIS, my leadership is based on Service and empathy empowering my team while aligning with organitzational goald to create a positive and productive environment.

I actively contribute to the development and evolution of Giswater. Through this work, I aim to bridge the gap between engineering, technology, and real-world applications, providing water utilities with the tools they need to address their challenges in a cost-effective and scalable way.

• MapLibre Co-founder, currently serving on the board
• Maintainer of Martin tile server
• Created Wikipedia API, Maps, and Graphs
• Former principle engineer at Elastic (elasticsearch)
• Currently at Rivian