Wayland, MA, January 21, 2003 – The Open GIS Consortium, Inc. (OGC) announced that Ron Fresne has joined OGC's staff as Interoperability Initiatives Manager. Working with teams of technologists from agencies, companies, and universities around the world, he will have overall responsibility for ensuring the successful execution of OGC Interoperability Initiatives, which include testbeds, pilot projects, feasibility studies and other activities.He will work in OGC's Interoperability Program (IP) and will report to IP Executive Director Jeff Harrison. OGC's IP is a global program to organize and manage Interoperability Initiatives that address the geoprocessing interoperability needs of industry and government Sponsors. Sponsors pool their requirements and resources to create fast-paced initiatives in which industry participants make their geoprocessing software systems work together. These efforts ultimately result in internationally adopted OpenGIS® Specifications for interoperability interfaces and schemas. Through these narrowly focused, hands-on, rapid-prototyping, multi-organization spiral engineering efforts, OGC has been remarkably successful in establishing cross-vendor, cross-platform interoperability among diverse and complex geographic information systems and systems for web-based map delivery, earth imaging, navigation, facilities management, cartography and location services.Mr. Fresne's responsibilities will include business and technical planning, establishing virtual project teams, project base lining, cost and schedule control, managing Sponsor and Participant dynamics, negotiating and managing contracts, managing technical changes, and risk management. He comes to OGC from a senior engineering and project management role at ObjectFX (US). He has held similar positions at SRI International (US), Leading Technology Services Corporation (US), and Oracle Corporation (US). He holds a Master of Science degree in technology and science policy at Georgia Tech and bachelor of science degrees in political science and philosophy at the University of Utah.OGC is an international industry consortium of more than 230 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available interface specifications. OpenGIS® Specifications support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. The specifications empower technology developers to make complex spatial information and services accessible and useful with all kinds of applications. Visit the OGC website at www.opengeospatial.org .– end –“