8 April 2013. The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) recently held its biennialelection of directors.Of the 18 elected members of the consortium's 2010-2012 Board of Directors, 15serving members were re-elected and three new members have been seated. The newOGC board members are Christopher Holmes, Walter Scott and Geoff Zeiss.

ChrisHolmes is the Chairman and Founder of OpenGeo, a social enterprise thatbuilds web-based geospatial technology. Chris is a Global Spatial DataInfrastructure Association (GSDI) Board Member, an Open Internet Tools SteeringCommittee Member, and the Chairman of the Project Steering Committee ofGeoServer. He has given keynote addresses at geospatial and open sourceconferences around the world. Chris is a Stanford graduate and a 2005 FulbrightScholar.

Dr.Walter S Scott is Executive Vice President and Chief Technical Officer ofDigitalGlobe, which he founded in 1992. Dr. Scott is responsible for thedevelopment of its spaceborne imaging systems, US Government strategy,leadership of DG Labs (DigitalGlobe's R&D efforts), and technical oversightfor engineering and technology across DigitalGlobe. He has been responsible fora number of industry “firsts” in commercial and defense related Earth imaging. Amember of the National Research Council Committee on Implementation of aSustained Land Imaging Program, Dr. Scott is also on the Committee on EarthScience and Applications from Space (CESAS) and was a member of the Committeeon Earth Studies in 1997-98.

Geoff Zeiss, Ph.D., is Principal at Between the Poles,a thought leadership consultingfirm. Geoff has more than 20 years experience in the geospatial industry and15 years experience working in enterprise geospatial infrastructure managementwith some of the largest utilities and communications organizations in the USand around the world, primarily as Director Utility Industry Program, Autodesk,Inc. Geoff has served on the boardsof directors of the Geospatial Information & Technology Association (GITAUS), Geospatial Industry Association of Canada (GIAC) and the Open Source GeospatialFoundation (OSGEO). He has participated on the Public Advisory Committee forthe Canadian Geospatial Data Infrastructure (CGDI), and supported openstandards through several organizations, including the OGC, in which he represented Autodesk at Technical Committeemeetings. Geoff is a frequent speaker at major geospatial industry eventsaround the world.

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

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

Jeffrey Harris, Chairman of the OGC Board of Directors,said, “We are delighted that Walter Scott, Geoff Zeiss and Chris Holmes havejoined our Board. Their expertise and comprehensive understanding of geospatialtechnologies will allow the OGC Board to anticipate and address the needs ofthe consortium in this dynamic, global, interoperable marketplace.  It's important for our Board to have intimateknowledge about the markets we serve. We look forward to Chris, Walter andGeoff's leadership as members of the OGC Board.”

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

About the OGC

The OGC is an international consortium of more than 480companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universitiesparticipating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatialstandards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that”geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, andmainstream IT. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatialinformation and services accessible and useful with any application that needsto be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org/contact.

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February 17, 2009, Wayland, Massachusetts.  The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) recently held its biennial election of directors. Of the 21 elected members of the consortium's 2009-2010 Board of Directors, 16 serving members were returned and four new members have been seated. The new OGC board members are Jeffery Peters, Kevin Pomfret, François Robida and Rob van de Velde.

Jeffery Peters currently serves as Director of Federal Programs for ESRI, Inc. In his role at ESRI, Mr. Peters is responsible for the vision and strategy for geospatial technologies and solutions serving the national Government and its international operations.

Kevin Pomfret is a lawyer in Richmond, Virginia with expertise in the legal issues associated with spatial data and spatial technology including intellectual property rights, licensing, liability, privacy and national security. While serving as a satellite imagery analyst with the U.S. government, he developed an imagery collection strategy to monitor critical arms control agreements. He also served in various roles within the Intelligence Community working on collection and exploitation requirements and future imaging systems. He writes and speaks extensively on spatial law and technology.

François Robida is Deputy Head of Information Systems and Technologies Division at BRGM, France's leading public institution involved in the Earth Science field for the sustainable management of natural resources and surface and subsurface risks. Mr. Robida is in charge of research and development and supervises European and international projects in the domain of Information Systems for geosciences and environment, such as Orchestra, Rise, Swing, Genesis, Aegos, EuroGeoss, and OneGeology.

Rob van de Velde is Director of Geonovum, the Dutch National SDI Executive Committee. Geonovum develops and manages the national framework of geo-standards and has been mandated by the National GI-Council to implement the EU INSPIRE Directive in The Netherlands and to develop a National Georegister. Mr. Van de Velde is actively engaged in stimulating location awareness and organizing strategic cooperation amongst leaders in national and local government, academia and industry.

Returning to the OGC board are: Dr. Roberta Balstad, Lisa Campbell, Dr. John Curlander, Philippe Delclaux, Ben Eazzetta, Steve Hagan, Jefferey Harris, Joanne Isham, Dr. Mike Jackson, Michael Jones, Dr. R. Siva Kumar, Dr. Vanessa Lawrence, Dr. Robert Moses, John Olesak, Granville Paules, Jack Pellicci, and Dr. Christopher Tucker.

David Schell, OGC CEO and Chairman, said, “The OGC community is extremely fortunate that these extraordinary individuals have agreed to serve on the Consortium's board. Their collective accomplishment and scope of interest confirm OGC's expanding role in addressing society's increasing dependence on spatial information services to understand the complex infrastructure, security and geopolitical challenges facing both public and private sector scientists and policy makers around the world.”

The OGC® is an international consortium of more than 370 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. The OGC's OpenGIS® standards support interoperable solutions that “geo-enable” the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. These standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled. Visit the OGC website at http://www.opengeospatial.org.

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