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Speakers
Ryan Ciesielski
Global Head of Geospatial
National Grid
Ryan Ciesielski is Global Head of Geospatial at National Grid, a FTSE 20 critical national infrastructure operator serving over 30 million customers across the UK and United States. He leads an enterprise-wide geospatial transformation spanning seven business units, underpinning billions of planned infrastructure investments across the full asset lifecycle, from planning through to operations. The first chapter of Ryan’s career was spent in the Royal Engineers, The British Army, where he built deep expertise in military geospatial intelligence, including serving as the designated geospatial expert supporting the UK’s Nuclear Bomb Disposal capability, and later as Head of Geospatial for UK Special Forces. The second chapter of his career has focused on applying that decision-intelligence foundation to energy systems and critical national infrastructure. Today, Ryan leads the strategic application of geospatial intelligence to improve resilience, safety, net-zero delivery, and investment confidence across one of the worlds most complex energy systems. Ryan specialises in elevating geospatial from a technical function to a board-level, value-generating capability, aligning people, data, systems, and intelligence to enable faster, more confident enterprise decisions that improve customer outcomes. He is a globally recognised geospatial thought leader in utilities and energy, and a pragmatic advocate for applied geospatial intelligence at scale, focused on delivering real-world business and customer value.
Phil Cooper
Phil Cooper leads Global Technical Business Development - Geospatial at Amazon Web Services (AWS). He is an established professional in the technology sector supporting growth of and use of satellite, space and cloud technology. Prior to his current role at AWS, Phil led global business development for the company's Aerospace and Satellite division, headed EMEA sales for Cyient's Geospatial and Utilities division, acted as CIO, Director and General Manager of tech startup Sterling Geo, and managed GeoSoftware at Airbus Defence and Space - Intelligence. With a 26 year+ history in the Earth Observation and Geospatial industry, Phil has witnessed the change from research and development with EO, into daily operational exploitation of this rich and rapidly expanding data source. He has worked across platforms and in different environments witnessing the value and importance of accurate, reliable and repeatable geospatial content. His customers have included The World Bank, Inmarsat, OneWeb, ICEYE, Rural Payments Agency and National Infrastructure Survey programmes. Phil holds a Masters Degree in Earth Observation Science and MBA in Business Administration.
Geeth De Mel
Manager, Climate and Sustainability | Senior Research Scientist
IBM
Geeth de Mel is a Senior Research Scientist and Manager at IBM Research Europe (UK), working at the intersection of AI, scientific computing, and sustainability. His work focuses on building AI systems that can understand, reason, and collaborate with scientific solvers to accelerate discovery. Geeth leads strategic research efforts on algorithmic innovations for knowledge-intensive discovery challenges in sectors such as Earth and space, materials, and climate resilience, working closely with NASA, STFC, and industry partners. He earned his PhD from the University of Aberdeen in knowledge representation, semantics, and reasoning under uncertainty, followed by postdoctoral research at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL), where he led work on decision support and fusion reasoning. In 2013, he joined the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, contributing to semantically aware IoT systems, stream information interpretation, and policy automation. At IBM Research Europe (UK), he now leads teams in Earth and space informatics, scientific foundation models, and knowledge-centric AI. His current research includes natural-language grounding for scientific problems, agentic workflows, scientific model orchestration, solver-aware AI, and domain adaptation for complex scientific and environmental systems.
Michael Flynn
Global Infrastructure Leader
Deloitte
Michael Flynn is the Global Infrastructure, Transport & Regional Government Leader for Deloitte. In this role he leads the global teams focused on public sector investment in Infrastructure, Transport & Mobility, Regional & Local Government (including cities) and Climate & Environment. He also leads our firm wide Global Infrastructure practice. Through his global roles, Michael has worked with teams around the world advising public, private and banking sectors on government and infrastructure (including PPP), Real Estate, Project Finance and public and private sector transactions. His roles also involve advising on business case development, value capture, new financing, valuations, financial modelling, refinancing and restructuring of funding positions in corporate and infrastructure projects. He has advised across a variety of sectors including consumer businesses, energy, renewables (wind, biomass, solar, sustainability and storage, education, healthcare, transport, water, waste & energy, regeneration, smart cities and real estate. In 2020, Michael was recognised as a Global Leader in Consulting by Global Leaders in Consulting Publication and recognised as one of the top 25 Global Government Consultants and Leaders by The Consulting Report in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Denise McKenzie
Denise McKenzie is a strategic advisor, partnership builder and presenter with over 20 years of experience with the global geospatial community. She works internationally to evangelize the benefits, value and application of location data across government, the private sector and academia and her experience covers a broad range of domains including smart cities & IoT, agriculture, defense, sustainability, insurance, development and data ethics. This diversity ensures that she works where geospatial meets mainstream technology. She co-directed the Benchmark Initiative operating through Ordnance Survey’s Geovation accelerator, exploring the ethical use of location data, and it is through this role that she became co-author of the Locus Charter. In the broader geospatial community, she is the Chair-Emeritus of the board of directors for the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) in the UK and remains on council as the Lead for Ethics. Denise is also a member of the Global Advisory Board for the Location Based Marketing Association, and a steering committee member for Women in Geospatial+ leading their partnership program. Previously, she has worked with the Victorian State Government in Australia on geospatial innovation projects and as the Head of Outreach and Communication at the Open Geospatial Consortium where she led work such as the UN-GGIM Geospatial Standards Guides and strategic partnership engagement. Denise holds a BA in Public Policy and Politics from Monash University in Australia and a Masters in Sustainability with the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom.
Ed Parsons
Digital Geographer
Ed Parsons is a Digital Geographer, a Geospatial Technology Advisor and Keynote Speaker. He was Google’s Geospatial Technologist, with responsibility for evangelising Google’s mission to organise the world’s information using Geography. In this role he maintained links with Governments, Universities, Research and Standards Organisations which were involved in the development of Geospatial Technology. Ed also lead Google’s efforts in maintaining a healthy Open Data Ecosystem to support AI in Europe. Ed is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Open Geospatial Consortium and was co-chair of the W3C/OGC Spatial Data on the Web Working Group. He also represented Google at the EMTEL committee of ETSI developing geospatial solutions for emergency telecommunications. He is a Visiting Professor at University College London and has been an industry advisor to a number of international universities. Ed was the first Chief Technology Officer in the 200-year-old history of Ordnance Survey, and was instrumental in moving the focus of the organisation from mapping to Geographical Information. He came to the Ordnance Survey from Autodesk, where he was EMEA Applications Manager for the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Division. Ed earned a Masters degree in Applied Remote Sensing from Cranfield Institute of Technology, holds a Honorary Doctorate in Science from Kingston University, London. and is a fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society, and the Royal Institute of Navigation. In 2024 Ed was awarded the inaugural “Professional Geography Award” for excellence in the use of geography in professional practice by the Royal Geographical Society.
Kevin Pomfret
Partner
Pierson Ferdinand LLP
Kevin Pomfret is a trusted legal and strategic advisor to companies pushing the frontiers of geospatial technology, space, and data-driven innovation. A former satellite imagery analyst, Kevin combines deep corporate, regulatory, and transactional experience with 40 years in the geospatial community in helping clients navigate complex legal landscapes and achieve business goals in rapidly evolving markets. Kevin has extensive experience advising: European and other non-U.S. companies establishing or expanding U.S. operations, handling regulatory compliance, foreign ownership and control issues (FOCI), and structuring cross-border transactions for companies operating in sensitive industries; Space and other companies seeking guidance on selling products and services to the U.S. Government.; Geospatial companies working in satellite imagery, mapping, drones, sensor manufacturing, and geospatial AI, including guidance on commercial remote sensing licenses from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and compliance with evolving geospatial regulations around the globe. Beyond client work, Kevin is a recognized thought leader shaping the future of geospatial and space law. Kevin is author of the textbook “Geospatial Law, Policy and Ethics: Where Geospatial Technology is Taking the Law”, a Professor on Geospatial Law and Ethics and a frequent international speaker on topics spanning privacy, AI, national security, and the opportunities and challenges of emerging technologies. His achievements have earned him recognition by Who’s Who Legal as one of only 47 outstanding lawyers worldwide in Transport—International Space and Satellites, inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® (2022-26), recognized for his work in Cybersecurity by Virginia Business and Virginia Lawyers Weekly and being named Geospatial Ambassador of the Year by Geospatial World Forum in 2022.
Olive Powell
Head of Geography & Geospatial
UK Office for National Statistics
Olive Powell is the Head of Geography & Geospatial at the UK Office for National Statistics where she leads the Geospatial division which provides the geospatial infrastructure, datasets and spatial analytical services needed to deliver national statistics for public good. Olive is driven by her passion for geospatial data and technology, which started when she studied Geography and Environmental Sciences at La Sorbonne University in Paris. She now has more than 20 years’ experience in the geospatial industry specifically in environment, law enforcement, and central government – always advocating its benefits and value proposition. She is also passionate about diversity and is the co-founder and a former Director of Women+ in Geospatial, a global network of more than 5,000 women across the globe.
Vida Williams
GeoSpatial Capability Lead
Jacobs
Vida Williams is the Geospatial Capability Lead for Jacobs in Europe, where she oversees a 70 strong team of GIS specialists across the UK, Ireland and Poland, and drives the strategic growth of geospatial capability across major infrastructure, environmental and utilities programmes. She also serves as Office Lead for Jacobs’ 350 person Reading hub, shaping engagement, communication, and health, safety and wellbeing across one of the company’s key regional locations. Jacobs is a global professional services and solutions provider delivering consulting, technical and engineering expertise across infrastructure, environmental services, national security, energy, life sciences, transportation and water. With approximately $12 billion in annual revenue and a team of nearly 43,000 people worldwide, the company delivers end to end services across planning, design, advisory, and programme management to solve the world’s most complex challenges and create a more connected and sustainable future. Vida’s career spans public and private sector roles where she has advanced the use of spatial data to inform infrastructure planning, environmental decision making, and asset management. Vida's background includes a Distinction level master’s degree in GIS from the University of London and a Geography degree from the University of Cambridge, which led her to start a career in transport planning before specialising in GIS, then progressing to provide geospatial leadership across national scale programmes. These include the successful Development Consent Order (DCO) application for a UK aviation fuel pipeline and the development of digital products that apply geospatial analytics to predictive maintenance in the water sector. Vida is interested in bridging the gap between geospatial and other workstreams — including planning, design automation, information management and stakeholder engagement — to bring better outcomes for customers and communities. Vida serves on the Council of the Association for Geographic Information (AGI) — the UK’s leading geospatial membership organisation, which connects, leads and develops the UK geospatial community, influences government policy, supports skills development, and promotes best practice across the geospatial sector. She is a Royal Geographical Society Chartered Geographer (GIS) and an assessor for the scheme, a STEAM ambassador, and has been a co lead for allyship within Jacobs’ Harambee network, championing Black talent and inclusive culture across the sector.
John Wilson
Professor of Sociology
University of Southern California
John Wilson is a Professor of Sociology and the Founding Director of the Spatial Sciences Institute and the Wilson Map Lab in the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He also holds faculty appointments in the USC School of Architecture, the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences in the Keck School of Medicine of USC, and the Departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Computer Science in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. The Spatial Sciences Institute promotes the deployment of spatiotemporal perspectives and insights across the university through innovative research and a growing suite of academic programs that span the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral levels. By harnessing the power of geospatial sciences and technologies in everything we do, we seek to foster collaboration, build consensus and support actions that tackle intractable global challenges.
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