India: Geospatial Media and Communications, the premier geospatial knowledge company exclusively dedicated to promoting and facilitating growth of geospatial industry, is pleased to introduce its Location Analytics & Business Intelligence (LA & BI) Advisory Board, which will help guide the future of its LA & BI business unit.
In a recent reorganization practice, the company has identified LA & BI as one of the key vertical segments, where it would like to further develop, nurture and strengthen its presence. The newly-formed LA & BI business unit will operate across the company’s conferences, media, market research and professional services divisions.
The inaugural LA & BI advisory board consists of seasoned executives who bring a track record of success and expertise in location analytics and business intelligence domain. The members are:
- Asif Khan, Founder and President, Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA)
- Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist, Google
- Javier de la Torre, Chief Strategy Officer, CARTO
- Mike Davie, CEO, Quadrant
- Pankaj Khushani, Sr. Director – Partnerships & Alliances, Elastic
- Thomas Walle, CEO & Co-founder, Unacast
- Tina Thomson, Head of Catastrophe Analytics EMEA, Willis Towers Watson
Advisory Board Member Bios
Asif Khan, Founder and President, Location Based Marketing Association (LBMA)
Asif, a proud Canadian, is a veteran tech start-up, business-development and marketing entrepreneur with nearly 20 years’ experience. He is currently focused on working as a consultant, speaker and venture capitalist to the location-based marketing services community. In support of this, Asif recently formed the Location Based Marketing Association – an international group dedicated to research and education in the space. Prior to launching The LBMA, Asif has worked with companies as diverse as Limited Brands, IBM, Baxter Pharmaceuticals, Molson-Coors, BestBuy, American Airlines, Cineplex Entertainment, ING Bank, Vroom & Dreesman and L’Oreal.
Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist, Google
Ed Parsons is the Geospatial Technologist of Google, with responsibility for evangelizing Google’s mission to organize the world’s information using geography. In this role he maintains links with Governments, Universities, Research and Standards Organizations which are involved in the development of Geospatial Technology. He is a member 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 is a Visiting Professor at University College London and has been an industry advisor to a number of international universities. Ed is based in Google’s London office, and anywhere else he can plug in his laptop.
Javier de la Torre, Chief Strategy Officer, CARTO
Javier de la Torre is founder and Chief Strategy Officer of CARTO. One of the pioneers of location intelligence, Javier founded the company with a vision to democratize data analysis and visualization. Under his leadership, CARTO has grown from a groundbreaking idea into one of the fastest growing geospatial companies in the world.
Mike Davie, CEO, Quadrant
Mike Davie is the CEO and Founder of Quadrant, which meets demand for mapping and authenticating data through technology. In 2014, Mike founded Quadrant (formerly DataStreamX until it rebranded in 2018), the world’s first online marketplace for real-time, high-value data sets across industries and borders. Quadrant, which uses blockchain technology to authenticate and transact data, currently processes over 50 billion records a month between organizations. In 2018 Mike launched Quadrant Protocol to meet this need. He gathered a high-profile team of long-term collaborators and new reinforcements that share his belief that Quadrant Protocol will become the standard for decentralized data and will be the next game-changer in the data economy.
Pankaj Khushani, Sr. Director – Partnerships & Alliances, Elastic
Pankaj currently works with Elastic and leads the partnerships & alliances team for APAC. Prior to that, Pankaj worked with Google for close to 8 years wherein he worked as Business Head for Google Analytics & Doubleclick suite partnerships (SEA). Prior to that he was the APAC Head, Google Cloud Platform Partnerships, and had also led the Location Platform business (Google Maps & Google Earth) for Asia. Before joining Google, Pankaj was the APAC Product Lead for ‘Here Maps’ at Nokia, and had held various leadership positions at Bharti Airtel including Deputy GM (New Product Development) for 3 verticals: Social Media, M2M communications & Location Based Services; NationalHead – Sales & Distribution; and Regional Head of Sales – BFSI Vertical.
Thomas Walle, CEO & Co-founder, Unacast
Thomas is the CEO and Co-Founder of Unacast, the US-based leading human mobility data company who empower companies and individuals globally to make smarter decisions and build better products by understanding human activity in the physical world. Unacast serves data-hungry clients in multiple verticals such as martech, research, real estate, and city planning. Unacast has been awarded multiple awards for its tech platform, products, and its Nordic-based culture.
Tina Thomson, Head of Catastrophe Analytics EMEA, Willis Towers Watson
As Head of Catastrophe Analytics at Willis Re, Tina is responsible for the analytical service offering to a wide range of re/insurance clients across the West and South region of Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Tina is responsible for a team of over 30 staff from diverse backgrounds and different geographical locations including the UK, France and India. Tina holds a PhD in Geomatic Engineering from UCL and retain close links with the academic community through her leadership role at the Learned Society RSPSoc (Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society), where she is fellow and also volunteer as Director and Honorary Treasurer.
