President: Tomaž Petek
Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia
Tomaž Petek is General Manager of the Surveying and Mapping Authority of the Republic of Slovenia
He is a public sector specialist with extensive experience in geodetic authority, geoinformation, land cadastre, spatial data infrastructure and governmental reform. Tomaž is actively involved in the activities of UN-GGIM, He sits on the UN-GGIM: Europe Executive Committee and was its Chair until 2023.
Tomaž is a graduate of the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Geodetic Engineering (Bcs) and holds a Masters from the University of Maribor, Faculty of Organisational Sciences Kranj.
Members
Hannah Cook
Norwegian Mapping Authority
Hannah Cook is Director, Cadastre & Land Registration (Property Division) at the Norwegian Mapping Authority.
She has wide range of management experience from financial services, public administration and management consulting, and is an accomplished professional within leadership, change management and digital transformation.
Hannah is passionate about data and digitalisation and has launched several initiatives to develop digital ecosystems, modernise national property registries and develop services that benefit both the public and private sector. In addition, she is supporting national efforts to develop the next generation of geospatial infrastructure, promoting effective and secure data sharing practices, and leveraging Al capabilities.
Matt Goodman
Ordnance Survey, Great Britain
Matt Goodman is Head of External Affairs at Ordnance Survey (OS).
He is responsible for guiding and shaping OS’s international and national government relationships, which includes the UK’s Geospatial Commission where he helps lead the work of the Partner Bodies in delivering the UK Geospatial Strategy.
Matt joined OS from the UK Space Agency, and with a history in partnership building and public policy, he helps ensure it fulfils its public task as National Mapping Service for Great Britain.
Mārtiņš Liberts
Latvian Geospatial Information Agency
Mãrtinš Liberts is Director General of the Latvian Geospatial Information Agency. As the main mapping and geodesy authority in Latvia, its data is used for both civilian and military purposes.
Mãrtinš is a retired Colonel and the first Director General with a military background. His military career spans more than 30 years and includes assignments at tactical, operational and strategic level, the most significant being Chief of JOC for National Armed Forces, Commander of Latvian infantry brigade, and Deputy of MILREP in NATO.
Mãrtinš is a graduate of the Baltic Defence College and the US Navy War College. He holds a Postgraduate Diploma in psychology from the Latvian National Defence Academy and a Master’s degree in International relations from the Salve Regina University RI. USA.
Emilio López Romero
National Geographic Institute of Spain
Emilio López Romero is Deputy Director of the National Geographic Institute of Spain.
He is also Director of the National Centre for Geographic Information, President of the Advisory Board of Spanish Spatial Data Infrastructure and Spain’s representative on the INSPIRE Committee and the Pan-American Institute of Geography and History.
Emilio is particularly interested in new standards and technologies, the evolution of INSPIRE , High Value Data and the Open Data Directive, volunteer GI and citizens data, and the full integration of official geospatial data in eGovernment.
Nicolas Paparoditis
National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information, France
Nicolas Paparoditis is Deputy General Director of National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information, France.
His experience includes Head of the Ecole Nationale des Sciences Géographiques, the French engineering school of Geoinformation, and Vice-President of University Gustave Eiffel.
He is an expert in remote sensing and photogrammetric computer vision for geodata collection systems and smart cities with a strong interest in national mapping trategies and economical models, Open Science and Innovation, the link between Science and Policy, and in strengthening the links between agencies, industry and academia around global challenges.
Cora Smelik
The Netherlands’ Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency
Cora Smelik is a Member of the Executive Board, The Netherlands’ Cadastre, Land Registry and Mapping Agency, where she is responsible for Finance, Risk and Compliance, IT and Operations.
A former diplomat and Regional Minister at the Province of Flevoland, she has also held a range of Director-level appointments in the public sector. Cora has extensive experience in international cooperation, spatial policy and physical planning, and is an accomplished conference speaker.
In addition, she is currently a Board Member of the National Benchmark Association, which enables Dutch government organisations to work together to share best practice and expertise.
Suren Tovmasyan
Cadastre Committee of the Republic of Armenia
Suren Tovmasyanis Head of the Cadastre Committee of the Republic of Armenia.
He has extensive professional and academic geospatial experience having successfully delivered a range of community programs and initiatives, as well as international collaborations.
As Head of the Cadastre Committee, he has implemented a number of crucial reforms, includiing an electronic services online platform; a national geographic portal with constantly updated metadata and basic layers as part of the formation of the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI); and the maparmenia.am platform.
Pier-Giorgio Zaccheddu
Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy, Germany
Pier-Giorgio Zaccheddu is the Head of the president’s executive unit at the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG) where he is responsible for coordinating BKG’s international activities. He has 20 years’ experience in strategic and policy issues as well as international project management in the field of geospatial information.
Pier-Giorgio has been involved in the conception and implementation of the spatial data infrastructure in Germany and in the work related to the INSPIRE initiative in Europe. Since the beginning of UN-GGIM, he has been involved in its strategical and organisational issues and he currently is the chair of the UN-GGIM: Europe Working Group on Data Integration. He is the Vice-President of the Permanent Committee for the Standardisation of Geographical Names for the German-speaking countries, representing Germany in the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN).
Pier-Giorgio holds a diploma in geodesy and a state examination for higher technical administration.