I’m passionate about Africa where I spend part of my youth (Mali and Ivory Coast), people, maps and technology. I’m convinced that open source software is the best option to help sustainable development.

CEO/Owner of GeoCat BV and GeoCat Canada Ltd. – OSGeo member of the Board of Directors - Chair and founder of the GeoNetwork opensource.

GeoCat was founded in 2007. I studied Tropical Forestry at Wageningen University specialising in GIS and Remote Sensing. Following graduation in 1997, I worked for the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in Rome for nine years, where I held various positions in GIS/remote sensing and established the GeoNetwork opensource project. The FAO GeoNetwork is the first implementation based on this software, releasing a large quantity of geospatial data to the public.

Today GeoNetwork opensource is widely used as geospatial catalogue application with implementations from smaller projects to national and international level catalogs including National Geospatial & Open Data Registries and the INSPIRE GeoPortal in the EU.

Furthermore I’ve been promoting the use of international standards and Free and Open Source Software for geographic data and information for over twenty years now. I served on the OSGeo Board in 2007 & 2008 also, and I’m a Charter member since the early days of OSGeo as well as Project Officer for the GeoNetwork project.

Besides everything geospatial I love travel, carpentry, working on an overland truck, study Carl Jung’s Analytical Psychology, and walk, work and live outside.

Specialties: Spatial Data Management, Web GIS, Spatial Data Infrastructure, Web Mapping, Open Source Software development, GIS, Remote Sensing