Boardroom Media (CEO News)
At CEO (Boardroom Media) we track over 1,000,000 startups and over 5,000,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top California based CEO’ operating in the Geospatial space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on [email protected]
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
James Crawford
Chief Executive Officer of Orbital Insight
James Crawford has two decades of experience leading innovative software projects: empowering farmers with climate data at the Climate Corporation, working to get a commercial robot on the moon at Moon Express, making the world’s books searchable at Google, and managing robotics at NASA Ames Research Center. At Orbital, he’s using software expertise to create a whole new source of market data for all kinds of industries.
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About Orbital Insight: Orbital Insight builds SaaS technology to understand what happens on and to the Earth with AI and machine learning
Kevin E. O’Brien
Chief Executive Officer of Orbital Insight
Kevin leads all commercialization strategy and activities for Orbital Insight, as well as leading financial oversight, reporting and strategy. Prior to his role at Orbital Insight, Kevin was the Regional Director for the Americas, Global Banking & Brokerage, for FactSet Research Systems. Kevin joined FactSet in conjunction with the acquisition of Revere Data, LLC, where he was President and CEO. Originally trained as a software engineer, Kevin earned a BBA in Management Information Systems from James Madison University. He earned an MBA in Innovation, Strategy & Information Technology from the EDHEC Business School in Nice, France.
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About Orbital Insight: Orbital Insight builds SaaS technology to understand what happens on and to the Earth with AI and machine learning
Devaki Raj
CEO and Founder of CrowdAI
Devaki Raj is the CEO and Cofounder of CrowdAI. Prior to this, she completed her undergraduate and Masters in Statistics at the University of Oxford, and subsequently used her expertise at Google (Maps, Energy and [X] teams) to optimize renewable energy allocation in sub-Saharan Africa. She noticed that even with the power of Google Maps, there was a significant deficit in high-resolution on-the-ground information, such as locations of homes, villages, and farms in rural areas. This gap in knowledge prompted her to start CrowdAI in 2016, which was picked up by Y-Combinator and selected by TechCrunch as one of their top 8 companies to watch, Forbes’ Top 25 Machine Learning Companies, Nvidia Deep Learning Inception Awards Finalist, and Forbes’ 30 Under 30 and Inc Magazine’s 30 companies under 30.
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About CrowdAI: CrowdAI enables organizations to create and deploy custom models for visual AI and a code-free platform.
Ariel Seidman
Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Hivemapper
As the CEO & Co-Founder of Hivemapper, I coordinate our engineering and business development teams to delight users. Our mapping software helps many of the world’s most important organizations build maps that automatically see and reveal changes.
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About Hivemapper: Hivemapper is a mapping infrastructure that allows humans and robots to map, visualize, and analyze data.
Sumer Johal
Founder & CEO of Agralogics
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About Agralogics: Agralogics offers SaaS-based applications and services that provide geo-referenced big data analytics for the hospitality industry.
Jason Devitt
CEO of Compound Eye
Jason Devitt is CEO and co-founder of Mr. Number, a company that helps consumers to control who can call their mobile phone and when. An advocate for open networks, open devices, and open development platforms, Jason has testified on these issues before Congress and the FCC. Previously, Jason co-founded Skydeck, a company that enabled consumers to back up and manage all of their cell phone data online. Jason developed the idea for Skydeck while an entrepreneur-in-residence at iHatch, a venture capital firm that focuses on the mobile market. Prior to Skydeck, Jason co-founded Vindigo, one of the first companies to publish content and applications for mobile phones in the US. Products included Mapquest Mobile, MovieGoer, and the Vindigo City Guide. Jason led the company from inception to over $10 million in revenue and profitability in 2005. Jason spent four years working for the technology-driven investment firm D. E. Shaw & Co. in London and New York, where he structured OTC equity derivatives. He grew up in Ireland and has a Master’s Degree in Electronic Engineering and a Diploma in Law from UCD and the King’s Inns in his hometown of Dublin.
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About Compound Eye: Compound Eye develops 3D vision systems for autonomous machines.
Chris Carson
CEO & Co-Founder of Hayden AI
Chris Carson, is a global strategy, innovation, venture development expert, and thought-leader for disruptive and digital innovation. Chris cultivated his expertise over 20 years, working in various operations and engineering roles with technology-driven multinationals, startups, and consultancies, and now serves as the CEO of Hayden AI, an artificial intelligence technology company and smart city solutions provider. Chris has a strong technical background in artificial intelligence, computer vision, and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM), as well as a decade of experience in leading globally distributed engineering teams and turning innovation into material business impact. Chris is a passionate leader who is experienced in driving growth through innovation and strong execution, and a relentless champion of Design Thinking and Lean Startup, who believes in the power of co-creation.
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About Hayden AI: World’s first autonomous traffic management platform
Payam Banazadeh
Chief Executive Officer of Capella Space
Payam Banazadeh is CEO and founder of Capella Space, a Silicon Valley company building the largest constellation of commercial Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites in order to provide hourly monitoring services of anywhere in the globe. Prior to starting Capella Space Payam was a project manager and flight systems engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and has been awarded NASA Mariner Award, NASA Discovery Award, and NASA Formulation Award. Most recently Payam was selected to be on the prestigious “Forbes 30 under 30” list in 2017 and Capella has been recognized by The New York Times, Bloomberg, and recently Inc magazine as one of the top 25 disruptive companies in the world. Outside of Capella, Payam spends his time thinking about the impact of technology on society, economy, politics, and human behavior. He is an advocate of raising awareness around the volatility of life on earth and the responsibilities of technologists to think proactively about their work and its intended and unintended consequences. Payam holds a business/management degree from Stanford University and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in Aerospace Engineering from The University of Texas.
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About Capella Space: Capella Space is an information services company that provides on-demand 24/7 SAR data for government and commercial customers.
Laura Schewel
Founder and CEO of StreetLight Data
Laura, founder and Chief Executive Officer, is a leading advocate and researcher in advanced transportation, with particular expertise in transportation systems, sustainability and safety, and vehicle/system modeling and analysis. After completing degrees in engineering and comparative literature at Yale University, she worked at the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), managing their vehicle electrification projects, including the Smart Garage Charrette and Project Get Ready. Next, Laura joined the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to develop planning for regulatory strategy for electric vehicles and energy storage. Laura’s work at StreetLight is an extension of her graduate studies at UC Berkeley’s Energy and Resources Group. She is a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow in Energy Engineering, and the author of several publications about vehicle electrification and sustainable transportation. In 2013, Laura was selected as one of MIT Technology Review’s 35 Innovators Under 35 and was the recipient of the International Transport Forum’s Young Researcher of the Year Award.
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About StreetLight Data: StreetLight Data is a data analytics company transforming urban planning and transportation design with the power of geospatial data.
Edzard Overbeek
Chief Executive Officer & Co-founder of HERE Technologies Chicago
Edzard Overbeek is leading HERE as it enters the next phase of its growth as a newly independent location cloud company. He brings to HERE a unique mix of sales and technology experience, having joined from Cisco where he was Strategic Advisor and responsible for the Global Services organization with over $12 billion in revenues and 15,000 employees.
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About HERE Technologies Chicago: HERE Technologies creates living three-dimensional maps that grow upwards, breathing with layers of information and insights.
Rachel Olney
Founder and CEO of Geosite
Rachel Olney is the founder and CEO of Geosite Inc.
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About Geosite: Business operations platform that links the power of spatial data and analytics to business operations, incident management, and planning.
Chris Biddy
Co-founder and CEO of Astro Digital
Chris is responsible for driving the company vision, managing the execution of the company missions, and maintaining key partner relationships. Chris has been involved in many research and development efforts spanning complete satellite programs, sub-system developments, and spacecraft mechanisms.
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About Astro Digital: Astro Digital is a global imaging and analysis company that develops a platform for fast and easy access to satellite imagery.
Yotam Ariel
Co-founder & CEO of Bluefield Technologies
Yotam Ariel, Co-founder and CEO of Bluefield (a startup providing satellite-based emissions data), is a former naval squad leader specializing in remote sensors analytics, and previously founded an energy company which operated in 15 countries and received tech innovation recognition from Obama. He speaks several languages and was a national champion in sailing.
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About Bluefield Technologies: Precise, always-on methane leak detection via microsatellites (http://bluefield.co)
Noam Ben-Zvi
Co-Founder & CEO of Placer.ai
Noam Ben-Zvi is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Placer.
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About Placer.ai: Placer.ai offers a traffic analytics platform that allows anyone to generate insights into any property.
James Skurzynski
CEO & Founder of Digital Map Products
As one of Digital Map Products’ founders, Jim has turned the company’s vision of simplifying spatial technology and bringing it to a wider audience into reality. Digital Map Products was the first in its industry to deploy Internet-based spatial applications through a Software-as-a-Service model. In addition to driving innovation at Digital Map Products, Jim has led the company to several consecutive years of record sales and profitability. The company’s current offerings include SaaS applications, a spatial development platform, and location content solutions all of which enhance decision-making and problem-solving in markets such as government, utilities, and real estate. Jim’s career has been distinguished by his ability to extend the value of complex technology to new markets and users by simplifying its use and employing cost-effective delivery models. Prior to Digital Map Products, Jim was Managing Partner at JSA International where he advised international organizations in the creation of cross-border spatial technology partnerships. Before JSA International, Jim founded a company that helped Mexico’s federal government convert their real property information to digital format. Early in his career, Jim successfully built and sold a company that pioneered a new class of affordable Computer Aided Design/Engineering software for small and mid-sized architectural and engineering firms using a timeshare model that was similar to what we know today as SaaS.
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About Digital Map Products: We provide context to the world around you with the most extensible location intelligence platform available.
Megan Nunes
Founder & CEO of Bountiful
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About Bountiful: Bountiful is an agtech company that helps farmers understand what impacts crop production in the field and at scale.
Liz Derr
Founder & CEO of Simularity
Founder & CEO of Simularity.
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About Simularity: Simularity provides AI-driven geospatial intelligence
Vattem Narendra Babu
CEO of iSpatial Techno Solutions
Vattem Narendra Babu is the Chief Executive Officer at iSpatial Techno Solutions. He has over 20+ years of valuable experience in strategic planning, consulting, Implementation of business processes into various software solutions, business development, sales, account management, customer relation, budget planning, delivery, and more. Mr. Babu is a former Project Manager – GIS / MES / Technical Applications at AI Hosn Gas and Head – IT Development at Nakheel. Vattem graduated from Institute of Mechanical Engineer with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and earned a master’s degree in Information Technology at Institute of Advanced Studies in Education and also holds an EMBA in Management at ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad.
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About iSpatial Techno Solutions: iSpatial Techno Solutions specializing in the are of information technology planning, program management, solutions, and services.
Mike Mack
Chief Executive Officer of Fract
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About Fract: Business Intelligence Gone Spatial – GeoSpatial AI Data Analytics
Bradley Simpson
CEO / Creator of Vection Group, Inc.
Brad has over 20 years in the software business with 15 years at Braxton Technologies, a government contractor specializing in satellite command and control software and currently seven years leading Vection Group. He is a senior software engineer and a technology futurist. With many years working in the Joint Domain Command & Control space. As well, he is a SME (Subject Matter Expert) on geospatial alerting of wearable data. Brad is the author of two very significant patents: Highly Efficient and Parallel Data Transfer and Display, USPTO No: 9,665,267 and Geospatial Alerting (Push-notifications), USPTO No: 9,910,561
His proven track record of pulling together the right talent to create the right team, from software and business-minded professionals to creative and financial gurus, shines with the success he experienced at Braxton Technologies. He’s carried the same style of talent acquisition to Vection where he’s assembled a top-tier group of tech and business executives with a single goal, to make VG and their products globally recognized and successful.
His entrepreneurial vision and technical DNA have merged beautifully into SmartSync. SmartSync, a OS agnostic data ingestion hub that passively uploads from data devices, no user button-pushing! With your data being pushed to a human performance data management software.
When not tethered to his digital device, which is rare, Brad scans the consumer landscape for needed innovation that he thinks is missing on the consumer front. He is always ready to pounce on opportunities to create products and technologies to fill pressing needs. Brad attended Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, and the University of Southern California.
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About Vection Group, Inc.: Vection Group is an ongoing cloud based streaming API software company. We provide B2B, B2C and B2M SaaS for the IoT, Smart Cities & others
Vinodh Subramanian
CEO and Co-Founder of GraphLI
CEO and Co-Founder at Geospago
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About GraphLI: Delivery Management Automation Software
Jeff Cohn
Founder & CEO of PhotoEnforced.com
Jeff Cohn is the Founder & CEO at Syndicated Maps.
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About BadIntersections.com, Deadcellzones.com, Disaster Relief Maps, DrillingMaps.com, PhotoEnforced.com, powerplantmaps, RefineryMaps.com, SlipMaps.com, SolarEnergyMaps.com, Syndicated Maps, Vail Resorts Careers: Photo Enforced & Traffic Cameras Map (Red Light, Speed, Traffic, Stop Sign, School, LPR Cameras)
Geoffrey Michener
CEO & Founder of dataPlor
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About dataPlor, Forbes Magazine: The most accurate source of international places data
Michael Liquori
CEO Cofounder of Airio
Michael is an entrepreneur, scientist, author, coach, advisor, mentor, consultant and eternally curious (yet humble) polymath. He is currently CEO/Cofounder of Airio. His diverse career has included work in a variety of natural resources science and management sectors (sustainable forestry, river restoration, watershed management) involving smart geospatial analysis and remote data collection. He has contributed to over 230 leadership & entrepreneur workshops as a business coach / trainer. Much of his work involves collaboration with diverse stakeholders.
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About Airio: Intelligent Flightpath Automation
Abe Tarapani
CEO of Atlas AI
Abe’s career has spanned the renewable energy, semiconductor and data for development sectors over close to two decades, including substantial experience living and working in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining Atlas AI, Abe was a Principal at Incandescent, a boutique consulting firm where he led a range of engagements for the firm’s social sector and venture clients, with a specific focus on advancing the ‘data for good’ ecosystem. Earlier in his career, Abe was the Director of Business Development for Premise Data, and the Vice President of Global Strategy and Business Development for Astonfield Renewables. Abe earned a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Yale University and was named a Presidential Scholar by the Clinton White House. He is a First Mover Fellow with the Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program and serves on the Advisory Board of the program.
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About Atlas AI, Atlas AI: Atlas AI is an analytics platform that guides the deployment of investment and other resource allocation decisions in the emerging markets.
Ragi Yaser Burhum
Founder / CEO of AmigoCloud
Ragi began his geospatial career over a decade ago as an engineer at ESRI, where he worked on the Geodatabase team creating, designing, and maintaining ArcGIS core components. At Microsoft, he worked on the main GIS data pipeline of Microsoft Flight Simulator. He ran a successful GIS consulting company in the Bay Area where he helped organizations like NVIDIA and CSR with their GIS challenges. In addition to founding GeoMeetup, the largest developer-centric geospatial Meetup in the world, Ragi is also heavily involved in Open Source GIS Software (he is an active OSGeo Charter member) and often contributes code to O.S. geospatial projects (e.g. as a committer in GDAL) that are the foundation of several Open GIS applications worldwide.
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About AmigoCloud: AmigoCloud is a geospatial platform that helps you collect, manage, analyze, visualize, and publish your location data.
Keith Barker
President & CEO of Questiny Group
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About Questiny Group: Questiny Group specialize on understanding the market space – the key actors and the market dynamics that shapes the products and services.
