Mr. Ben Eazzetta
President, International Operations
Rolta India Limited

Ben Eazzetta is president of International Operations for Rolta India Limited, a leading multinational technology services provider serving, North America, Asia/Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East since 1982. Eazzetta heads Rolta's subsidiaries in North America, Europe, and the Middle East, and serves on the company's board of directors. Eazzetta also sits on the board of directors for the Open Geospatial Consortium since 2001 and is now on the advisory board to Martin Wolf Securities. Eazzetta joined Rolta after having served as president of Intergraph's Security, Government, and Infrastructure division, where he was responsible for all aspects of global sales, marketing, delivery, and business development. His career with Intergraph spanned more than six years and included several positions, including chief operating officer of the Process, Power, and Marine Division and president of the Public Safety Division. Eazzetta also was a vice president and co-founder of Industria.com. He helped raise capital for the company and led the product management and pre-sales teams. Eazzetta worked at Exxon Company, USA, for more than twelve years, where he began his career as a mechanical engineer and was promoted ultimately to operations and maintenance department head responsible for safety, operations, training, and contract administration. Eazzetta, along with others, was awarded several patents concerning collaborated commerce and project management. Ben Eazzetta graduated from Georgia Tech with a bachelor’s degree in nuclear engineering and master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1986 and 1987, respectively.

Shafik Jiwani
Senior Vice President GIS

Shafik Jiwani, Senior Vice President of GIS, has been with Orion since its inception in 1998 and he is one of the founders of the Company. Shafik brings over twenty years of technical, consulting, and project management experience in Information Technology with emphasis on Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to Orion. In the early stages of Orion, he was involved in the full life cycle of software development, working with clients at the project level to determine specific needs for application/database requirements, development of appropriate models, preparation of design, and test specifications. As  Senior Vice President of GIS he is still very much involved in business and technical proposal preparation and high level client interaction.
Shafik has written and presented over 50 talks, papers, newsletters, articles and seminars. He was invited lecturer at University of Waterloo and University of Qatar. Prior to Orion, Shafik was the head of GIS Section for the Drainage Department of Centre for GIS in Qatar, where he managed a team of 55 members with responsibility for creating and maintaining detailed databases and developing applications.
Shafik completed his Bachelor degree with joint Honors in Mathematics and Economics at the University of Waterloo. He has won several awards in the GIS industry, including “Exemplary Systems in Government" award conferred by URISA (Urban & Regional Information Systems Association). Shafik is also involved in various professional associations including Urban Regional Information Systems Association and Municipal Information Systems Association. He also served on URISA Ontario Chapter Board of Directors.

Mr. Geoff Zeiss
Board of Directors of
Geospatial Information and Technology Association (GITA)

Geoff Zeiss has more than 20 years experience in the infrastructure management industry and 15 years experience working with utilities, communications, and public works in enterprise infrastructure management around the world. He is Director of Technology at Autodesk, a position he has held since 2001. His focus has been on infrastructure management solutions for large enterprises including the convergence of BIM, CAD, GIS, and 3D visualization technologies and optimizing the design, build, and operate workflow for infrastructure management for utilities and telecommunications.  In 2004, Geoff received one of ten annual global technology awards from Oracle Corporation for his technical innovation and leadership in the use of Oracle.  Geoff in on the Board of Directors of GITA (Geospatial Information and Technology Association.)

Geoff is a frequent speaker at infrastructure industry events around the world including Where 2.0, Intelligent Cities Conference Mecca, GITA (US, Japan, Australia), Middle East Spatial Technology (MEST) Conference, Map Middle East, World Map Forum, MapIndia, GeoBrazil, Map Asia, GeoWeb, OSCON, URISA, and Autodesk University.  Geoff received speaker excellence awards at GITA 2007 and 2008.  Geoff also contributes to industry publications including GEOInformatics Magazine (Holland),  CADALYST Magazine (US), Utility Automation & Engineering T&D (US), Imaging Notes (US),  Public Sector Technology and Management (Malaysia), and Directions Magazine (US).

Ayssar Arida  
Director of Q-DAR development

Ayssar Arida is a practicing urban designer (MA with Distinction, JCUD Oxford Brookes), architect (BArch, American University of Beirut), theorist and entrepreneur. Since 2002, he is the director of Q-DAR development | architecture | research (www.q-dar.com). Based in London and Paris, he consults and lectures internationally.

Ayssar’s research focuses on developing relational languages informed by new sciences namely quantum theory, emergence and self-regulation, complexity and fuzzy logic, to analyze and design the urban realm.

His first book, Quantum City (Architectural Press, 2002, teaching western urbanism about the urbanity of complex Arabic, Mediterranean, and eastern cities) is now influencing urban design education and practice worldwide. He is one of “some of the best known thinkers in the field” who co-authored Amazon.com best-seller New Urbanism and Beyond (Tigran Hasic ed., 2007, Rizzoli), and literally wrote the definitions for urban design and urban planning in The Design Dictionary (Tim Marshall and Michael Erlhoff ed., Birkhauser, 2008). Ayssar has published dozens of articles, has taught at the Amercian University of Beirut and is regularly on design juries or lecturing in the USA, UK, Europe and the Middle East.

He also acts as architecture and urbanism consultant for CEMEDE (Brussels based Centre Euro-Mediterraneen pour le Developement) and Zenith Foundation (London based contemporary Arab arts foundation) and is the co-founder of the Centre for the Spatial Realm in London.

Dr. Daniel P. Ames
Director of the Geospatial Software Lab, Idaho, USA

Dr. Daniel P. Ames, is the director of the Geospatial Software Lab the Department of Energy Center for Advanced Energy Studies in Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA where he leads the open source MapWindow GIS software project (www.mapwindow.org). He is also an Associate Professor in Geosciences and Civil Engineering at Idaho State University and is the director of ISU’s graduate programs in geotechnologies. With a PhD in Civil Engineering from Utah State University, Dr. Ames brings a practical and applied approach to GIS software development and usage having begun the development of MapWindow in 1999 as an alternative Windows-based software for deploying GIS enabled software solutions within the watershed analysis and modeling arena. Since its inception, MapWindow GIS has grown to become the world’s leading Windows based open source GIS platform, with over 6000 downloads per month and a worldwide developer and user group. In addition to open source and custom GIS applications, Dr. Ames also has research interests and publications in the fields of hydrology and water resources, probabilistic modeling, decision support systems, and hydro/geoinformatics. He presently makes his home with his wife and four children in Ammon, Idaho, USA

Rone Lake
Chairman & CEO, Galdos Systems Inc.

Mr. Lake has more than 30 years experience in the development of advanced software systems, including more than 20 years in advanced database, and spatial information systems. He is, a founding member of the Open GIS Consortium, the creator of Geography Markup Language (GML), and chair of the GML Special Interest Group. He is an acknowledged industry leader and technology innovator, has written and spoken extensively on spatial technologies and the Internet and is widely acknowledged as a visionary in the area of advanced spatial information systems.

Mark A. Griffin
Fellow of RICS

Mark A. Griffin is a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). He began his geomatics career in the UK and now has over 25 years of international experience specializing in land surveying, land registration and geographical information systems. He is currently Lands Registrar for ALDAR Properties PJSC, the largest master developer in Abu Dhabi. Mark is an international member of the RICS Geomatics Professional Group that seeks to represent geomatics professionals globally (both RICS members and potential members). He is also a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors.

Dominic McPolin
Chartered Town Planner and Chartered Surveyor. MOW

Mr. McPolin holds two degrees in Planning together with the postgraduate entry examinations of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Mr. McPolin has worked in Bahrain for almost 20 years in the Office of the Minister and he has been the Head of the Central Planning Unit (CPU) in the Ministry of Works since 1997.

DR. FAISAL AL TAMIMI
CEO/Senior Analyst / Project Manager, Tamimi Consulting Firm

Dr.Tamimi experience over 30 years spans from teaching (associate professor at King Saud University teaching at the college of Architecture and Planning and the College of Computer science. He also was the chairman of the Planning department, the supervisor of the university studies and organization department and the manager of the information systems development program from 1985-1991.

Priorto opening his firm, he was a consultant to several government organizations, the ministry of planning, the royal commission for Jubail and Yanbu, the Saudi Central Electricity Company, the Ministry of Commerce as well as a member of numerous committees for the university development, science and technology strategy, five year planning, and conference organizations.

Mr. Elwannas
VP Geospatial Solutions - Rolta Middle East

Mr. Elwannas has over 16 years of experience in Mapping and GIS. He is an ASPRS Certified Photogrammetrist and licensed by the State of Oregon, USA as a Professional Photogrammetrist. He holds a bachelor in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Nice in France and an Engineering Degree in Mapping from the IAV in Morocco. Prior to joining Rolta in January 2008, he worked for international mapping companies in the USA such as Spot Image and EarthData International. Between 2002 and 2006, he worked for IIC Technologies in Ellicott City, MD, USA where he helped establish the Geospatial Solutions Division