Keynote Speakers

Dr Markus Neteler is a co-founder of mundialis in Bonn (<https://mundialis.de/>) and ESMERALDA (<https://esmeralda.earth>). His main topics are remote sensing, analysis of large-scale geodata and free software GIS development. He has been GRASS release manager (<https://grass.osgeo.org/>) since 1997 and is a founding member of [FOSSGIS](https://fossgis.de), the Italian [GFOSS](https://gfoss.it/associazione) and [OSGeo.org](http://OSGeo.org). In 2006, he was awarded the Sol Katz Award; he received the [Life Achievement Award 2022](https://neteler.org/blog/life-achievement-award-2022-ceremony/) from the OpenGeoHub Foundation.

Venkatesh Raghavan (aka Venka) is Professor Emeritus at the Graduate School of Science, Osaka Metropolitan University, where he has made significant contributions to geospatial science and education. He received his D.Sc. in Geologic Remote Sensing from Osaka City University in 1994. He currently serves as President of the Japan Society of Geoinformatics and Association of GeoInformatics Laboratories for Earthsciences, and as Editor-in-Chief of The GIS-IDEAS Journal. A long-standing advocate of Free and Open Source Software for Geoinformatics (FOSS4G), he has helped advance its development and adoption worldwide for more than three decades.

Tom Kralidis is with the Meteorological Service of Canada and longtime contributor to FOSS4G. He leads and contributes to numerous projects in the Geopython ecosystem. He is the 2024 recipient of the Sol Katz Award for Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial (FOSS4G), awarded annually by OSGeo to individuals who have demonstrated leadership in the FOSS4G community. Tom is the co-chair of the OGC API - Records Standards Working Group, chair of the WMO Expert Team on Metadata, and serves on the OSGeo Board of Directors.

Joana is a data engineer with a strong background in geospatial tech. Her pursuit to make geospatial information F.A.I.R. has led her to the board of GSDI and to OGC, where she leads relations with the developer community. Committed to advancing the open-source geospatial ecosystem, Joana is a OSGeo board member and project contributor. Joana is the founder of ByteRoad, a boutique company in the field of Spatial Data Infrastructures. She is also a reviewer for the European Commission, and has been involved in education, teaching the next generation of full-stack developers and data analysts.

Marco Bernasocchi is an open-source advocate, entrepreneur and full-stack geoninja. He is the creator of QField for QGIS, currently serves as QGIS.org Chair, and is an Open Source Geospatial Foundation board member. In his day job, Marco is the CEO of OPENGIS.ch, which he founded in 2011. A geographer by trade, Marco lives in a small Romansh-speaking mountain village in Switzerland, where he loves scrambling around the mountains to enjoy the feeling of freedom it gives him.

CEO/Owner of GeoCat – Chair and founder of the GeoNetwork opensource – OSGeo President of the Board of Directors. Jeroen established the GeoNetwork opensource project while working at the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). A widely used geospatial catalogue application used for example as national and international level catalogs including National Geospatial & Open Data Registries and the INSPIRE GeoPortal in the EU. Jeroen has been promoting the use of international standards and Free and Open Source Software for geographic data and information for over twenty years now. He currently serves on the OSGeo Board, and did so in 2007 & 2008.

Born in 1974. Ph.D. in Engineering from the University of Tsukuba. Graduated from the Department of Architecture, Tokyo University of Science. After working at Sony Computer Entertainment and as Associate Professor at Tokyo Metropolitan University, he assumed his current position in 2018. He was a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University, Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies. Currently serves as Deputy Director General, Division for Strategic Communications, The University of Tokyo.

Born in 1999. A doctoral student in Hidenori Watanave Laboratory at The University of Tokyo. Specially Appointed Specialist at U-PARL, The University of Tokyo Library. Her specialty is information design. Conducts research on the preservation of memory and culture through technology. Major projects include “Storytellers’ Archive”, “A-Bombing and Family”(a collection of colorized photos) and “The Archive of Languages in danger”.

Born in Saga (which is next to Nagasaki) in 1994. Works as a nurse at a general hospital, and also has been active as a post-war born Storyteller of Kazutoshi Nakamura who was a survivor of the atomic bombing from 2024. She does Story-telling at the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum and at elementary and junior high schools across the country.

Ela Kagel is a digital strategist and board member of Platform Coops eG, a Berlin-based organisation that supports the digital-cooperative economy across various sectors. Ela has been instrumental in developing networks and platforms that challenge extractive models of technology and economics. In 2010, she co-founded SUPERMARKT, an independent hub for digital culture and collaborative economy in Berlin. There, she has spent over a decade curating conferences, workshops & research projects that explore cooperative practices and equitable digital infrastructures. Ela is also co-founder of Poetic Technologies, a collective enterprise dedicated to reimagining digital infrastructures beyond bureaucratic constraints.

Hal Seki is one of Japan's leading figures in the civic tech movement. In 2013 he founded Code for Japan, a nonprofit bringing citizens, technologists, and governments together to solve public challenges through open collaboration—now a nationwide network of local brigades. His work began with sinsai.info, the volunteer-run crisis-mapping platform he launched after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. A longtime advocate for open data, open source, and open geospatial technology, he has advised national and municipal governments on digital transformation. He also founded Geolonia, a company advancing open location infrastructure.

Lander Jiménez Ocio is a teamcoach and researcher at Mondragon Team Academy (MTA), Mondragon University, where he coaches young "teampreneurs" in the LEINN degree program. His work centers on team entrepreneurship, the impact economy, and climate action through cooperative ownership. A Chartered Civil and Environmental Engineer with over 25 years of global leadership in sustainable development, Lander co-founded MTA Afrika and Impredecible Basoa to drive social and green ventures. An ardent cooperative advocate and former ALE Board Director, he is dedicated to democratizing disruptive team-entrepreneurship education to foster equality through diversity worldwide.

Britta Ricker is assistant professor at Utrecht University. Her research group experiments with open geospatial data, to identify optimal workflows to make effective maps for decision and policy making related to a range of sustainability issues. Ricker is an active member of the UN Inter-agency and Exert Working Group on the SDG indicators on Geospatial Information (IAEG-SDGs WGGI), acts as the Netherlands representative to the International Cartographic Association, is the Chair of the Commission of Cartography and Sustainable Development. She is also a co-author of the United Nations publication "Mapping for a Sustainable World."

Graduated from the Université de Lausanne (Switzerland, BSc. Psychologie) and King's College London (UK, MSc. War & Psychiatry). After working at a global consulting firm on various projects including business process improvement and the implementation of accounting systems for financial institutions, she joined the Protection Unit of UNHCR Representation in Japan in 2019. As a Protection Associate, she collaborates with government agencies, corporations, NGOs, and educational institutions to facilitate partnerships promoting the social inclusion of refugees in Japan.

As a Programme Analyst with UNDP HQ's Peacebuilding Team, she supports country offices in promoting locally led, inclusive peacebuilding efforts and strengthens UNDP-Japan partnerships. Prior to this, she worked to advance the Women, Peace and Security agenda and contributed to the publication of Human Development Reports. Before joining UNDP, she worked for the International Center for Transitional Justice and Search for Common Ground, focusing on transitional justice and advocacy on Youth, Peace and Security. She graduated from Keio University, New York University (MA in International Education) and the University of Pennsylvania (MS in Social Policy and Data Analytics).

Jumpei Takami is an Associate Expert in Remote Sensing for Disaster Management with the UN-SPIDER Programme at the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in Vienna. With a master's degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington and over a decade of experience in satellite remote sensing, he specializes in synthetic aperture radar (SAR/InSAR), machine learning, and digital twin technology for disaster risk reduction: spanning floods, landslides, drought, and land subsidence.

**Open Source Promotion, Digital and AI systems Design Center (DADC), Innovation Platform Agency, Japan (IPA)** Born in 1974. Leads Japan's open-source promotions. I started my current job in March 2024. Prior to that, I worked in web development for 13 years. I started activities as a civic tech contributor in 2018.

Ms. Mikami is Head of the Hiroshima Office of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), a position she has held since November 2023. With more than two decades of experience in international development, she has served in senior leadership roles across UNDP offices in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. Before joining the United Nations system, she worked as a financial analyst at Citibank. She studied at the University of Tokyo and Columbia University, specializing in Latin American Studies and International Affairs.