Meet the 2025 Where Cartography Meets Industry Panelists
Dr. Micah Brachman has over 25 years of experience in geospatial data science, leveraging a lifelong passion for maps into a distinguished career across academic, government, non-profit, and corporate sectors. He is currently a Community Manager at the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), where he serves as the Director of Interoperability Certification, Architect of the Climate and Disaster Resilience Pilot, and supports nearly 100 technical working groups. In this role, he facilitates collaboration among over 500 international organizations to improve the interoperability of geospatial technologies. Dr. Brachman earned his PhD in Geography from UC Santa Barbara, specializing in GIS, transportation, and emergency management.
Christopher Budas is the Vice President of the British Cartographic Society. He is a Fellow of the British Cartographic Society, Royal Geographical Society as well as being a Chartered Geographer in Geographical Information.
He has worked in the Geospatial sector for 17 years after graduating with a degree in Geographical Information and Mapping Science from the University of Glasgow.
He is also a Senior Geospatial Scientist at the UK Defence Science Technology Laboratory.
Georg Gartner is a Professor of Cartography at the Vienna University of Technology and head of the Research Group Cartography. He is currently president of the International Cartographic Association (ICA). He was Dean for Academic Affairs for Geodesy and Geoinformation at Vienna University of Technology. He is the organizer of the International Symposia on Location Based Services, EuroCarto Editor of the Book Series Lecture Notes on Geoinformation and Cartography by Springer, and Editor of the Journal on LBS by Taylor & Francis. He also serves as President of the Austrian Cartographic Commission, Vice-President of the Austrian Society of Geodesy and Geoinformation, and is a member of the Academic Network of United Nations Global Geospatial Information Management.
Vivien Godfrey is Chairman and CEO of the Edward Stanford Group (Stanfords) a retailer and wholesaler of travel books, maps, globes and other travel related products and services located in London, UK. She is the newly elected President of the International Map Industry Association (IMIA).
Vivien and her husband John Mann recently sold their business Bluewater Books & Charts which they owned and operated for 24 years. This business located in Fort Lauderdale, USA sells marine navigation products and services to leisure boaters with an emphasis on supplying Superyachts.
She began her career working for McKinsey and Company in strategy consulting and then joined Diageo to work in the food and drinks sectors. In 1992 she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota and has lived in the USA since that time and is now a dual UK/USA citizen. For 5 years she served as CEO of the GotMilk! campaign in Washington DC. Vivien’s corporate career in consulting with McKinsey, marketing and general management with Diageo in both Europe and North America has allowed her to develop expertise in strategy, finance, logistics and brand development.
Caglar Koylu is an Associate Professor in the School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of Iowa and currently serves as President of the Cartography and Geographic Information Society. He is a geographer with a background in geographic information science and cartography. Dr. Koylu is actively engaged across diverse academic communities at the intersection of GIScience, cartography, and related fields. He has presented at and organized sessions in a wide range of leading conferences such as GIScience, AutoCarto, the American Association of Geographers, the Social Science History Association, IEEE Visualization, the North American Cartographic Information Society, and ACM SIGSPATIAL.
