Speakers Profile

MATTHEW B. HIGGINS (Vice President FIG)

Matt Higgins is Manager of Geodesy and Positioning with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in the Queensland Government in Australia. He holds Bachelor and Masters Degrees in Surveying. From 2007 to 2010, Matt is a Vice President of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG). He is also the FIG representative on the UN mandated International Committee on GNSS where he Co-Chairs Working Group D on "Interaction with national and regional authorities and relevant international organizations".

In May 2008, GPS World magazine named Matt in the 50+ leaders to watch in GNSS business. Also in 2008, Matt was elected President of the Australian based International GNSS Society (IGNSS). Matt also currently leads a project on "Precise Positioning in Regional Areas" in the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information. Matt represents the Queensland Government on the Geodesy Technical Sub-Committee of the Inter-governmental Committee on Surveying and Mapping for Australia and New Zealand.

He is a Registered Cadastral Surveyor and Fellow of both the Institution of Surveyors and the Spatial Sciences Institute in Australia.

At the 2005 Asia-Pacific Spatial Excellence Awards, Matt received the award for "Professional Eminence and Excellence in the Spatial Sciences". The award is the SSI's highest form of recognition for professional eminence.

PROF.DR. WILLIAM CARTWRIGHT (President ICA)

William Cartwright is Professor of Cartography and Geographical Visualization in the School of Mathematical and Geospatial Sciences at RMIT University, Australia. He joined the University after spending a number of years in both the government and private sectors of the mapping industry. He is President of the International Cartographic Association. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the British Cartographic Society, an Honorary Fellow of the Mapping Sciences Institute Australia and an Honorary Fellow of the Spatial Sciences Institute (Australia). He holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Melbourne and a Doctor of Education from RMIT University. He has six other university qualifications - in the fields of cartography, applied science, education, media studies, information and communication technology and graphic design. He is the author of over 300 academic papers. His major research interest is the application of integrated media to cartography and the exploration of different metaphorical approaches to the depiction of geographical information.

TEO CHEE HAI (Vice President FIG)

Teo Chee Hai is Licensed and Chartered Surveyor in the private practice. His key experience is in the area of planning, implementation, supervision and management of surveying projects that encompass a variety of inter-related activities and tasks and interaction with other professionals, primarily in the coastal zones and real estate development and the provision of project and technical consultancy in land and hydrographic surveying. He has worked at various localities and sites all over Malaysia and overseas.

Born in a Batu Pahat, Johor in Southern Peninsular Malaysia in 1959, he had his primary and secondary education there before completing his basic degree in surveying (Bachelor of Applied Science (Surveying)) with distinction from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia in 1980. He completed his Masters of Science (Land Administration and Development) with University Technology Malaysia in 2004. Shortly after his graduation in December 1980, he accepted a job offer from a surveying organization with regional affiliations and has been with the organization since.

He is a Fellow of the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a member of the Association of Authorized Land Surveyors Malaysia and the Institution of Surveyors, Australia.

He is a Past President and Secretary General of the Institution of Surveyors Malaysia, a past Honorary Secretary General and current Council Member of the ASEAN Federation of Land Surveying and Geomatics. He is also a past Vice President, Secretary General and current Executive Council Member of the Association of Authorized Land Surveyors Malaysia, the sole FIG member association from Malaysia.

His involvement in FIG included being a Member of the Task Force on Governance (2005 - 2006), Nomination Review Group (2003 - 2006) and Task Force on Mutual Recognition of Qualification (1999 - 2002). He has been the national delegate from Malaysia to the FIG since 1999.

PROF.DR. DORODJATUN KUNTJOROJAKTI (former Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs)

Dorodjatun Kuntjoro Jakti was Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs in President Megawati Soekarnoputri’s Cabinet from 2001 to 2004. During this turbulent period, he joined in the efforts to revive Indonesia’s economy in close coordination with Bank Indonesia, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other stakeholders in the Consultative Group on Indonesia.

In 2005, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appointed Dr. Dorodjatun as Co-Chair of Panel 45 to formulate Indonesia’s position with regard to United Nations reforms. Recently, he was made a member of the Board of Governance of the National Resilience Institute (LEMHANNAS) and currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the National Retirees Savings Bank (BTPN), as Independent Commissioner at the insurance company American International Assurance/American International Group, Inc. (AIA/AIG) and at Indonesia’s largest retail group PT Hero Supermarket.

Dr. Dorodjatun was Indonesia’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United States from 1998 to 2001. Dr. Dorodjatun, 67 years old, is a graduate of the University of Indonesia, specializing in Monetary Economics, and the University of California, Berkeley, where he specialized in Political-Economy. He was also awarded Doctor Honoris Causa in Management by University Technology Malaysia.

HELEN KERFOOT

Helen Kerfoot is currently an Emeritus Scientist with Natural Resources in Ottawa, Canada, and Chair of the United Nations Group of Experts (UNGEGN), having been elected in 2002 and again in 2007. 

Trained as a geographer at the University of London, England, Ms. Kerfoot followed a career as a school teacher and geomorphologist in Arctic Canada, before joining Natural Resources Canada in the area of mapping, and particular toponymy.  In 1987 she became head of the Secretariat for the Canadian national geographical names authority.  As a manager she was responsible for the national toponymic database being made available on the Internet, for developing a geographical names website, and for various publications on Canadian toponymy (for instance, a fieldwork guidebook and a bibliography on indigenous toponymy).

As UNGEGN Chair, Ms. Kerfoot has been promoting the significance of the standardization of geographical names, both for national data infrastructures and for the protection of cultural heritage.  She has led the publication of manuals and brochures for UNGEGN, and encouraged UN support for UNGEGN training courses for the national administration of geographical names.

Ms. Kerfoot has been a Governor of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, President of the Canadian Society for the Study of Names, Chair of the Ontario Geographic Names Board, a contributor to a variety of journals, both in Canada and internationally, and recipient of several awards.

Prof. Dr. FERJAN ORMELING

Ferjan Ormeling is honorary professor of cartography at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where he specializes in atlas cartography and toponymy.

Ferjan represents the Netherlands in the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN), and is convenor of the UNGEGN working group on toponymy courses. From 2000-2005 he headed its Dutch- and German speaking Division. As convenor of this WG on training courses in toponomy he has (co-)organised courses Tunisia (2007), Mozambique (2006, 2004), Vienna (2005), Malang (2005), Bathurst (2004), Khartoum (2003), Enschede (2002), Pretoria (1992, 1993), Cipanas (1987).

From 1999-2007 he served as Secretary-General of the International Cartographic Association. He is co-author of a number of cartography manuals.

Since 1980 he has represented the Netherlands in the United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names (UNGEGN), on behalf of which he organizes toponymy courses worldwide. In 2007 he was elected Vice-chair of UNGEGN.

ALEXANDER WIECHERT  (Managing Director of Vexcel Imaging GmbH. a Microsoft Company)

Before joining Microsoft Photogrammetry, Alexander Wiechert was the Managing Partner of TopoSys GmbH, a company developing, manufacturing and operating airborne LiDAR sensor systems. He has successfully built up the business area of world-wide airborne sensor sales. In this role, he acquired a detailed knowledge of the technology, of the global sensor market and of LiDAR and photogrammetry. Prior to this, he founded and built his own company AIS GmbH, which developed and sold complex telematic systems. Before that, Alexander was working for DaimlerChrysler and was responsible for the development of new civil avionics systems. Alexander is a degreed engineer of aerospace and aeronautics and holds an additional degree in business administration.

NIKOLAUS FALLER (Chief Operational Officer InfoTerra GmbH.)

Nikolaus Faller has a solid technological background and a long experience in radar-based mapping projects, dating back to the very first large-scale airborne mapping projects in equatorial regions such as Kalimantan in Indonesia or Delta Amacuro in Venezuela. Resorting to these experiences, Nick was one of the driving players involved when radar technology was pushed towards becoming a high-resolution spaceborne data source. In the past years, his key interest was the development and validation of radar-based elevation modeling using both InSAR and radargrammetry approaches, initially applied to airborne data, and now based on TerraSAR-X satellite data. Nick Faller is Infoterra GmbH's Chief Operational Officer, overseeing the work of more than 100 geo-information experts in Potsdam an Friedrichshafen.

DR. IR. ANAK AGUNG GDE AGUNG (ESRI)

Dr. Agung has been a project manager and consultant at ESRI since February 2000. He has more than 20 years of experience working in geographic information systems, with particular emphasis on Web-based GIS implementations, geospatial database design, environmental and public health applications, and remote sensing. Much of his early work experience was gained in a research environment in cooperation with either international agencies or local and federal government agencies. He received a B.S. in civil engineering and planning from the Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia, in 1987; a master's degree in community planning from the University of Cincinnati in 1995; and a Ph.D. in urban planning and policy development from Rutgers University in 2000.

GREG CHUN (Director, Public Safety, Asia CISCO Systems)

Greg is the regional lead for Cisco’s public safety and security business. During his career, Greg held various leadership positions with county, state and federal government and non-governmental organizations in the United States.

Before joining Cisco, Greg worked for the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research where he served as director of disaster and emergency management. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Greg to this position to lead California’s Citizen Corps initiative -- the primary United States (U.S.) Department of Homeland Security citizen preparedness program. Prior to this role, Greg served as the program’s assistant director – a position he was appointed to by California Governor Gray Davis.

When Greg left the Governor’s Office in 2007, California’s preparedness program was recognized as one of the largest and most successful in the U.S. – involving federal, state and local homeland security, emergency management, law enforcement, fire service and public health agencies and non-governmental organizations working together to serve California’s 36,000,000 residents.

Prior to working for the California Governor’s Office, Greg worked for the American Red Cross where he conceived, developed and directed a number of award winning, nationally recognized disaster preparedness, relief and recovery programs.

During his career, Greg served at the management level on major disaster response, relief and recovery operations in California and across the United States. He is also a past member of the board of directors for the American Red Cross and former manager on the American National Red Cross Critical Response Team - a specialized response team developed to help manage complex relief operations. Greg also served as a pioneering leader in national service disaster response in California and across the United States. He is currently listed as the disaster preparedness and response expert for the National Service Resource Center in the United States.

Greg has received several professional awards, honors and certificates including the American Red Cross Tiffany Award for Excellence in Management – the organization’s highest award for paid staff.