Mike is the CEO and C0-Founder of DroneDeploy - the leading software platform for commercial drones. DroneDeploy's software is used by 5,000+ customers in 180+ countries, performing 1M+ flights/year. The company focuses on large enterprise use-cases, operating fleets of up to 500 drones, across some of the world's biggest companies, in energy, construction and agriculture. Prior to DroneDeploy Mike worked at Google in both sales and engineering teams. Mike studied Economics and Applied Math at Rhodes University, where he met his two cofounders, Jono and Nick, both of which did their PhDs in Machine Learning at University of Cambridge and Edinburgh.

Nicholas Pilkington is the co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of DroneDeploy, the leading software platform for commercial drones. DroneDeploy's software is used by 5,000+ customers in 180+ countries, performing 1M+ flights/year. The company focuses on large enterprise use-cases, operating fleets of up to 500 drones, across some of the world's biggest companies, in energy, construction and agriculture.

Nicholas leads technical strategy at DroneDeploy and is responsible for innovation and research leadership. He completed his PhD in Machine at the University of Cambridge. He also holds an M.Phil in NLP and Signal Processing and BSc in Computer Science, Applied Math and Information Systems. He also coaches the South African international programming olympiad team.

Jono Millin is the co-founder of DroneDeploy, the leading software platform for commercial drones. DroneDeploy's software is used by 5,000+ customers in 180+ countries, performing 1M+ flights/year. The company focuses on large enterprise use-cases, operating fleets of up to 500 drones, across some of the world's biggest companies, in energy, construction and agriculture.

Before starting DroneDeploy in 2013, Jono was doing a PhD in Machine Learning at the University of Edinburgh after an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and a BSc in Computer Science, Applied Math and Information Systems.

World Champion Eco-Challenge Adventure Racer, New York Times Bestselling Author, Founder of the 501c3 Project Athena Foundation (Survivors to Athletes!), 3x Guinness World Record Distance Paddler, Proud Owner of 2 Metal 'Bionic Hips' and Full Time San Diego Firefighter Robyn Benincasa *definitely* knows a thing or two about creating Human Synergy---or as Robyn puts it, "that magic that allows groups of ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things together". For the last 20 years, she and her teammates have been competing at the front of the pack in the most unique and compelling classrooms on earth--The jungles of Borneo, the Himalayan peaks of Tibet, the rivers of Fiji, the rainforests of Ecuador and the desert of Namibia, studying the good, the bad, and the not-so-pretty in Extreme Teamwork and mastering the skills required to inspire a group of semi-exhausted people through a seemingly endless series of checkpoints, in pursuit of a seemingly impossible goal, working against crazy deadlines, in constantly changing conditions and all in pursuit of a huge hairy audacious goal (sounds a lot like your life as a business leader, right?!).  It is through these harrowing, life affirming and often hilarious experiences in the world's most grueling challenges that she has emerged with her refreshing and truly unique perspective on what it takes to build the kind of world class teams that succeed against all odds, that triumph in the face of adversity and that win as one in times of great challenge and change. NBC, ABC, CNN, ESPN, USA Network, The Today Show, Live With Regis, Dateline NBC, The Discovery Channel, Vogue, Harpers Bazaar, Runners World and Outside Magazine have all featured Robyn and her teams' amazing accomplishments. And Robyn accepts full blame for inspiring people to do insane things like climb Mount Kilimanjaro, run their first triathlon, start their own adventure racing teams, hike across the Grand Canyon with a group of Survivors, or start their own businesses.  This is, after all, who she is and what she does: Robyn Benincasa inspires people to grab life with one hand, grab their teammates with the other, and to create that special magic that makes all of us better TOGETHER than we ever would have been alone!

Associate Professor, Dr Catherine Ball is a scientific futurist, speaker, advisor, author, founder, executive producer, executive director, and company director working across global projects where emerging technologies meet humanitarian, education and environmental needs. Catherine also likes to create businesses and champion movements, collaborate with peers, and advise game-changers.

A sought-after voice across the start-up, futurist and tech world, Catherine works globally across a wide range of projects from creating documentaries and world leading conferences and events, to advising on the use of novel approaches (e.g. drones) across environmental and humanitarian projects. Catherine is a proponent of community engagement with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and likes to demystify emerging tech.

I am the Northeastern Reclamation Specialist for the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) and I have been with the COGCC for six years.  My role is to inspect oil and gas development from the start to finish, which includes new construction, interim and final reclamation.  My focus is to evaluate compliance with our reclamation rules that requires a knowledge of soil and plant identification.  I have been a drone pilot for nearly three years and utilize the drone to help evaluate and document compliance with our rules and regulations. 

Elena Buenrostro is a content creator, Part 107 licensed drone pilot, educator, brand marketer at Google and the Founder of Women Who Drone, an organization that inspires, educates and empowers women and girls with drone technology. Elena is also an international public speaker sharing her drone knowledge at conferences and universities worldwide including World of Drones Congress, AUVSI FAA Symposium, Girl Scouts of America, Girl's Inc and Columbia University amongst many more. Elena's work has been featured in The Washington post, Fast Company, DJI, The Verge, FierceMitu, Drone Life and many more publications.

​​Jason Carignan has been a part of the Engineering department in the Mining Industry for the past 18 years. In 2013 Jason introduced his hobby of building RC rotor craft into his daily work routine as a means for safety inspections in the underground mine. From there he expounded on use cases for Drones in mining and begin utilizing Photogrammetry for surface stockpile reconciliation and aerial mapping. 

Jason has been a consultant in development for leading drone manufacturers across the globe. He continues to find new and time saving advantages for the use of Drones in the Mining sector.

Tom is the Co-Founder and CEO of Aerologix, an award-winning platform connecting drone pilots to customers leveraging the latest in Artificial intelligence, machine learning, web and mobile-based technologies. 

Tom has worked in the Aviation/ unmanned aerial domain for the past 18 years, working for companies such as Qantas, Hawker Pacific. He has a strong technical background with master degrees in Aviation and business administration and holds a Airline Transport Pilot Licence. Tom guest lecturers at one of Australia’s top universities – The University of New South Wales, teaching subject matter on Unmanned flight, he also holds a position on a government sub committee dedicated to developing rules and regulations for unmanned aerial vehicles. 

Tom enjoys complex problem solving and welcomes the challenge of empowering team members and creating new innovative ways to solve real world problems. He has a high passion for life and enjoys a healthy lifestyle and loves adventure sports such as surfing, kitesurfing, mountain biking when time permits.

Timothy joined DPR as a BIM Engineer in 2011 after graduating from Penn State College of Engineering. After four years in the BIM group, he joined the national Innovation Group where he would focus on middleware development, AR/VR, IoT, UAVs and other cutting-edge technologies. While in the Innovation Group, he started the UAS Core Group and UAS User Group and oversees these groups to this day. After three years with the Innovation Group, Tim joined the operations team for a large data center project where he would lead the Reality Capture group and subsequently the larger VDC group. Since the beginning of 2020, he has been leading a newly formed group at DPR that focuses on implementing technology to improve the work being performed in the field. At his core, he believes that we should “Think big, start small, and learn fast.”

Darren has over 20 years of experience in the construction and engineering industry starting with a Bachelor of Commerce and Economics. He is also a chartered accountant. Prior to moving to Downer, Darren worked in a range of CIMIC businesses for over 5 years in senior leadership roles in Australia and abroad. He has now worked with Downer for over 11 years in many senior executive roles. His current role is the General Manager of Commercial and Performance for Downer’s high-performing business unit Infrastructure Projects reporting directly to the EGM. Darren has been described as an innovative and motivated operational manager with global experience in leading transformation projects. He has been commended on driving process and business improvement solutions by partnering with businesses to develop insight on strategic decision making. His latest project is DBOT: An intelligent platform that uses artificial intelligence to track and learn data on Downer construction sites.

Italo Cruz is a Senior Construction Technology Specialist at CORE Construction. He manages the Reality Capture program, including drones, 360 cameras, and laser scanners to projects across the country. He has also trained new drone pilots for the Part 107 certification program and platform integrations to reduce double data entry.

Italo’s speaking engagements include webinars and tradeshows, such as Bluebeam XCON, Interdrone and ENR Webinars, and schools in the community. Italo Cruz has a Bachelor of Science in Construction Engineering with a minor in Business from Texas A&M Commerce. He also completed a post-graduate program in Virtual Design and Construction (VDC) at the Center of Integrated Facility Engineering (CIFE) at Stanford University.

Guillaume Delepine is a Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Skydio, the leading U.S. drone manufacturer and world leader in autonomous flight. In his tenure at the company, he previously led Skydio's efforts to serve first responders as Public Safety lead. Then, as Enterprise Strategy Manager, Guillaume contributed to the fundraising, planning, and hiring process that led to Skydio's recent announcements of a $100M Series C, expanded roadmap, and growing executive team. Guillaume holds a BA from Princeton University, and took leave of the joint MPP/MBA program at Harvard University to join Skydio.

John W. Diaz, PE, is a Vice President at GPI.  After leading the New England Traffic Engineering Department for more than twenty years, he now runs GPI’s Innovation Services Group.  His group explores and utilizes advancing technologies to improve transportation projects through the planning, design and construction phases. Focus areas and applications include the use of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS), LiDAR, Asset management; GIS services; 3D Modeling; and implementation of advanced traffic control systems.

As GPI’s UAS Director of Operations, Mr. Diaz has presented workshops and seminars on UAS applications to multiple agencies and is currently leading GPI’s efforts to roll out Drone Deploy’s Enterprise Platinum Solution.

Nick Dryer is the Field Operations Manager for the BNSF UAS program. Nick started at BNSF in 2009 and possesses a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Iowa State University. Prior to joining the UAS Program in Telecom, Nick held positions in Engineering Signals, Technical Research and Development, System Track Engineering, and Roadmaster. Some of his proudest achievements have been expanding the FAA Part 107 employee training program, supporting recovery efforts during Hurricane Harvey, and the Midwest floods of 2019 that affected rail operations utilizing UAS, and working on a system that greatly improves the fuel efficiency of trains.

Tim Dykstra is the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Channel Sales for Boston Dynamics, where he works closely with a variety of partners to support the deployment of agile mobile robots for remote operations and autonomous inspection applications. Prior to Boston Dynamics, Tim has been involved with robotics and disruptive automation technologies for 15 years, with a focus on helping clients pilot and deploy new robotic platforms at scale throughout their operations. Tim holds a B.A in Business Administration from University of Colorado and a Masters in Business Administration from Portland State University.

Sally is the creator of The Drone Girl, a website, community and daily newsletter all about drones. She has been quoted as a drone expert in publications including The New York Times and Consumer Reports. She is also a public speaker and has appeared at South by Southwest (SXSW), Harvard Business School’s Making Robotics Fly” event, and has led multiple seminars at conferences including InterDrone and the Commercial UAV Expo.

Sally was also named one of Fortune Magazine’s “4 top women shaping the drone industry.”

Sally first got interested in drones when she served as a photographer and producer at the Missouri School of Journalism’s drone journalism program in its inaugural year. The first “drone journalism” she did was produce a video for Harvest Public Media in which footage from a drone documents a prairie fire.

Andy Gajbhiye is in-charge of construction technologies and R&D/Innovation at Joeris. His work involves developing corporate strategies and roadmap around technologies that bring value to clients, projects, people, and partners. He facilitates the Ingenuity Team at Joeris, which focuses on organically cultivating a culture of innovation for Joeris. As a change agent, he kickstarted the enterprise lean journey for Joeris, and strives to continuously improve the implementation of VDC/BIM, Operations Technologies and Emerging Technologies.

Jason has been with the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission for the past 8 years, 6 years as an oil and gas inspector for the COGCC, and the last 3 years as a Compliance supervisor for the COGCC. Prior to this Jason was employed in the oil and gas industry for approx. 16 years in various stages of oil and gas exploration and mid-stream operations.  Jason took over the COGCC’s drone program this past year where he has been implementing standard operating procedures and policies. 

Liz pursued a career in Overhead Transmission Engineering after graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in 2007 with a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering.  Working at both Vanderweil Engineers and National Grid gave her the technical foundation and expertise to be a leader in Transmission Engineering.   In 2015, Liz joined Eversource Energy and over the past five years, she led the design of structures replacement and reconducting projects for both annual maintenance programs as well as capital transmission projects. In addition to the transmission design, Liz also provided design support services for new projects in the regulatory Siting process for future Transmission lines.  As a certified Part 107 drone pilot, Liz leverages a multidisciplinary team to lead the Eversource Drone Committee in seeking new project opportunities as well as engaging more innovative, safer, and economically efficient inspection and imaging techniques at Eversource.   Last year Liz accepted the position as Lead Engineer for the new Drone Organization.  Liz is now building that team, along with all the framework, and continuing to push innovation forward with drones across the company.

Liz loves the innovative aspect of drones and looks forward to pursuing this effort both at Eversource and for photographing some of her favorite hobbies, especially boating and real estate.   

Working for The Nature Conservancy at the Matador Ranch, Jason has been flying drones professionally since 2017. Drone projects he is working include vegetation and prairie dog town mapping, building 3D models of reservoirs, and monitoring Greater sage grouse populations with infrared cameras. With a BS degree in wildlife biology from the University of Montana and pursuing a MS degree at Montana State University, he believes that drone technology is a tool for enhancing the way we look at the world around us.

Robert Havins is a Sr. Manager in the Integrated Construction department at Bartlett Cocke. In this role, Robert is responsible for integrating and improving processes, technologies, and culture companywide to support operational execution. Robert is a graduate of Texas A&M University with a background in Project Controls, VDC/Construction Technology, and Data & Analytics.

Andy Heggenstaller is the Head of Agronomy at Syngenta US seeds, where he currently leads the commercial and technical agronomy teams.

He has 20 years of seed industry experience, including agronomy, sales and research roles.

Andy earned a BS in agronomy from Penn State University, and an MS and PhD in Agronomy from Iowa State University.    

Paul Helm is the Site Survey Project Manager / Drone Program Administrator for Sunrun. He has been at Sunrun for 6 years and in the solar industry for a total of 11 years. All his time in solar has been in site surveys.

Ryan Hittie joined the Innovation and Operational Technology Department at Brasfield & Gorrie in 2018 Hittie graduated from Auburn University in 2012 with a degree in mechanical engineering. Prior to joining Brasfield & Gorrie, Hittie was director of operations for a large regional drone services provider. He is working to scale Brasfield & Gorrie’s drone operations by applying his experience to training and daily operations across the southeast and is also involved in the company’s laser-scanning and 360-degree documentation initiatives. Hittie is also a voting member of ASTM’s Committee F38 on Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

Brent Hoade is a military veteran with recent experience in the aviation and agricultural industries as chief remote pilot of NSW Department of Primary Industries. Now as Chief Remote Pilot and National Aerial Damage Assessment Manager at Disaster Relief Australia, Brent’s responsibilities include managing teams of pilots and responders conducting disaster-related damage assessment.

Andy Howard, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of Climate Solutions Exchange Ltd, which was born from the founders’ experience of seeing inefficiencies in the current carbon market, and identifying an opportunity to help accelerate the drive towards a greener economy.   CSX provides the technical infrastructure that businesses and landowners need to measure carbon and other natural capital accurately from Earth Observation data.  We help our partners make important ecological decisions with certainty and confidence by providing a verifiable audit trail. The data we can provide on carbon sequestration gives much-needed reassurance to everyone involved. In short, CSX exists to help businesses and landowners take control over their climate action immediately and to provide integrity and structure to that process.

Jared Jacks is a Project Administrator for Clark Contractors, a mid-sized GC headquartered in Little Rock, AR.  He works on-site to assist with quality control of construction projects, manages the documentation flow before, during, and after construction, and ensures effective companywide implementation of newly adopted technologies (360 cameras, drones, time lapse, etc.). Jared grew up working in residential construction, building homes with his father and brothers.  After graduating with a BS in International Business from Arkansas State University He began working in college recruitment.  After obtaining a MS in Operation Management from the University of Arkansas, he entered the commercial construction industry, focusing on health care and education markets.

Juan David Martín is head of Experimentation in the Acceleration Lab of UNDP Colombia.

Industrial Designer with a master's degree in Design and Strategic Innovation. More than 18 years of experience in strategy and innovation projects for the creation of value for users and organizations. He has expertise in the management of design-based methodologies both for the identification of opportunities and the structuring and implementation of strategies that generate differential value in public, private and social innovation projects. He has worked for the Government of Colombia, founded an innovation consultancy and is a graduate professor.

I believe there’s a science for everyone, you just need to know where to look! I share my experiences drawn from more than 20 years as a geospatial scientist in academia, military, industry, and small business to help people discover science beyond lab coats and test tubes. But I have an ulterior motive. I am passionate about how we can use drones and geospatial technology to watch over our environment and its changes. So the more people I can inspire to join me, the faster we can put plans in place to help keep our environment healthy into the future.

Tom Karemacher is Vice President of Asia Pacific at Procore, leading the expanding regional business. With 17 years experience in Software as a Service (SaaS) and international growth strategies, Tom applies his extensive knowledge of cloud computing and innovative business practices across multiple verticals. 

Joining Procore in 2018 after 12 years with Salesforce, Tom played a key role during the company's rapid expansion across ANZ from 20 employees to more than 3,500. 

Tom has a passion for solving local construction industry challenges and has expanded the business in the region by identifying new growth opportunities and building the Procore ecosystem. He takes a hands-on customer-centric approach to innovation by engaging with local companies to understand their pain points and gain critical insights to feed back to Procore’s R&D team. 

Justin King is a Project Engineer and a Lead Drone Pilot for Ghilotti Bros. with 6 years of construction experience including field, takeoff, estimating, and project management experience.

In his role at Ghilotti Bros., Justin leads and develops drone and 3D modeling technologies to produce accurate quantity calculations and manage costs for project materials and earthwork volumes. Justin has also implemented company standards to develop and train company pilots and model builders.

Justin is passionate about drones and the future of construction technologies to better the project building process.

Peter King is the Head of Robotic solutions for InDro Robotics and partner consultant for AgileX Robotics. Peter works closely with clients to build deployment strategies of RPAS and UGV solutions. Peter has more than 10 years of experience building go-to-market strategies for complex ariel and ground-based robotic solutions.

Kirk Klausmeyer is the Director of Data Science for The Nature Conservancy’s California Program. Kirk applies drones, satellites, big data, and other emerging technologies to address pressing environmental challenges in California.  Kirk has an M.A. in environmental planning from UC Berkeley and B.A. in environmental studies and economics from Dartmouth College.

Vincent Kot is the Director of the PMO at SB Energy (Softbank Group). SB Energy is the developer and owner operator of large-scale Solar PV and Battery projects across US. Besides the day-to-day management of projects, Vincent lead the launch of the Drone Program, building it from the ground up from just 1 pilot (himself) to 6 pilots with regular drone flights. Looking into the future, SB Energy will continue to expand the use of Drone and Robotic technologies to manage our uniquely large land area sites with high value assets. 

Vincent has a Bachelor and Master’s degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute RPI. He started his career in the Semiconductor Industry then moved over to renewable Solar PV project management 10+ years back. Managing ever bigger Solar development, construction, and operation projects over the years, Vincent has experienced the incredible technological change in the Solar and now Battery Storage in large scale renewable power to reduce global CO2 emission.

Michael is the VDC Manager for Chasco Constructors in Austin, Texas and has been with the company for 19 years. Previous to Chasco he worked for a land surveying company that supported construction for 5 years. Throughout this time Michael has been responsible for CAD work, 3D modeling and GPS management. With personal experience in 3D data, racing radio-controlled vehicles and photography it was natural that he would become involved in drones. Michael started the UAV Services Program at Chasco in 2016 and with his VDC Team now operates approximately 20 sites concurrently. Future plans are developing to expand the use of drones beyond project management and to continue licensing additional pilots.

Austin Lay is a Visualization Coordinator with Layton Construction, based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Austin has been with Layton for three years and is a graduate of Weber State University. Austin assisted in starting Layton’s drone program just over two years ago when he became the first Part 107 license holder in the organization. Layton now has 24 licensed drone pilots with more to come. Austin also helped create a company-wide drone use policy. Drones have become a critical part of the construction process at Layton, where a mission is being flown every day of the week on current projects. Drones have been flown at projects from Hawaii to Miami and many other locations in between.

Alejandro is the Drone Operations Lead at MAB, a consulting company that provides auditing and consulting services for infrastructure in Colombia, Chile, and Perú. He manages and supervises the services operation and RDI projects within the framework of the operation and provision of professional services with drones in Colombia. Alejandro holds a BSc in Civil Engineering. He is a certified remote pilot by the FAA and its counterpart in Colombia, the "Aeronautica Civil." He has been operating drones since 2018. He has been involved in research projects that involve Machine Learning and GIS.

Nick is accountable for the delivery of all Hansen Yuncken projects across NSW and ACT, providing strategic guidance to ensure the project is delivered safely, on time and within budget. A key area of focus is in using technology to provide certainty of outcomes for all stakeholders. This includes identifying the best tools within the plethora of available options. With a key focus on education, including his time as a past lecturer at the University of NSW, Nick remains a strong advocate for seeking new ways to improve the industry and deliver value to his customers.

Anthony is a Project Manager / Drone Admin with Sunrun. He has been with the company for 7 years where all his time has been spent in Site Survey.

Marina has recently completed her studies with a Masters in Ecological Consultancy and in Nature Conservation, joining CSX as our Environmental & Technical Data Analyst.  Marina focuses on field surveys, including RGB and LIDAR data gathering, data analysis and writing of resultant reports.

Sam works at Invenergy LLC, the world’s leading privately held sustainable energy company. Invenergy has developed more than 23,000 megawatts of power globally and currently has more than 145+ projects in operation or development. There, he works as an assistant project manager for Invenergy, since 2018 working on both solar and wind farms across the United States.Sam also heads up the drone initiative for the development and construction phases of the company working through the DroneDeploy platform.

Dean Miller started his career as a Wildland Firefighter and worked as a carpenter on his days off. For six years this was his routine until his love of construction took over. He continued construction until he was the General Manager of a small residential construction company. In this position, he explored the possibilities and advantages of creating 3D models before construction began. Pushing the limits of this technology, Dean ended up at Sundt Construction as a Virtual Construction Engineer and was presented with drones as an entire new way of creating and presenting 3D models and maps. Fast forward to today and Dean is leading Sundt’s drone program and is still trying to push the limits of this technology.

Angelo Moreno is technical Assistant Information in the Strategic Support Unit - UNDP Colombia.

Economist with a master's degree in Geography. 10 years of experience in statistics, spatial analysis, econometrics, and app development. Expertise in the management and application of spatial methodologies for marketing and the impact of public projects with the national government in Colombia. Experience with the development of 3D Models and VR products.

On a new Cooperation Framework between the UN and the Government of Colombia, Mr. Pacheco has strengthened UNDP's 2030 and private sector strategies. In addition, he is currently leading the Covid 19 early recovery response.

Alejandro performed as Strategic Adviser for Latin America and the Caribbean at UNDP (2015-2019), where he was instrumental in advancing the SDGs in the Region and fostering innovation and private sector within UNDP. Previously, he served as Project Manager for the Government of Haiti’s flagship early recovery and reconstruction program (2011-2014), as a Private Sector Specialist for UNDP El Salvador and Belize (2006-2011), and Country Adviser for Argentina, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, and Venezuela for UNDP (2014). He has supported the creation and implementation of public policies in developing countries with impact on thousands of micro, small and medium sized enterprises. Previously, Alejandro worked as a consultant for the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade from 2003 to 2006, coordinating investment portfolios for Spanish companies in Chile, Mexico, Turkey, Brazil, China and India. Originally from Spain, he’s lived in more than ten countries on four continents and speaks five languages. Alejandro has a business degree from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Masters or Specialist degrees in Finance (Universidad Carlos III), Java Programming (CSM) and Humanitarian Aid (Universidad de Comillas). He was a Yale Greenberg Fellow back in 2014.

Lem is the National IT Manager at Southbase Construction with over 25 years' experience working in a variety of sectors as a senior IT professional. Lem has led various major IT projects and is now using his extensive experience to lead the ‘Digital Transformation’ of Southbase Construction and is the driving force behind Southbase's DroneDeploy program.

David Price, CPC is the Chief UAS pilot at GPI.  David has more than 30-years’ experience in aviation education in New England.  David is a licensed FAA Commercial Pilot and holds both Flight and Ground Instructor certifications.  David has more than 1,000 hours of flight time as a FAA Remote Pilot where he conducts survey-mapping missions, structures inspections, and training.  

David is the co-author of The Professional Drone Pilot’s Handbook, has several Teacher-of-the-Year awards, and has presented is both regional and national conferences of Unmanned aircraft. 

Brian Richman is an Enterprise Product Manager at Skydio with almost 10 years of experience in drones. Brian works on realizing Skydio’s vision for automated drone inspection and mapping by enabling levels of safety, precision, and data quality beyond what even the best drone pilots in the world are capable of. Before Skydio, Brian was the product lead for Airware’s Mobile business unit, launching a pioneering end-to-end commercial drone configuration and flight software. Brian is also a former R&D team lead for the RQ-23 Tigershark program, with 700+ combined flight hours as a pilot, payload operator, and mission commander.

Brandon Ramon is a Construction Technology Project Manager who works closely with trade partners, external stakeholders and project teams to provide tangible value to projects and clients alike.  In addition to overseeing the drone program at Joeris he leads technology implementation, provides oversight in virtual design application utilization, and has a mission of making the most of the resources that are already being utilized. 

Julio Rojas is the Director of Production Forestry at Weyerhaeuser. He previously served as Director of Research for the Western and Southern Timberlands. He has led various research projects at the company. He holds a PhD in Forestry from North Carolina State University. 

Elliot has a PhD in computer science and machine learning, since then has become an experienced Data scientist with a focus on green and eco-friendly projects. He has a background in machine learning and computer vision and his previous work has centered around extracting actionable insights from satellite and drone imagery, time series analysis, and building deployable and scalable AI systems for use in real world environments.

Dr. Steve Schill is the Lead Scientist for The Nature Conservancy's Caribbean Division. As a marine conservation specialist, he has been promoting the use of technology to protect and manage marine resources for the past twenty years. He works with governments to map coral, strategically expand marine protected areas, and develop new technique to measure coral and mangrove health. Steve received his doctorate in Geography from the University of South Carolina and is currently an Adjunct Professor at Brigham Young University’s Department of Geography where he teaches courses in remote sensing and landscape ecology.

Ben Stocker is the Construction Technologist at Skender, a general contractor in Chicago. Ben is responsible for R&D and implementation of new technologies that increase efficiency and provide value to project teams. These technologies include examples such as laser scanning, 360 photography, AR/VR, and drones. Ben started flying drones in 2015 with a goal of taking simple progress photos for a project. Since then, his drone capabilities have greatly expanded with the help of DroneDeploy, benefiting project teams and owners alike.

Samantha Teten is the Drone Operations Manager for Syngenta Seeds. Samantha graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a Bachelor’s Degree in Agronomy and a Master’s Degree in Mechanized Systems Management with a specialty in precision agriculture. Her research focused on nitrogen management using remote sensing techniques such as drone technology. She joined the Syngenta team in May 2021 as a Developmental Agronomist.

Jairo Matallana Villarreal is Manager of the Justice and Crisis Response area of ​​UNDP Colombia. Jairo worked at UNDP for more than ten years in different positions, most recently as a SURGE expert in post-conflict recovery and stabilization in Colombia. Previously, he was a technical specialist for the crisis prevention and recovery cluster at the Regional Center of Panama. He was in charge of the supervision of the regional projects of citizen security for Central America (El Salvador) and control of small arms and light weapons (Nicaragua), and represented the UNDP in the group of cooperators for the prevention of violence in Central America. It also provided technical assistance to UNDP country offices and interagency programs on coexistence and citizen security at the local level, with special dedication in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Panama. As head of knowledge management for the cluster, Jairo advised on the South-South cooperation strategy of the Nicaraguan Police, the recovery strategy of UNDP Haiti, the global inter-agency migration for development initiative (JMDI), and the conference 2009 National for Public Security Policy in Brazil. Previously, as associate coordinator of the Local Governance Project for Latin America, Jairo co-led the development of the toolbox on citizen security and coexistence and designed an operations model based on the provision of advisory services to local and national governments. which served as the basis for the UNDP knowledge management strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Jairo is a social activist and researcher on issues of non-violence, militarization, urban security, and human rights. He has a double degree PhD in Criminology (Distinction at U. Kent, UK) and Law (Summa cum laude at U. ELTE, Hungary), an MPhil in Planning, Growth and Regeneration (U. Cambridge, UK) and a Master's Degree (cum laude) in Development Studies (U. Los Andes, Colombia). He speaks Spanish, English, French and Portuguese.

Dustin has seven years in the O&G industry utilizing GIS and UAS technologies to improve efficiencies and enhance safety within the industry. He was a key player in building the Aerial and Visual Analytics team within Anadarko Petroleum, now Occidental Petroleum, by implementing data collection processes and data management storage tactics. Dustin was responsible for building their Drone Management System to centralize and manage all pilots, platforms, projects, inventory, and data while using DroneDeploy’s API to integrate various flight planning, data processing, and data transfer procedures. Dustin obtained his BS in Geography from Sam Houston State University.