Ed Parsons is a Digital Geographer, a Geospatial Technology Advisor and Keynote Speaker.
Ed was Google’s Geospatial Technologist, with responsibility for evangelising Google’s mission to organise the world’s information using Geography. In this role he maintained links with Governments, Universities, Research and Standards Organisations which were involved in the development of Geospatial Technology. Ed also lead Google’s efforts in maintaining a healthy Open Data Ecosystem to support AI in Europe.
He is a vice-chair of the Board of Directors of the Open Geospatial Consortium and was co-chair of the W3C/OGC Spatial Data on the Web Working Group. He also represented Google at the EMTEL committee of ETSI developing geospatial solutions for emergency telecommunications.
He is a Visiting Professor at University College London and has been an industry advisor to a number of international universities.
Ed was the first Chief Technology Officer in the 200-year-old history of Ordnance Survey, and was instrumental in moving the focus of the organisation from mapping to Geographical Information. He came to the Ordnance Survey from Autodesk, where he was EMEA Applications Manager for the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) Division.
He earned a Masters degree in Applied Remote Sensing from Cranfield Institute of Technology, holds a Honorary Doctorate in Science from Kingston University, London. and is a fellow of both the Royal Geographical Society, and the Royal Institute of Navigation .
In 2024 Ed was awarded the inaugural “Professional Geography Award” for excellence in the use of geography in professional practice by the Royal Geographical Society.
He is a lapsed aviator having learnt to fly before succumbing to the English weather and the price of Avgas, he now just takes photographs of aircraft, examples of which can be found at photos.edparsons.com.
Need a picture?
Click here for a head shot (2048 by 1664 pixels 4.2 MB PNG) or take a look in this folder.
