Peter Batty
Founder, Spatial Networking
Peter Batty has been CTO of three leading companies in the geospatial industry, including two of the world’s top 200 software companies. He began working with geospatial software at IBM in the UK over 20 years ago, and moved to Smallworld in 1992. He was the first employee to move to the US when Smallworld began operations there, and played a leading role in helping them become the global market leader in GIS for utilities and communications with revenues of over $100m. GE acquired Smallworld in 2000, and in 2002 Peter left to co-found Ten Sails, now Ubisense, a leader in precision real time location tracking. From 2005 to 2007 he was CTO at Intergraph, one of the top two geospatial software companies with revenues of over $600m.
Currently he is founder of Spatial Networking, where he is working on applications involving location and social networking. He is also Chief Technology Advisor at Enspiria Solutions and on the Advisory Board of PublicEarth, and he recently consulted with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation regarding the use of geospatial technology in Africa.
Michael Frankel
Senior Vice President, Business Development and Mergers and Acquisitions, LexisNexis Group
Michael Frankel has served as Senior Vice President, Business Development and Mergers & Acquisitions for LexisNexis Group since January 2008. He has global responsibility for all M&A activities and is based in the New York headquarters.Michael is a senior strategy and business development executive with experience several sectors including market research and data analytics, B2B content and data, enterprise software and consumer finance. He has deep expertise in acquisitions, equity and venture investing, strategy, product development and international expansion. He has led initiatives and transactions, deploying over $10B in capital, and driving strategic expansion at several Fortune 500 companies.
Before joining LexisNexis, Michael served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Strategy at Information Resources Inc. (IRI). Reporting to the CEO and Chairman, Frankel was responsible for all strategic transactions including acquisitions, equity investments, divestitures, strategic partnerships and corporate strategy.
Prior to IRI Michael was Vice President Business Development at GE Capital’s consumer finance group, at VeriSign, as Vice President Corporate Development—where he led one of the ten most acquisitive corporate development teams in the technology sector—and later served as Vice President and General Manager of their Directory Services group. Michael was also Vice President Investment Banking with Merrill Lynch and a Corporate Associate with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom.
During his career Michael has led and closed more than 100 transactions, including acquisitions, divestitures and alliances. In addition, he has authored three books and several articles on M and A. He also serves on the executive committee of the University of Chicago Alumni Board of Governors. Michael earned a BA in Political Science, an MA in International Relations, an MBA, and a Juris Doctorate—all from the University of Chicago.
Jeff Harris
Corporate Vice President and Managing Director, Situational Awareness, Lockheed Martin Corporation
Jeffrey K. Harris has contributed to US national security in both Government and Industry for 34 years where he has fostered new technologies, programs and capabilities that have contributed significantly to US national security capabilities.
In his current capacity with Lockheed Martin, where he is a corporate officer, he leads the Corporation’s efforts for Situational Awareness capabilities. He has also served as President of Lockheed Martin Missiles and Space and President of Lockheed Martin Special Programs. Also, he served as President of Space Imaging, the first company to commercially provide high-resolution satellite imagery and information products of the Earth for cost-effective solutions to today’s global business needs.
Before entering the private sector, Mr. Harris served with distinction in senior national leadership positions, including Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space; Director, National Reconnaissance Office, and Associate Executive Director of the Intelligence Community Management Staff. In all of these capacities, he provided direct support to both the Secretary of Defense and the Director of Central Intelligence. Mr. Harris began his career with the Central Intelligence Agency as a photo technologist at the National Photographic Interpretation Center. In 1978, he joined the CIA Office of Development and Engineering’s satellite development programs.
Mr. Harris has received numerous awards, most notably the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Medal, the CIA Distinguished Service Medal, the NRO Medal for Distinguished Service, the US GeoSpatial Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, Aviation Week Laureate Citation and the James V. Hartinger Award for military space achievement.
He currently serves on a number of Boards, including Analytic Graphics, Inc, Rochester Institute of Technology, National Defense Intelligence College Foundation, National Correlation Working Group, and Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. In addition, he is a member of the Commander STRATCOM Strategic Assessment Group, the Sandia Intelligence Advisory Panel, National Security Agency Advisory Board – Acquisition, and currently serves with the Defense Science Board.
Mr. Harris holds a bachelor’s degree in Photographic Science and Instrumentation from the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Wolf Ruzicka
CEO, EastBanc Technologies
Wolf Ruzicka is CEO of EastBanc Technologies, a software development company that prides itself of having the highest ITIQ, at least in Metropolitan Washington DC. There, in tight collaboration with its employees and customers, he created EastBanc Technologies' vision, manages the firms strategic direction, and oversees all corporate functions, such as Technology, Sales & Marketing, Human Resources and Operations.
Mr. Ruzicka is a knowledgeable leader with nearly 20 years of experience in operational management, customer service, sales, and Information Technology. Previously, among other roles throughout his career, he was responsible for worldwide operations at MicroStrategy, an enterprise software company, where he ran worldwide sales operations and assisted in the execution of an overall sales strategy.
Previous organizations he assisted were Mercedes-Benz (http://www.Mercedes-Benz.com/), Lufthansa (http://www.Lufthansa.com/), the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO - http://www.JETRO.org/), and Roland Berger Strategy Consultants (http://www.RolandBerger.com.
Mr. Ruzicka graduated with an MBA from Ingolstadt School of Management (http://www.ku-eichstaett.de/Fakultaeten/WWF.en) having studied in Germany, New York, and Tokyo, Japan, with a dual concentration in International Management and Service Management.
At his Business School, he was Co-Founder of the local committees of AIESEC (http://www.AIESEC.org/), the world's largest student organization, and Rotaract (http://www.Rotaract.org/), a Rotary-sponsored service club for young men and women.