Governance / Leadership

Home/
Organization/
Governance/Leadership

The GEO Plenary

The main body of designated representatives of the members and participating organizations of the Group on Earth Observations (GEO), with members holding decision-making authority. It is the GEO’s primary decision-making body. The GEO Plenary meets at least once annually.

The GEO Executive Committee

The Committee oversees GEO’s activities when the Plenary is not in session. It consists of 16 representatives nominated by the five GEO regional caucuses, including four each from Asia/Oceania and Europe, three each from the Americas and Africa, and two from the Commonwealth of Independent States. The Committee is also responsible for guiding the Secretariat.

Read About GEO Secretariat

The 16 Committee members for 2023 are:

Commonwealth of Independent States

Armenia

Committee member

Russian Federation

Committee member

Asia/Oceania

Australia

Committee member

China

Co-Chair

Japan

Committee member

Korea, Republic of

Committee member

Europe

European Commission

Co-Chair

France

Committee member

Germany

Committee member

Italy

Committee member

Africa

Nigeria

Committee member

Senegal

Committee member

South Africa

Co-Chair

Americas

Paraguay

Committee member

Peru

Committee member

United States

Co-Chair

Co-Chairs

The GEO members elect four members to serve as Co-Chairs. They preside over both the Plenary and the Executive Committee. The current Co-Chairs are represented by the following individuals:

Mmboneni Muofhe

South Africa

Joanna Drake

European Commission

Guangjun Zhang

China

Richard Spinrad

United States

The GEO Programme Board

The GEO Programme Board was established as part of the development of the GEO Strategic Plan 2016 - 2025 and approved at the Mexico City Ministerial Summit in November, 2015.

The Programme Board oversees the establishment of the multi-year GEO Work Programmes and works to align proposed activities with GEO priorities and committed resources. The Programme Board reports to the GEO Executive Committee and Plenary. GEO Members and Participating Organizations nominate representatives to the Programme Board.

Members of the Board also dialogue with the wider GEO community and external stakeholders to broaden support for the realization the GEO Work Programme. Members of the GEO community are welcome to contact members of the Programme Board or the co-chairs.

Members

	Contact Name	Role
Cambodia	Kimhor Meng	Principal
Canada	Andrew Davidson	Alternate
Canada	Carla Schmitt	Principal
China	Xiang Zhou	Alternate
China	Guifei Jing	Principal
China	Yuqi Bai	Alternate
El Salvador	Telma Ivette Chávaz Parada	Principal
El Salvador	Mario Giovanni Molina Masferrer	Alternate
European Commission	Jean Dusart	Principal
European Commission	Mark Dowell	Alternate
European Commission	Franz Immler	Alternate
Finland	Petteri Vihervaara	Alternate
Finland	Saku Anttila	Principal
Finland	Pekka Hurskainen	Alternate
France	Thierry Ranchin	Principal
France	Laurent Durieux	Alternate
Germany	Thorsten Büßelberg	Alternate
Germany	Charlotte Hoppe	Principal
Ghana	Dickson Adomako	Alternate
Ghana	Amos Kabo-Bah	Co-Chair
Ghana	Anita Antwiwaa	Alternate
Greece	Evangelos Gerasopoulos	Co-Chair
India	Prakash Chauhan	Principal
India	Rashmi Sharma	Alternate
India	Rajeev Jaiswal	Alternate
Japan	Osamu Ochiai	Principal
Japan	Hiroyuki Muraoka	Alternate
Paraguay	Thanya Idoyaga Irala	Principal
Paraguay	Rodrigo Fleytas González	Alternate
Paraguay	Cecilia Calcena	Alternate
South Africa	Lulu Makapela	Alternate
South Africa	Tinyiko Ntshongwana	Principal
United Kingdom	Nathalie Pettorelli	Alternate
United Kingdom	Stuart Marsh	Alternate
United Kingdom	Matthew Foote	Principal
United States	Michael Crino	Alternate
United States	Justyna Nicinska	Co-Chair

Participating Organizations

	Contact Name	Role
ACCREC	Nura Jibo	Principal
ACCREC	Rabia Said	Alternate
ACCREC	Hilaluddeen Muhammad	Alternate
CEOS	Takeshi Hirabayashi	Principal
CEOS	Steven Ramage	Alternate
COSPAR	Suresh Vannan	Principal
COSPAR	Yasko Kasai	Alternate
CBD	Jillian Campbell	Principal
CBD	Sakhile Silitshena	Alternate
ESIP	Kathleen Fontaine	Principal
ESIP	Karl Benedict	Alternate
ESIP	Susan Shingledecker	Alternate
Eurisy	Annalisa Donati	Principal
EEA	Andrus Meiner	Principal
EEA	Jose Rubio Iglesias	Alternate
EEA	Christiana Photiadou	Alternate
EEA	Jean-Philippe Aurambout	Alternate
ESA	Marie-Claire Greening	Principal
GRSS	Paolo Gamba	Principal
GRSS	Haris Kontoes	Alternate
IAG	Allison Craddock	Principal
IAG	Richard Gross	Alternate
ISC	Alena Rybkina	Alternate
ISC	Bapon Fakhruddin	Principal
ISC	Shailesh Nayak	Alternate
ISDE	Shaik Mohamed Zaffar Sadiq Mohamed Ghouse	Principal
ISDE	Mario Hernandez	Alternate
OGC	Marie-Francoise Voidrot	Principal
OGC	Nils Hempelmann	Alternate
OGC	Ingo Simonis	Alternate
Plan4all	Karel Charvat	Principal
Plan4all	Tomas Mildorf	Alternate
Plan4all	Hana Kubickova	Alternate
SWF	Krystal Azelton	Principal
SWF	Peter Martinez	Alternate
MRI	Carolina Adler	Principal
MRI	James Thornton	Alternate