Evolution in Satellite Earth Observation Systems

Adam is an Affiliate Principal Advisor at Euroconsult with specialization in Earth observation (EO) and disruptive technologies. In over 20 years in the industry, Adam has advised a wide range of clients including government organizations, investors and commercial actors along the EO and space value chain. He has managed over 200 consulting and market intelligence projects focusing on EO markets and industry, satellite imaging and operations, and government space programs. He Initiated Euroconsult’s research and consulting activity in the EO sector including the Satellite-Based Earth Observation: Market Prospects report; now in its 15th edition (2022), the first annual research report focused on evolutions within the EO sector. He has held various positions in the company, including director of the company’s Space Practice and Managing Director of Euroconsult North America. Previously he worked for the European Space Agency within the Directorate of Earth Observation on developing new applications utilizing EO data, and the UK National Remote Sensing Center (now Airbus).

Dan Adams is recognized young leader in the space community. As General Manager of KSAT Inc, the US based subsidiary of the Norwegian ground station service provider, Kongsberg Satellite Services (KSAT), Dan has helped lead a revolution in commercial ground solutions at scale. Prior to assuming responsibility as regional leader for KSAT in the US, Dan served as Head of Sales for KSAT in the US market. Before KSAT, Dan worked at United Launch Alliance (ULA), where he led Civil Space and Small Satellite launch business development. Dan has an undergraduate degree in Business Management from the University of Wyoming and a Masters of Science in Systems Engineering from Colorado State University.

After leading software research and development for over two decades, Jimi is the founder & CTO of Orbital Insight. Orbital Insight helps business and policy decision-makers understand economic and societal trends through geospatial analytics. His corporate focus is to develop artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision, creating a new source of market data for diverse industries.

Before a successful $1B Monsanto acquisition, Jimi was the SVP of Science and Engineering at the Climate Corporation. Prior to that, he was CTO and Software Architect at Moon Express whose goal was putting the first commercial robot on the moon. As the Engineering Director for Google Book Search, he was in charge of
Google’s project to scan, index, and make searchable all the world’s books. As EVP of Engineering at Composite Software, he led product development around data visualization. At Nasa Ames Research Center, Jimi led Autonomy and Robotics projects and authored over 15 peer-reviewed publications, resulting in five patents. Jimi earned his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin, and BA in Math and Computer Science from Rice University.

He has a long-term interest in photography which led him, most recently, to eastern Idaho to photograph the August total eclipse.

Dr. Shay Har-Noy (Shy) is Spire’s General Manager of Aviation, responsible for leading the business that is making air travel and shipments safer, more cost effective, and more efficient.  Shay most recently served as a leader on the Uber Maps product team and as Uber Boulder site lead.  Previously, he was VP and GM of Maxar/DigitalGlobe’s Platform business — their high growth effort to get DigitalGlobe’s 15 year digital library in the cloud and available for processing.

Prior to joining DigitalGlobe, Shay was founder and CEO of Tomnod combining crowdsourcing and machine learning to create new applications for satellite imagery. Tomnod was acquired by DigitalGlobe in early 2013.  Shay started his career at ViaSat where he worked on the deployment and market positioning of satellite communication systems around the globe for government, commercial aviation, and maritime customers. Dr. Har-Noy graduated summa cum laude from Rice University and received a Ph.D in Electrical Engineering with research in image processing from UC-San Diego.

Ryan McKinney is General Manager of Satellogic North America. Prior to this, he was Head of Strategic Initiatives at Descartes Labs. Descartes Labs is a 2014 spin-off from Los Alamos National Labs focused on provisioning multiple global remote sensing modes of data on an automated planetary-scale platform providing multi-modal applications using AI/ML models and algorithms for rapidly advanced analytics.

Ryan possesses over 20 years of experience in sales and business development, including a diverse background with start-up, turnaround, and high-growth environments. He has successfully driven growth through direct-to-consumer sales and partnership building with OEMs, VARs, Global Remote Sensing Producers (space, air, and terrestrial,) and system integrators. His multi-industry experience includes private and public sectors. Prior to Descartes Labs, he was with Cyence Inc. (acquired by Guidewire Software) focused on cyber risk modeling. Prior to Cyence, Ryan worked with other enterprise IT hardware and software companies supporting both US Government and large enterprise business.