Geospatial information officer


A Geospatial Information Officer is the head of geospatial information technology within a civilian, business, government and/or military organization. The high demand for efficient geospatial data requires dedicated leadership in data collection, production and analysis.

U.S. Military

In March 2008, the U.S. Army Geospatial–Enterprise Governance Board created the GIO position, with the Director, U.S. Army Topographic Engineering Center as the U.S. Army's "central manager responsible for coordination, assessment, and synchronization of all Army policies and standardization requirements for the geospatial information enterprise."
Robert Burkhardt, the Army's first GIO stated, “The technology is available to enable battle command systems to collect information once and allow discovery and exploitation by all, however, without these standards, it is difficult to present unified, understandable solutions within and outside of the Army.”
Dr. Joseph Fontanella, Director of the U.S. Army Geospatial Center, is the current GIO.