Barbara Ryan

Barbara Ryan was, until recently, the Executive Director of the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC). She previously worked with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and the Group on Earth Observations (GEO). Barbara also serves on several boards and advisory committees at various national and international organisations such as the Jane Goodall Institute. She has been a Policy Advisor at WGIC since January 2019.  

Under Barbara leadership, millions of satellite images have been made available to the general public at no charge, allowing scientists, planners and policy makers to make better-informed decisions on environmental problems. Barbaras career began in 1974 at the USGS. From 2008 to 2012, she was Director of the WMO Space Programme, and from 2012 to 2018, Ryan was the Secretariat Director of GEO in Geneva, Switzerland. In January 2021, Barbara became Executive Director of the World Geospatial Industry Council (WGIC), a global not-for-profit trade association of private-sector companies working in the geospatial and Earth observation ecosystem.