Geoff has been the Secretary General since 2011 and has driven the development of the Association into the widely known and well-regarded organisation it is today. During his long and varied career, Geoff has held senior management positions in the space industry with Astrium / EADS / Airbus as well as numerous representative positions in the UK and Europe. He was previously a director of EARSC for 12 years during which he was chairman for 6 years from 1991 to 1997. He has served on many EU consultative bodies such as Spassec (for space and security) and the SecAG (Security Advisory Group) and in industry representative groups for example the chairman of the ASD security research committee. In addition to his extensive industrial experience, Geoff spent 3 years working for the European Commission where he was responsible for supporting space policy and, in particular, the creation of the GMES initiative. Geoff is very well known to many in the space and earth observation sectors and brings this deep wealth of experience and knowledge to support the ambitions of the geo-information industry that EARSC represents.