Opengeo

Sophia Parafina

Director of Operations

Sophia has been involved in the geospatial software for over a decade. In her career she has been a programmer, scientist, project manager, venture capitalist, and CTO. A long-time champion of OGC standards, she brings an invaluable wealth of industry and management experience to OpenGeo.

After managing a series of Web and GIS projects for organizations like the Texas Department of Transportation and Los Angeles Airport, Sophia joined In-Q-Tel, the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's venture capital fund, as their Senior Program Manager. There she ran programs that funded development of GML 2.0, WFS, and WMC.

In 2000, Sophia founded Ionic Enteprise, a joint venture to bring mapping technology based on Open Geospatial Consortium standards to the U.S. market. Ionic Enterprise grew to 15 employees with annual revenue of $8M before being acquired by Leica Geosystems, now Erdas, in 2007.

In 2009 Sophia joined OpenGeo, where she manages our Outreach team and guides the OpenGeo Suite toward being the greatest enterprise level web GIS solution around.

Education

  • PhD program, Forest Science, Texas A&M University, 1991-1994
  • MA Geography, University of Florida, 1988-1991
  • BA History, University of Austin, Texas, 1983-1988

Professional Experience

  • Director of Enterprise Applications and Integration, Erdas, 2008-2009
  • Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Ionic Enterprise, 2003-2007

Open Geospatial Projects

  • Open Geospatial Consortium

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