Ann De Schutter Email & Phone Number

Vienna, At

Vienna, Austria

I am leading the Earth Observation team for MSF Austria. We support MSF's operations globally with earth observation needs and R&D.

Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

I head the national Geospatial Information (GIS) Team for New Zealand’s public department charged with conserving the nation’s natural and historical heritage. Blending technology, innovation, strategy and nature, I and my team work to amplify conservation programmes and outcomes. Each map we create, app we build or proof of concept we develop represents our commitment to the planet.HIGHLIGHTS🌿 Oversee GIS Team resourcing to consistently meet up to 50 requests every week.🌿 Entrusted to helm a new leadership and governance workstream and produce the new DOCgeospatial strategy.🌿 Ensured prompt GIS Team support to disaster response – 2 wildfires and Cyclone Gabrielle –through early and active engagement and planning with national recovery teams.

Christchurch

My standard role at DOC involves supporting national conservation policies and identifying and optimizing geospatial solutions for priorities and programmes of DOC and external clients, ranging from biodiversity monitoring and predator control to corporate management systems. I and my colleagues have embarked on a progressive shift from solely service provision towards a partnership approach to leverage the benefits that the GIS Team and location intelligence can offer. I also serve as GIS support to the Coordinated Incident Management Structure led by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). Additionally, my involvement in 5 seconded roles has given me valuable cross-functional perspective and expertise.HIGHLIGHTS🌿 Integrated 10+ human resources data sets into an Esri and PowerBI dashboard that helpedstreamline HR management and align HR to corporate performance measurements.🌿 Accelerated a pest eradication feasibility study by using geo-AI to train neural networks forclassifying drone/satellite imagery🌿 Founded an international ‘GIS in eradication’ group comprising 15 experts from 5 countries,fostering knowledge exchange and bridging specialist expertise gaps in 30+ projects across theworld, e.g. in Canada, South Africa.

Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

I managed the Geospatial Services team and its 30 staff members on an interim basis until the arrival of the new manager. My focus was mainly on resourcing to client projects (DOC business units and external clients) and improving client service.HIGHLIGHTS🌿 Evaluated service limitations and successfully advocated for strategic technologicalenhancements, serving to not only better meet clients’ needs but also to continue to driveinnovation in national conservation efforts.🌿 Revitalized Geospatial Technical Support by bringing in a new team member and freeing up timefor two analysts to grow professionally.

Provide GIS expertise to international conservation initiatives, mainly island pest eradication.Highlights, all by invitation, include:🌿Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action, Victoria State Government / KeithSpringer (independent island eradication specialist)# Deen Maar, Lady Julia Percy Island, Australia (on-site)> Set up GIS for aerial rabbit baiting, instructed crew and trained GIS analyst. 100% bait coverageachieved.🌿Birdlife South Africa / Keith Springer# Marion Island, South Africa> Mapped volcanic terrain and drew up helicopter flight lines to support rodent eradicationplanning.🌿Biodiversity Restoration Specialists# Rapa Islets, French Polynesia and Flinders Island, Australia> Guided baiting strategy, created GPX maps for tracking and liaised with the ground team.🌿Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB)# Gough Island, Tristan da Cunha (UNESCO World Heritage Site)> Supported GIS planning (terrain analysis, maps etc) and remotely mentored a GIS expert.

New Zealand

Supporting the governmental COVID-19 Group charged with directing the nation’s COVID-19 response, I was hired initially as Geospatial Insights Analyst (Apr 2020 – Feb 2021) and later promoted to Geospatial Insights Team Manager (Feb – Mar 2021). I collaborated across the government and oversaw the national geospatial portal (based on ArcGIS Enterprise), facilitating access to vital, real-time data. I also supervised a remote team of 4 GIS analysts and mentored and trained agency staff to apply data solutions in their respective settings.HIGHLIGHTS🌿 Delineated strategic alert level boundaries by modelling population data, commuting patternsand emergency services. The Prime Minister applied these for initiating 5 lockdowns.🌿 Enabled emergency decision-making via advanced techniques, including co-creation of aquarantine compliance dashboard, development of a quarantine monitoring mobile app,government-wide integration of data, and web applications that provided agencies with live data,maps and visualizations.

Lord Howe Island

I brought learning from a successful pest eradication on Antipodes Island to Lord Howe Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a populated island with a unique biodiversity threatened by around 360K invasive rodents. The Lord Howe Island Board initiated a full-scale eradication to preserve its biodiversity, the largest of its kind on an inhabited island. My role was to lead the GIS component of the project to ensure that aerial and ground baiting operations would not only achieve full coverage to be successful, but also minimize the impact of baiting on non-targets and address any concerns of the island’s residents. Having to analyse and cover a 2100 ha area with steep slopes, I drove for mobile and high accuracy solutions for data capture and processing.HIGHLIGHTS🌿 Spearheaded the optimization of a mobile GPS application that was praised as an essential toolfor swift data capture and resolving issues. 🌿 Created the end-to-end data management system that enabled the set-up and maintenance of28K bait stations with seamless weekly servicing by a 50-member team and fast data processing.🌿 Lord Howe Island has been declared free of introduced rats and mice, and the project hailed as alandmark conservation achievement.🌿 The novel data management system has been adopted in at least 8 other island eradications, e.gChagos, Gough and Marion.

Christchurch, New Zealand

After earning a Master’s degree in Geography in Belgium and completing a research assistantship on volcanological risk at Massey University in New Zealand, I was hired to provide diverse geospatial support and advice to units and teams across the New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) to help progress conservation programmes across the country.DOC’s Science, Biodiversity, Contaminated Sites teams were among my main clients, but I also supported the National Emergency Management Agency with emergency GIS support, such as maps for assessing the extent of damage after natural hazards (e.g. earthquake, wildfire).HIGHLIGHTS🌿 Leveraged remote sensing, using e.g. ENVI and eCognition, to advance biodiversity and decarbonization monitoring.🌿 Provided guidance to the Science Team on a proof-of-concept aerial remote sensing technique for detecting invasive pine seedlings – achieved 90% detection accuracy for seedlings >30cm wide on a landscape scale, cutting treatment costs 10-fold.🌿 Planned and executed GIS support for a mouse eradication on Antipodes Island (Million Dollar Mouse project), fulfilling a 12-week field expedition in remote, harsh, subantarctic conditions with a team of 14 international experts. Innovated a bait density measurement that enhanced accuracy 4-fold and has been applied in other island pest eradication programmes.

Postgraduate Degree, Business

Master Of Science (Msc), Geography

Activities and Societies: Student Union: MerkatorErasmus Student Exchange in Gothenburg Sweden, January - June 2012, Internship.