Eric Van Praag Email & Phone Number

California, United States

I joined Esri in 2015 as a senior program manager for natural resources, Web GIS and SDI projects. During this time I have provided project management and consulting support to several US and international agencies that include the UN, the US Department of Agriculture, the US Bureau of Land Management, several US state departments of natural resources, Mott MacDonald UK, the Economic Commission for Western African States, the Asian Development Bank and the City of San Francisco, among others.

Caracas Area, Venezuela

Coordination of the GeoSur Program (www.geosur.info), an initiative to facilitate access, use, and analysis of geospatial information for decision-making in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Program has received 4 international awards, including the ESRI Presidential Award in 2012.Coordination of several geospatial projects that deal with flood mapping, hydropower assessment and ICT technologies for development.

Venezuela

I provided project coordination support for the IABIN Environmental Network, a project co-sponsored by the World Bank and the Organization of American StatesThe project promoted the linking of geospatial and environmental information and was developed under the aegis of the Inter American Biodiversity Information Network (IABIN). The project helped to establish a network of geospatial and environmental data providers in Central America. I coordinated the geospatial component of this project, worked with the USGS to obtain the regional data, organized and coordinated capacity-building workshops, provided oversight for building and operating the desktop GIS and web applications, and provided liaison with all project stakeholders.

Venezuela

I supported several USGS-led and USAID funded projects in Latin American. This included the GeoCafe initiative, instrumental in establishing a suite of map services and apps for the specialty coffee sectors in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and Guatemala. I provided project management support, and was tasked with the design of the system, overseeing the implementation of the online applications, preparing and organizing the capacity-building component, and the establishment of a knowledge transfer program so the local partners could operate and maintain the systems beyond the life of the project.I also coordinated the establishment of a Web-based natural disaster data dissemination system in Central America after Hurricane Mitch. I coordinated the implementation of spatial data catalogs in four of the affected countries, trained partners in metadata development and management, prepared project reports, managed the project’s budget and acted as the liaison for project stakeholders. The project established a mechanism for governments to quickly obtain timely and precise information in times of emergency.

Msc Environmental Resources

Computer Science, Bachelor

Activities and Societies: Venezuelan School of Engineers Bachelor in Computer Sciences. Graduated in 5 years