Executive Team
Glenn Milnes , CEO
Glenn has been alongside ikeGPS from the company's earliest days. He joined the company from No 8 Ventures - New Zealand's leading technology investor, where he had executive and board roles for a number of technology companies. Prior to that he was Strategy Manager with Cable & Wireless International, London with responsibility for a portfolio of international businesses and he has also held senior sales and finance roles in London. Glenn holds an MBA with distinction from Imperial College London, a BPhed and a BSc Finance with 1st Class Honors.
Leon Toorenburg, Founder, CTO and Executive Director
Originally an engineer, Leon brings deep GIS and GPS product and market knowledge, extensive customer relationships and unparalleled industry networks. As the founder and inventor of ikeGPS, Leon loves talking to customers, experimenting, inventing and finding solutions for large real world problems. He has a B.Sc and BE Honours in electrical engineering from the University of Canterbury and holds several US patents.
Paul Brewerton, COO
Paul joined ikeGPS with 20 years of Operational and Supply Chain experience in the telecommunications industry. With an engineering background, Paul is originally from the UK and has spent the last 15 years in Asia, based in Tokyo and Hong Kong, managing regional operations across Asia for Nortel Networks. He holds an EMBA from Kellogg-HKUST and a B.Eng (Hons) in Manufacturing Systems Engineering.
Brian Soliday, Senior VP of Sales
Brian has over 25 years experience working in sales, marketing and channel development within the GIS and remote sensing industries. He has held VP and director level positions with geospatial organizations including Autodesk, Trimble Navigation, Space Imaging, LizardTech, Intermap Technologies, TerraGo, SANZ, Genasys and VLSystems. Brian is well travelled in the industry arena having presented at over 50 geospatial events and published articles in; Planning, Point of Beginning, GEOinformatics, The World & I, GEOEurope, Journal of the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping, Arc News, Space News, and Earth Observation Magazine.
Ron Elsis, VP Product Management
Ron has over 25 years experience in the geospatial market working for hardware, software, data, and solution providers. He was formerly Director of Product Strategy at GeoEye, Senior Director Product Management at DigitalGlobe and Product Manager at Motorola. Ron holds a MA in Analytic Geography from the City University of New York and a BA from the State University of New York in Oneonta.
Jeremy Gold, Senior Software Architect
Jeremy holds a Bachelor’s degree in computer science, an Honors degree in electronic engineering and has worked in the telecommunications industry with a strong focus on testing in France, Japan, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, including a secondment to the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) as a Specialist Task Force Expert. Jeremy holds a BSc in Computer Science from Victoria University BE (hons) in Electronic Engineering from Canterbury University.
Board and Advisory Board
Jenny Morel, Chairman
Jenny is Managing Partner of No 8 Ventures, New Zealand's leading investor in global technology companies. For No 8 Ventures she has been a director of 13 early stage companies. She is currently chairman of Rex Bionics, and a director of Open Cloud and Martin Aircraft Company. Jenny has also held director positions for several listed companies including NZ Rail and Trust Bank. Jenny was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to business. Jenny holds a MA in Economics (1st Class Honours) from the University of Auckland.
Peter Britnell, Director
Peter is a GIS industry veteran who established and grew the Smallworld business that listed on Nasdaq and was later acquired by General Electric. Peter held roles including head of global sales, VP Asia Pacific and he was subsequently also VP Sales USA for GE Smallworld.
Alex Knowles, Director
Alex operates a number of companies in the Information Technology and Transportation industries with a focus on technology and efficiency created from adherence to best industry practices. Alex was formerly COO of the largest international freight forwarder and small parcel consolidator in the US.
Mark Breier, Board observer
Mark was formerly VP Marketing with Amazon, managing partner of Fast Angel Ventures and President and CEO of Beyond.com. Mark has an MBA from the Standford Graduate School of Business.
Alan Nunns, Advisory Board
Alan is the former CIO and General Manager of Technology and Strategy for Chevron. Originally a geophysicist, Alan maintains strong links into the Energy, Oil & Gas and GIS industries and is currently on the US Beachheads Advisory Board for NZTE. Alan holds a PhD from the University of Durham where he was the Commonwealth Scholar.
Alan Townsend, Advisory Board
Alan is the former Group Vice President of Trimble Navigation where he was responsible for their Field Solutions group that comprised Trimble’s $200M mapping and GIS division. This encompassed world-wide balance sheet responsibility for the sales, marketing and engineering operations of these two divisions. Prior to that, he served in various technical and management roles within the Datacom group of companies in New Zealand including Managing Director of Datacom Software Research Ltd.
Elmar Toime, Advisory Board
Elmar is chairman of Postea Inc, a postal technology group, a Supervisory Board member of Deutsche Post DHL, the world’s leading logistics company, chairman of message A.G., a German-based postal consultancy, and non-executive director of Blackbay Limited. Elmar was formerly CEO of New Zealand Post and Executive Deputy Chairman of the Royal Mail Group, UK. In 2004 he was awarded a life-time achievement award for leadership in the postal industry.