NEO is ready for the future according to founder Rob Beck, who is retiring after more than 28 years of NEO.
Amersfoort, March 21, 2024 - NEO, the Dutch specialist in geo-ICT and earth observation, said goodbye to founder Rob Beck together with its key relations during the 2024 relation day. Mr Beck, who founded his company "Netherlands Earth Observation" (NEO) founded, leaving behind a healthy and growing company. In 2023, Eindhoven-based Itility became the owner of NEO.
Updating geodata about our living environment with earth observation has proven to be a branch of sport that offers solutions to many problems. This is a great basis for NEO to move forward with. Thus Rob Beck (founder NEO)
The content of the relation day was filled by a keynote by Professor Dr Kirsten de Beurs affiliated with Wageningen University, who updated visitors on the latest developments in remote sensing. A special story because Kirsten once started her career at NEO using satellite data on a national scale. In addition to the Fair, many former NEO employees were also present. Characteristic of NEO, Rob Beck's story revealed, is that in the company's history, many Geo and Gis experts received their practical training at NEO at the start of their careers. After which they have fanned out to various organisations operating in the field. It typifies the company that during its three decades of operation has always grabbed its social role by giving young talent a chance and striving for an open data culture in the sector. This is evidenced, for example, by the National Tree Register, a cooperative launched by Beck in 2014 in collaboration with Geodan and Wageningen University, among others.
Guest speaker Marcel Meijer of Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland presented the historical development in monitoring and control of the agricultural sector based on satellite data. In doing so, Meijer outlined a future perspective in which innovative methods in agricultural monitoring will find their application. Guest speaker Ivo Visser of network operator Stedin presented the gas risk model, which uses geo-data to detect and prevent areas where failures and outages occur.
Beck leaves NEO in good hands, Jan Erik Wien active at NEO since 2018 will fill the role of CEO, forming the management together with Cornelis Valk (CTO), Erik Brunekreef (CCO) and Hilde Jongma (HR).
"Rob's vision for Earth observation has become a unique DataFactory for Earth observation-based information services. Rob leaves NEO excellent behind. It is up to the incumbent management to realise the international growth potential in the coming years together with the team. Here we have every confidence. - Thus Jan Erik Wien (CEO)"
NEO's new management gave an advance look at the company's strategic direction. The focus will be more on selling data services from the SignalEyes DataFactory. Here, NEO demonstrated the possibility of offering combined data services for the green living environment, for example. In the future, this could itself be done using so-called 'Large Language Models', a kind of ChatGPT interface, which users could use to query NEO's data factory. In doing so, NEO does not deviate from its core business, Earth observation. Here, the AI and deep-learning models NEO has will always be used to monitor changes in objects in order to interpret environmental quality or risk.
"The aim is to make geo data available to a wider group of users. Here, the distribution of our data will be an important part of our strategy in the future. - Says Erik Brunekreef (CCO)".
Finally, the event concluded festively by appropriately thanking Mr Beck for his contribution to the industry and to NEO.
