Welcoming five new advisors to guide the company through future growth

June 18, 2021

We are excited to announce the introduction of a Board of Advisors to provide guidance and direction to the PlanIT Geo™ executive team. As we continue to grow and pursue ambitious goals, this board will leverage its collective skills and expertise to preserve our place as an industry leader.

Each advisor brings significant experience in their specialized field, including software engineering, international marketing, urban forestry, entrepreneurship, and education. Collectively, the board members will be instrumental in assisting PlanIT Geo to determine the strategy for 2021 and beyond.

“We sought out expertise in key areas such as startup, geospatial technology, international, marketing, academia, and found it! The board is already playing a valuable role in guiding strategic decisions as a sounding board and leveraging their network to broaden our relationships.”

-Ian Hanou, CEO and Founder, PlanIT Geo™

Cecil Konijnendijk

Cecil Konijnendijk is an internationally leading urban forestry scholar, educator and consultant, currently based in Barcelona, Spain. He co-founded the Nature Based Solutions Institute in 2020 and is also a Program Director of the Master of Urban Forestry Leadership at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Cecil has authored and edited several seminal textbooks in urban forestry. He co-founded the academic journal ‘Urban Forestry & Urban Greening’ and is currently editor-in-chief of the ISA journal ‘Arboriculture & Urban Forestry’. During his career, Cecil has advised international organisations such as FAO and the European Commission, and local and national governments in over 30 countries on urban forestry issues.

Renata Lima Lerch

Renata is a hands-on leader with international experience in Fortune 500, not-for-profit, and start-ups. She has managed global marketing and market development teams for over 20 years, delivering successful programs in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. She has created transformational customer and member engagement initiatives using methodologies such as Design Thinking and Agile. Renata is a published author and speaker, specializing in global market development and Agile.

Cameron Etezadi

Cameron is an experienced technology leader with over 20 years of distributed systems and cloud-based experience, where he specializes in highly available, highly distributed, high-velocity platforms. In addition to multiple engineering and leadership roles at Microsoft and Amazon, he has held senior executive roles at large public companies over his career which delivered software, technology, and experiences that have touched billions of end-users and generated hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. Cameron currently resides in Seattle with his wife.

Lewis Sheats

Sheats is an entrepreneur and educator. He has identified and developed several unique new ventures from launch to profitability and has raised venture funding and bootstrapped several ventures from concept to exit.

Sheats serves as the assistant vice provost for Entrepreneurship and the executive director of the NC State Entrepreneurship Clinic, an initiative that exposes students to experiential learning, embeds them in the entrepreneurship community, and provides the resources needed to execute their own ideas. As a faculty member of the NC State Poole College of Management, he is devoted to preparing the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Sheats is an award-winning educator who was recently named an Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Professor by the NC State Alumni Association and the 2015 Dr. John S. Risley Entrepreneur of the Year.

Brian Collins

Brian has dedicated himself to applying operational and technological leadership to long-term public service initiatives from public safety to climate change to national defense. A proven leader focused on assembling and developing teams to solve difficult and challenging problems, Mr. Collins is excited to join PlanIT Geo and help accelerate the company’s vision to promote their groundbreaking vision of the role of urban forestry within the context of urban sustainability and resilience.

Brian co-founded Intterra, a private company dedicated to applying technology to advance the ability of first responders to tackle the complex challenges facing today’s firefighters, emergency managers, and health care providers. Prior to forming Intterra, he was a Senior Principal at SRA International, previously performed civil service within the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency was a technical manager for the Boeing Company and Autometric, Inc., and (most importantly) served our nation as a United States Marine. He is a graduate of Rice University and the Naval Postgraduate School.