Dr. Gobe Hobona is the OGC’s Director of Product Management, Standards. In this role he manages coordination between Standards Working Groups (SWGs) and setspriorities for standards development (in cooperation with SWG chairs). He also oversees the development of OGC Application Programming Interface (API) Standards and their harmonization. He identifies opportunities for investment in SWG participation, compliance test development, and various OGC initiatives. He monitors and participates in SWG activities, as well as organises code sprints to advance standards or verify their design. Since 2025, Gobe is responsible for the OGC Testbed series. The OGC Testbed series is an annual research and development program that explores geospatial technology while taking current and potential future OGC Standards into account.
Gobe represents OGC on the IST/36 committee on geographic information of the British Standards Institution (BSI). He also serves as Chair of the OGC Naming Authority and Co-Chair of the OGC’s Architecture Domain Working Group. He has previously served on the Open Standards Board of the UK’s Cabinet Office.
Prior to joining OGC staff, Gobe was the Consultancy Team Leader and Head of Applied Research at Envitia. He has also previously held postdoctoral research posts at Newcastle University and the University of Nottingham.
He holds a PhD in Geomatics from Newcastle University, and an MBA from Robert Gordon University. He also holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Geographic Information Science from Newcastle University. He is a professional member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).