Redlands, California—Mark Cygan, ESRI, was recently elected to the International Map Trade Association (IMTA)—(Americas) Board of Directors. For the last 12 years, Cygan has been consulting on cartographic projects for national mapping organizations; providing product direction for software development; and, most recently, advocating for the trade as the manager for the map, chart and data production industry at ESRI. Other map and data production experience include his work at NAVTEQ, Rand McNally & Co., and the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Cygan has served on the IMTA (Americas) marketing committee since the beginning of this year. The committee focuses on increasing exposure of the organization. "IMTA brings together many organizations and individuals associated with mapmaking today," says Cygan. "As a director on the board and a member of the GIS industry's leading software company, I hope to continue IMTA's goal of connecting the business of maps worldwide."

ESRI president Jack Dangermond adds, "We are happy to support IMTA (Americas) through Mark's participation. Involvement from the geospatial industry experts is especially important in this business as the world continues to change both physically and politically and new mapping technologies are employed to author, serve, and use the map data representing these changes."

The IMTA (Americas) organization is a resource for individuals and institutions engaged in the production and sale of maps, globes, travel guides, spatial information, and related products and materials. With members from more than 50 countries on six continents, representing more than 800 companies and organizations, IMTA shapes, supports, and promotes the cartographic industry.

Other ESRI staff currently serving on IMTA regional boards of directors include Peter Jolly, ESRI, and Rob Sharpe, ESRI (UK) Ltd., serving with IMTA (Europe, Africa and Middle East), and Clark Swinehart, ESRI, serving as director-at-large with IMTA (Americas).

Two additional directors were elected to the board this fall: Larry Charboneau, the Lawrence Group, and Ted Florence, Avenza Systems, Inc.

About ESRI

Since 1969, ESRI has been giving customers around the world the power to think and plan geographically. The market leader in GIS, ESRI software is used in more than 300,000 organizations worldwide including each of the 200 largest cities in the United States, most national governments, more than two-thirds of Fortune 500 companies, and more than 7,000 colleges and universities. ESRI applications, running on more than one million desktops and thousands of Web and enterprise servers, provide the backbone for the world's mapping and spatial analysis. ESRI is the only vendor that provides complete technical solutions for desktop, mobile, server, and Internet platforms. Visit www.esri.com.