23 Young Geospatial Professionals to Watch in 2023 – 10 of 23

Name: Derek Abernethy
Company: Trimble, Inc.
Current position: Software product manager, vertical construction applications
Age: 26               

Education: BS in Engineering with honors, York University in Toronto, Ontario

Abernethy’s work experience prior to entering the geospatial industry was in heavy civil and house construction where he was initially exposed to cadastral surveying professionals and the inefficiencies of data transfer and rework in the construction industry.  

After graduation, he intended to becoming a cadastral land surveyor. However, upon working as a mine surveyor in Alberta, Canada, and finishing his capstone project in indoor positioning using building’s Wi-Fi signals, he realized he was more interested in how industries utilize and transfer data between stakeholders throughout entire project life cycles.  

Joining the Trimble Rotational Development Program was an easy choice, providing him the opportunity to manage projects focused on improving field solutions and championing geospatial technologies in the fields of heavy civil and vertical construction, as well as tunneling applications. Upon completing the rotation program, Abernethy accepted a full-time role in the field with the vertical construction team. In this role, he manages field and office software for vertical construction applications, focusing on streamlining the field and office solutions to improve ease of use. He also champions the integration and flow of data between the field and office by properly capitalizing on analytics to improve productivity and avoid rework.  

Improving the flow of data is a great first step to streamline and improve the vertical construction industry. However, Abernethy sees taking this effort further by integrating technologies from other stages of the project life cycle, such as the heavy civil stage or the cadastral stages.