Kablamo taps McDowell for geo-spatial expertise

Data management and digital product development specialist Kablamo has hired Andrew McDowell as its first geo-spatial technology lead.

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"We believe that many opportunities to apply geo-spatial technology to many pressing problems have fallen into the space between government and the private sector. Andy is a key hire to help us address these opportunities and make a difference," said Kablamo co-CEO Angus Dorney.

"Andy matched what we were looking for. He has pioneered the latest technical advancements in the space, and also understands how important it is to integrate technology into an amazing user experience."

McDowell joins the company from Propeller Aero, where he led the development of Propeller's highly successful geo-spatial mapping tool.

He previously worked as a senior frontend engineer at Mi9, a UI engineer at Pace, a software engineer at Asidua, and a database developer at NICS Business Services.

McDowell holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Queen's University Belfast.

One of Kablamo's key focuses is to support its bushfire technology development work which the company launched in the wake of the devastating bushfires in 2019 and 2020.

"As a team, we were moved by the urgency of the bushfires. We committed to doing what we could to help in the fight. So we applied our specialties in AI, cloud and understanding user journeys and did a lot of listening to firefighting organisations across Australia," said Kablamo co-CEO and founder Allan Waddell.

"There's plenty of buzz and urgency. But what became clear was that technology will only work if it delivers what the people on the frontline actually need. A very clear part of this need is understanding fires as they happen in real time as comprehensively as possible."

Hence the need for McDowell's geo-spatial expertise.

"We're going to turn up the volume on mapping, 3D experiences, virtual reality and gamification. I'm excited to be joining Kablamo at this critical point where we will be pushing maps beyond traditional bounds to understand data in new ways. I'm also getting to work with some old colleagues who are top-shelf talent," McDowell said.

"With the firefighting initiative, basically any data that can go on a map should go on a map. What's interesting is marrying the mapping tech with great user experience which will let the data be truly valuable and actionable."