Our Team

Get to know our team members

Who We Are

Co-Founders Steve Brumby and Sam Hyde met at the National Geographic Society, where they led the Society to develop open-source technology and geospatial science data that Impact Observatory continues to develop and bring to market.

Impact Observatory's team combines deep technical expertise with space observation systems and decades of experience creating world-leading AI+space systems for the US Government, with experience delivering innovative commercial data products for industry, finance, and governments.

Meet Our Team

IO Executives

Steven Brumby, PhD

Co-founder, CEO/CTO

Steve was the Co-Founder and CTO of Descartes Labs, a venture-backed start-up focused on understanding agriculture, natural resources, and human geography using deep learning technology and satellite imagery. Steve was a Senior Research Scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) working on deep-learning and genetic algorithms for video, image, and signals analysis. A co-inventor of LANL’s GENIE image analysis algorithm (R&D100 Award 2002). He received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Particle Physics at the University of Melbourne (Australia) in 1997 and has over 100 science papers and journal articles.

/stevenbrumby

Sam Hyde

Co-founder, Head of Operations

Samantha Hyde joins Impact Observatory following her time as a Senior Program Manager for Geographic Visualization at National Geographic Society where she co-developed and ran a $6M annual R&D program for conservation technology. Previously she was the Lead Director at Madison River Group, a climate-centric consulting firm providing science based decision support solutions and she served as the Executive Secretariat at the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) where she provided strategic guidance to the White House Subcommittee on Global Change Research (SGCR).

/samantha-brooks-hyde

Mark Mathis

Head of Engineering

Mark Mathis was an inaugural recipient of the Department of Energy High Performance Computer Science Fellowship and went on to a long year career at Los Alamos National Laboratory, primarily in the Decision Applications Division, before becoming a Co-Founder and Principal Engineer at Descartes Labs. Mark continues to get great science into the hands of decision makers at Impact Observatory.

/aliasmrchips

Dan Klaussen

Head of Product

Prior to joining Impact Observatory Dan was VP of Digital Innovation at Marriott International for over 4 years where he led numerous projects in the Customer Experience and IT Strategy departments. As a consultant, he’s led projects in digital transformation for National Geographic Society (identity management, platform infrastructure and geovisualization), PBS (digital video strategy and mobile applications) and Geico (ipad application.) Daniel has over 20 years as a Group Product Manager leading product teams.

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Katy Densmore

Head of Business

Over the course of her career, Katy has worked in both corporate and nonprofit settings throughout North America and across Europe and Asia. She brings over 20 years of technical, leadership, strategic, and environmental experience to our team. At IO, Katy is responsible for the development of customer partnerships and the execution of projects to bring geospatial intelligence to sustainability and risk management challenges.

/katy-densmore

Amy Larson, PhD

Head of Science

Amy brings 24 years expertise in applied machine learning, computer vision, and remote sensing, specializing in EO satellite imagery. Prior to joining IO, Amy was a U.S. Technical Expert at the International Atomic Energy Agency in the Safeguards satellite imagery analysis section, on assignment from Los Alamos National Laboratory. At LANL she was Deputy Group Leader for Information Sciences and lead an applied deep learning portfolio. Amy has designed algorithms for multiple R&D satellites and scientific instruments. She received her Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering with a Minor in Optical Sciences from The University of Arizona, Tucson in 2004.

/dramylarson