Niels Wielaard
Niels Wielaard is the Dutch CEO, founder and co-owner of Satelligence, a SaaS platform using satellite data and AI to help corporates improve their supply chain sustainability and track environmental risks. Before founding Satelligence in 2016, he spent 14 years at earth-monitoring company SarVision, which is a spin-off of Wageningen University in Utrecht, where he was a senior project manager and, previously, a remote sensing and geo-information specialist. Wielaard holds a master’s in Forestry from Wageningen University and has always been passionate about forest sustainability. His other work experience includes one year as a GIS research analyst at another Utrecht-based initiative, the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development, as part of a post-master’s research project developing a new mapping methodology for the design of biological corridors. He also completed stints during his studies working on pilot forestry-based carbon offset projects at an NGO and in forest certification research for the Dutch space agency, Space Netherlands.
RELATED INSIGHTS
Satelligence: Satellite data and AI helping corporate giants source commodities more sustainably
Satelligence monitors environmental risks across 6bn hectares of mostly tropical forest for high-profile clients such as Pepsico, Nestlé and Unilever
