Our People

Our staff include:

Piers Higgs - Director
Tom Brownlie - Senior Consultant
Debbie Buckley - Office Administrator
Sarah Di Rosso - Accountant
Andrew Dennison - Spatial Architect
Akeal Hayek - Spatial Analyst
Mel McVee - Spatial Analyst
Charlotte Plug - Spatial Analyst
Grit Schuster - Spatial Analyst
Anthony Jones - Technical Architect
Ben Khoo - Developer
Timo van der Schuit - Developer
Kehan Harman - Developer
Aaron Low - Developer
Stephanie Zeliadt - Developer
Lyn Amery - Systems Administrator
Ben Zeeb - Casual Spatial Analyst
Matt Aravidis - Casual Spatial Analyst

Piers Higgs

Piers Higgs piers@gaiaresources.com.au


Piers Higgs is the Director and founder of Gaia Resources.

He has worked with the environmental industry for most of his career, and has a range of experience in GIS, ecology and data management.

Piers is a Research Associate of the Western Australian Museum.


Tom Brownlie

Tom Brownlie tom@gaiaresources.com.au


Tom is a Senior Consultant at Gaia Resources, working on a very diverse range of projects, including Earth 2.0 and our PDA solutions.

Tom previously worked in the GIS industry in the UK, and has a wealth of experience in helping customers to solve their problems.



Sarah Di Rosso

Sarah Di Rosso sarah@gaiaresources.com.au


Sarah is the Accountant at Gaia Resources, handling all aspects of the accounts, from payables to reporting.

Sarah has previously worked as an Accountant within the manufacturing, construction and recruitment industries.


Andrew Dennison

Andrew Dennison andrew@gaiaresources.com.au


Andrew is a Spatial Architect at Gaia Resources and has a background in geography and data management with considerable Geographical Information Systems experience.

His previous roles include GIS Consultant, GIS Manager, Spatial Database Administrator and Account Manager. Andrew has worked in the public and private sectors in Australia and New Zealand.


Akeal Hayek

Akeal Hayek akeal@gaiaresources.com.au


Akeal is a Spatial Analyst at Gaia Resources, where he enjoys working on anything with a lot of variety!

His previous experience is in land surveying, specialising in the cadastral and engineering sectors. He makes great use of this background in our GIS projects.


Mel McVee

Mel McVee mel@gaiaresources.com.au


Mel is a Spatial Analyst at Gaia Resources, with a background in the oil and gas industry and a previous degree in Visual Arts.

Her strong data management, analytical and aesthetic skills are well suited for working within GIS. Mel is also the in-house artesean and has been involved in the redesign of user interfaces, templates, marketing material and any other facets for design.


Charlotte Plug

Charlotte Plug charlotte@gaiaresources.com.au


Charlotte is a Spatial Analyst at Gaia Resources, having recently completed a GIS and Commerce degree at Curtin University. After four years of casual employment at Gaia, she's excited to finally become full time and put her studies to good use. A lot of her time this year will be spent at Woodside, assisting with GIS mapping and modelling.

Charlotte has won several awards, including the "SSSI Spatial Undergraduate Student of the Year" in 2010, plus the "Best 2nd Year student (Bachelor of Science GIS)" and "The Vic Chancellors Award" in 2009.


Grit Schuster

Grit Schuster grit@gaiaresources.com.au


Grit is a spatial/environmental scientist specialised in the analysis, management and modelling of spatial data.

After completing her doctorate at the Department of Physical Geography at the University of Freiburg, Germany she worked as research fellow at Curtin University's Spatial Sciences Department. Her research background lies in the application of remote sensing and GIS technologies in the analysis of climatic processes and spatial epidemiology.


Anthony Jones

Anthony Jones anthony@gaiaresources.com.au


Anthony (or AJ) is a Technical Architect at Gaia Resources, and works on most of our software development projects, whether in design, management or implementation.

Anthony has a background in the defence industries, specialising in simulation software and systems integration. He is an enthusiast in sustainability and a strong proponent of open source software and standards.


Ben Khoo

Ben Khoo ben.khoo@gaiaresources.com.au


Ben is a Developer at Gaia Resources, working on Earth 2.0 amongst other things.

He comes from a background in the defence industry, specialising in simulation software and performance assessment. He has a Bachelor of Engineering majoring in Software Engineering with Honours.


Timo van der Schuit

Timo van der Schuit timo@gaiaresources.com.au


Timo is a Developer at Gaia Resources, working on a mobile solution to be used for surveying and educational purposes.

Timo studied Computer Science in the Netherlands and Australia. He thinks mobile software development is the best!


Kehan Harman

Kehan Harman kehan@gaiaresources.com.au


Kehan is a Developer at Gaia Resources working on Citizen Science projects amongst others.

He comes from a background in both botany and software development, specialising in building community applications for scientific communities. He has a Master of Science degree in Bioinformatics and undergraduate qualifications in Botany and Microbiology with Botany Honours.


Aaron Low

Aaron Low aaron@gaiaresources.com.au


Aaron is a developer working on the Atlas of Living Australia Project.

He has worked in a variety of areas covering embedded, application and web development in the communications and medical industries. He is an advocate of good software development processes to help the team deliver on time and on budget.


Stephanie Zeliadt

Stephanie Zeliadt stephanie@gaiaresources.com.au


Stephanie is a Developer at Gaia Resources working on Citizen Science projects.

She has studied Computer Science in the US. Her background is in research project development, specifically in geology and ocean science.


Lyn Amery

Lyn Amery lyn@gaiaresources.com.au


Lyn joined Gaia Resources as a systems administrator, working to maintain its systems and internal applications.

She describes Unix as her First Love, but works amiably with most operating systems. In addition to a long history in systems admin, she has recently constructed digital collection systems and web services for the state government.


Ben Zeeb

Ben Zeeb ben@gaiaresources.com.au


Ben is a Casual Spatial Analyst at Gaia resources, and is the Gaia Resources Scholarship winner from 2008.

He is a student from Curtin University of Technology, studying a Geographic Information Science degree.


Matt Aravidis

Matt Aravidis matt@gaiaresources.com.au


Matt is a Casual Spatial Analyst at Gaia resources, and is another of the Gaia Resources Scholarship winners.

Matt is studying a double degree in Geology and GIS at Curtin University of Technology.