What We Do
sciGaia provides analytic wellbeing solutions to companies, NGOs and governments. Combining best-in-class software with in-house technologies and expertise, our solutions support higher quality wellbeing assessments and analysis, better planning for wellbeing improvement, and complete tracking of all decisions, thus enabling organizations to improve their wellbeing while accounting for the non-market impacts their actions have on the wellbeing of human society and the planet.
Who We Are
Gary Gannon
Founder, Product Manager
Gary has been an entrepreneur for over 50 years, motivated by the goal to benefit society and the environment. He has formed and managed companies in diverse fields, and over the last 25 years he has focused on AI expert systems, software, and web development.
His company UBmatrix became a world leading XBRL-based software and data exchange company. Through UBmatrix, Gary played a key role in developing the international data language and related global consortium called eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), an XML digital language for describing business information, which has become a Global Standard, adopted by over 30 countries. UBmatrix created the first major XBRL project in the United States for the FDIC and collaborated on building the International Accounting Standards XBRL taxonomy used throughout the world.
Gary has worked hard to build an outstanding team of experts to help develop web services and data solutions designed to help decision makers increase human and environmental wellbeing. Gary has been active in Montana community development and startup ecosystems. He is the inaugural Entrepreneur in Residence at Montana State University, Bozeman.
Rob Lindner
Founder, Solutions Lead for Environmental Wellbeing
Rob developed a passion for sustainability at an early age thanks to a family history full of agricultural production and admiration for what nature can provide. As a researcher and project manager, he has worked globally, in many collaborative groups, and with many cultures including Indigenous Peoples, fostering a better understanding of the socio-ecological systems we live in.
He honed his ecological and scientific basis at the University of Montana studying Wildlife Biology. Joining academic and government research projects he explored conflict and trade-offs in conservation. Working for non-profits like The Nature Conservancy, he gained an appreciation for the power of collaboration and partnership, and the power of GIS. He developed a fascination for and expertise in monitoring and evaluation, in particular outcomes and impact, at Imperial College London, and has since been engaged in telling stories with data and visualizations. In particular, using GIS to develop maps, charts and graphs has become a favorite method.
Rob has experience in a wide range of sustainability topics including ecotourism, ranching and land management, real estate remediation and development, conservation and community development, and corporate sustainability. He has been able to put those experiences and perspectives to use at sciGaia to better understand project partners strengths and needs, and to provide holistic tools to represent the many dimensions that contribute to wellbeing.
Erik Thomsen
Chief Technology Officer, Solutions Lead for Wellbeing Analytics
For over 20 years Erik has been pushing the envelope of logically- and ontologically-grounded analytic/intelligent software technologies and the applications they support with a recent emphasis on the use of ontological grammars to create intelligent information systems that support both Real and Financial aspects of integrated socio-economic-environmental-political performance management across all levels of governance.
He is a world authority in the field of multidimensional information systems. He co-founded Power Thinking Tools, the first software company to develop cell-level dependency tracking and loosely coupled multi-level representations for multidimensional databases. As aggregation expert for the World Bank, he developed the environment model for the first Earth Summit, the human well-being model for its 50th anniversary Board meeting and the computational logic for how the World Bank calculates multi-level representations of worldwide data. As chief scientist at DSSlab, his large clients included Intel, IBM, Oracle and AC Nielsen. As Distinguished Scientist at Hyperion Solutions, he designed their first heterogeneous data integration engine. As a principal scientist at Charles River Analytics, he was PI on several multimillion-dollar government-sponsored R&D efforts focused on the use of ontological grammars for situation awareness and dynamic re-planning.
He has been an invited speaker at numerous conferences and workshops. He has been awarded market-defining patents in information complexity and semantics and chaired two leading industry organizations: the OLAP Council and the Analytical Solutions Forum. He is also the author or co-author of several reference books including OLAP Solutions: Building Multidimensional Information Systems 2nd edition, which is used around the world in both graduate computer science and MBA programs. Two of the companies he co-founded were acquired in unsolicited acquisitions.
Amber Caldwell
Solutions Lead for Human Wellbeing
Amber Caldwell has been dedicated to healthcare for over 14 years. Her unique experience having co-founded an internationally recognized non-profit within a major academic institution led to various leadership roles impacting systems change. Her focus on surgical education and trauma system strengthening resulted in over 20 peer reviewed publications in leading academic medical journals and best practice teaching programs for resident education within orthopedic trauma. Her varied experience within the health sector locally and globally provides insight into the complex interface between clinical needs, economic constraints and heath policy concerns. Amber is the founder of Connect to Impact, LLC working with various health sector non profits and social impact organizations on strategic development, impact assessment and program implementation.
Amber is currently focused on sciGaia's Community Needs Tracker and the potential of TrueView to improve local and global health systems - access, efficiency and effectiveness. She is an advocate for the marginalized and is committed to sustainable, collaborative solutions for root cause issues.
Sean Gannon
UI & Prototyping Developer
Sean Gannon is a multifaceted creative: a graphic designer and front-end web developer with experience in visual identity, film making, user interface design, and information design. Sean has over a decade of experience creating digital media across multiple disciplines, and his designs are formulated with refined utility and clear presentation of information as guiding priorities.
Sean plays a leading role in development of sciGaia’s software interfaces, visual identity, websites, and videos, and helps design visualizations that convert complex data into intuitive representations of those data.
Uday Kothari
Director of Software Development
sciGaia’s development team, run by Uday Kothari, creates programs, database resources, and web-based solutions. Uday has decades of experience running programming teams and has extensive programming, database, and project management experience. The team he manages has a wide range of expertise in programming, visualizations, user interface, project management, web services, complex databases, big data, blockchain technology, map-based systems, and data analysis.
Advisors
John O'Connor
John O'Connor has 50 years’ experience designing decision-support systems for international organizations, governments, and corporations. He was team lead advising on wealth assessment for Abu Dhabi’s Environment Agency: The Emirate sustainability framework (2007-9); Assessed the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s institution’s forecasting methodology and integration of projections with historical data systems (2006). While serving at the World Bank, he created/managed the environmental monitoring system as Senior Advisor in Environment Department (1992-5) and overhauled the Bank’s decision support system for financial preferences, etc., as Chief of Comparative Analysis and Data (1986-92). Earlier in his career, John created and managed monitoring systems for international banking at the International Monetary Fund (1982-85); worked as ‘Knowledge broker’ between systems experts and economists on creating historical and projections data systems (1964-85) and worked on revision of the UN System of National Accounts (UNSNA) - both 1968 and 1992 revisions.
Brent Brock
Brent is a landscape ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society and owner of HoloScene Wildlife Services LLC, a private consulting company dedicated to protecting and restoring ecological integrity at all scales. Brent has over 30 years’ professional experience in ecology and wildlife conservation. At the Konza Prairie Biological Station, he served as Information Manager and studied bison grazing ecology. Working with the Wildlife Conservation Society, he conducted a landscape-level wildlife conservation assessment of the Madison Valley in Montana. While at Craighead Institute, he incorporated theories of landscape ecology into the conservation of large, complex ecosystems.
Brent combines innovative analytical techniques with GIS mapping to combine landscape-scale conservation planning with local land use decision making. These tools help professionals and private land owners to make better decisions about land management to protect our wildlife and the habitat on which they depend. Brent plays a leading role in helping sciGaia design web-based geographical information systems, maps, overlays, data sets, and data analytics.
Pete Coppolillo
Pete received a bachelor’s degree with honors in Biology and Environmental Conservation from the University of Colorado and a Ph.D. in Ecology from the University of California, Davis. Pete worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society for 10 years, first at their New York Headquarters and then as part of the Africa and North America Programs. Pete has studied Ferruginous Hawks in North America, avian community ecology in Kenya, and large herbivore ecology and herding systems in Tanzania. He has helped plan and carry out conservation strategies in Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Congo, Cambodia, Tanzania, and the United States. His publications appear in Conservation Biology, Biological Conservation, PLOS (Public Library of Science), Human Ecology, Landscape and Urban Planning, Landscape Ecology, and Science, and he is co-author of the book Conservation: Linking Ecology, Economics and Culture (2005 Princeton Univ. Press).
Dr. Rick Leary
Rick Leary brings over 30 year’s experience as a Family Physician and healthcare executive to his role as Healthcare Solutions Manager. Rick has an in-depth knowledge of healthcare and business operations, having designed and led transformation across the spectrum of a Fortune 15 Company, payers, hospitals and provider offices.
Rick is committed to improving the wellbeing of the people and communities he serves. Having retired from clinical practice, Rick came to Montana in service to that mission as an AmeriCorps Vista. He is currently serving with the Montana Primary Care Association; improving care for the most vulnerable patients at the Community Health Centers and Urban Indian Alliances. It is sciGaia’s vision of sustainable wellbeing and the vital role healthcare plays in our communities that drew him to this exciting organization.
Rick offers expertise and experience in Product Management, Big Data Analytics, Strategic Planning, clinical operations, software solutions, and Quality Improvement.
Wendy Davidoff
Wendy Davidoff’s career spans over 30 years in the computing and building technology industries. Her background was developed in large multi-national companies like MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, Motorola and Epic Data. Wendy has more than 10 years experience at the executive level shaping corporate divisions and start-up companies. She has held key positions responsible for corporate and product marketing, strategic planning, professional and customer services, operations, sales support and project management. This broad base of knowledge allows her to consult at virtually all levels in an organization.
As a principal at JR & W Consultants, Inc. for the past 10 years, Wendy has consulted to a variety of companies in Western Canada and the United States. As a strategic thinker, she is skilled in the design and execution of effective business programs to help clients conceive and act upon their corporate and product visions. The goal is to bring organizational clarity and focus. By creating and defining internal processes that are customer-centric, Wendy has shown a proven ability to build and broaden revenue bases while efficiently executing within operating budgets.
Rhyno Stinchfield
Rhyno Stinchfield has been involved with the Renewable Energy and Sustainability sectors for over 35 years having conducted business in all 50 United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Mexico and abroad. Mr. Stinchfield’s primary focus has been on new, innovative technologies in wind, solar, battery storage and energy efficiency. He has consulted with companies such as Juhl Energy, Floating Island International, Energy Northwest, Acuity Power Group, Quad-Lock Building Systems and Taisei Wind Turbines. He has managed teams that presented first-class displays at conferences with over 100,000 attendees and developed extensive training programs including ones with the American Institute of Architects Continuing Education.
Mr. Stinchfield was also the founder of a Northern Rockies utility-scale wind development company. He has spoken at numerous energy conferences, is on the Advisory Board at Montana State University Billing’s City College and a member of the Clean Energy Task Force of Northern Plains Resource Council.
Peter Bing
Peter Bing has been leveraging technology to enable cross-functional collaboration for over 15 years. As a CPA, he has successfully combined financial and operational reporting, across multiple business functions, to deliver actionable insight for stakeholder groups. Peter's project management experience includes enterprise software implementations, rebranding campaigns and the construction of exclusive residential estates. He uses systems thinking, probing models, and an understanding of ontologies and taxonomies within organizations to consistently provide creative decision-support solutions.
As a student and partitioner of permaculture, he has studied the intricate interdependencies between ecological, cultural and institutional systems. His interest in how these systems affect human, environmental, and societal wellbeing and exploring these relationships using data-driven insights has led him to sciGaia.