Our Team

IGS has a fully experienced team of specialists. Get in touch with us today for your pre-competitive data and infrastructure specialist needs.

View our Team profiles below

Dr. Peter Zawada
Managing Director
Dr Peter Zawada

Geologist with over 30 years of experience. Previously Executive Manager Regional Geoscience and Mapping at the Council for Geoscience, South Africa, where he was responsible for national and commercial international multi-million dollar programmes and capacity-building initiatives. He has experience in reform and restructuring of National Geological Survey Organisations e.g. Botswana and Algeria.

Dr. Frik Hartzer
Senior Project Geologist
Dr Frik Hartzer

Frik has more than 45 years of experience in geological work, especially in geological mapping, specializing in map compilation,  international geological programs and institutional reform of National Geological Surveys, worldwide. He has previously worked for 33 years for the Council for Geoscience (South Africa) before joining IGS in 2014. He has also worked as an independent consultant to the minerals and mining community.

Frik has overseen several  large international geological projects on behalf of funding agencies such as the World Bank, Islamic Bank, African Development Bank, Nordic Development Fund and various governments. He has worked with all the large geological surveys such as the BGS, BRGM, USGS, GTK, NGU, CGS (China), CGS (South Africa) and many other national geological surveys. He has worked in most of the SADC (Southern African Development Countries), as well as in projects in Mauritania, Madagascar, Mozambique, Cameroon, Uganda and Lao. Frik has also been involved in the institutional reform projects in the National Geological Surveys of Suriname, Algeria, Zambia and Malawi. Currently he is active in the various geologic projects been carried out in Saudi Arabia by the Saudi Geological Survey, where he has acted as Project Manager and Leader of the geological mapping component.

Frik Hartzer has a PhD degree from the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Dr. Ash Johnson
Director
Dr. Ash Johnson

Ash Johnson is a geophysicist and business leader with over 30 years’ experience in research, global business development, leadership and corporate governance. Ash is the founder and director of Joluco Ltd, a geoscience business consulting company helping companies bridge the gap between science and business.

Ash started his career at the British Antarctic Survey, rising to Head of Airborne Geophysics and competing 5 Antarctic field seasons. He then spent more than 20 years at Geosoft Inc., a global geoscience software company, in various executive business leadership roles internationally. He served on the Board of Directors in Canada and the UK until the sale of the company in 2018. Ash currently serves as a Director of IDPeX Ltd, an Indian company partly owned by IGS.

He has degrees from York, Leeds and the Open University and holds a Diploma in Company Direction from the Institute of Directors

Dr. Feargal Murphy
Principal Geophysicist
Dr Feargal Murphy

Following a 1st class BSc in Geophysical Science at University College Dublin and a PhD in Global Seismology at Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Feargal embarked on a career in airborne geophysics with Sander Geophysics Ltd. He held operational, data processing and research responsibilities, directing survey crews in > 15 countries across Americas, EAME and Australasia. Feargal has had a key role in early commercial deployments of Falcon gravity gradiometer and Sander AIRGrav systems.

He transitioned to a primarily interpretation role with ARKeX Ltd where he led projects integrating potential field, seismic and geological data primarily for hydrocarbon clients and managed interpretation department for several years. Following a brief period as an independent consultant, Feargal joined IGS where he has managed large airborne QA/QC projects in Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and India.

In 2020 Feargal completed an MSc in Renewable Energy Systems Technology (REST) from University of Loughborough. He completed a final dissertation applying machine learning for household electricity demand forecasting and received the Tony Marmont award for best REST MSc student.

Dr. Christoph Dobmeier
Senior Project Geologist
Dr Christoph Dobmeier

Christoph is a highly experienced structural mapping geologist with extensive international experience including Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan, Russia, DRC, Southern Africa, India, and Switzerland.

He was involved in creating the first comprehensive 3D structural model of the Mt Fubilan Cu-Au-Ag porphyry deposit at OK Tedi in Papua New Guinea, and more recently managed training and capacity building at the Afghan Geological Survey in Kabul.

His recent work with IGS has been managing digital geological mapping projects in DRC, Mozambique, and Mauritania.

Mr. Mohammednur Desissa Ture
Senior Geophysicist
Mr. Mohammednur Desissa Ture

Mohammednur Ture is a geophysicist with over 35 years of experience in different fields and sub disciplines of geophysics which include among others the airborne geophysics, ground geophysics, magnetotellurics, geothermal, hydrocarbon and coal exploration, wireline logging and various methods of surveying and mapping.

Dr. Rowan Vernon
Senior Specialist Geoscientist
Dr. Rowan Vernon

Rowan is an experienced mapping geologist with expertise in GIS-based digital geological mapping, structural geology and tectonics. She previously worked at the British Geological Survey leading an international mapping project and carrying out geological mapping and structural studies throughout the UK.

Much of her work focused on providing geological data and knowledge to the groundwater and renewable energy sectors, as well as creating products to inform natural hazard planning and management, and developing new digital geological mapping systems. With IGS, Rowan is conducting QC/QA of geological mapping in Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Christopher Duku
GIS Specialist & Cartographer
Mr. Christopher Duku

Christopher Duku is a trained Geologist/GIS specialist with a long experience in the use of geospatial data. He worked in different companies in the UK and the Netherlands including working for the Ministry of Petroleum and Mining Republic of South Sudan as Director of Mineral Exploration and Head of Mining Cadastre System.

Christopher is experienced in GIS data acquisition, data quality control and interpretation of Remote Sensing data. He has very good experience in the use of ESRI products including GIS software such as ArcGIS Pro, QGIS and MapInfo.