Meet the Team Shaping the Next Chapter of Geovation
If you have visited the hub recently, you might have noticed several news faces. But they are not necessarily new to the innovation ecosystem. Drawn from startup founding, corporate innovation, deep technical practice, and public‑sector collaboration, Aba, Adrià, Arias, Rishi and Tessa each bring together a diverse set of experiences, united by a shared purpose: to help innovators turn insight into impact.
This article explores the journeys that brought them here, and the values that now shape how they work together.
Built by doing: learning through startups, scale‑ups, and experimentation
Firsthand experience of building things from the ground up is a defining thread across this newly formed team of members who have founded startups, launched accelerators, or worked at the sharp edge of innovation where ideas are tested against reality. That experience brings with it a clear-eyed understanding of risk, resilience, and iteration.
Adrià Tarrida, Impact Lead
Take for example, Adrià, who studied Engineering in Barcelona, where he’s from. He started up as an engineer for the Fiat Group in Italy. After a stint at Kimberly-Clark (managing beloved brands such as Andrex and Kleenex) and helping UK universities attract international students, he dove head-first into the startup world, co-founding Viability.
By far, the most difficult thing I’ve done has been founding my last startup Viability. We managed to build a product and get quite a few paying customers. Unfortunately, the traction was not enough to raise a follow up round and the company had to wind down.
As an incredibly satisfied, former participant in the accelerator. I love understanding the challenges that the startups are trying to solve and help them succeed.
Rishi Chowdhury, Incubator Manager
Others bring experience from corporate innovation and accelerator leadership, having built and run programmes designed to help early‑stage teams navigate complexity, regulation, and scale. That combination of entrepreneurial empathy and operational rigour now feeds directly into how Geovation designs support for its founders and partners.
Hi, I’m Rishi. I have a background as a founder and in corporate innovation. I started an accelerator (which led me to owning a red double-decker London bus), a corporate innovation agency and a PropTech startup making commercial buildings, healthy, comfortable, energy efficient spaces. I also led the build and operations of Bosch’s innovation hub.
I am combining that experience to help deliver the best programme for our founders, Ordnance Survey and HM Land Registry.
Aba Osunsade, Ecosystem Lead
Meet Aba, who studied economics at LSE with ambitions to drive change through macroeconomic policy, before shifting focus to startups and software. This led to an early role at Groupon during its rapid growth, followed by Amazon, where the lack of women in senior leadership highlighted deeper questions around power, representation and impact in the tech sector.
That’s when I first became obsessed with the idea of levelling the playing field in the industry and developing tailored career advice for women, who make up just 1 in 5 tech workers. That’s how my social enterprise Hustle Crew was born. I think tech is great, and tech for good is even better. Being around optimists with a vision of a better future is what gets me out of bed each day.
Tessa Beishuizen, Ecosystem Manager
One of the first people founders are likely to meet on their journey into the Geovation community is Tessa. She lives and breathes all things startup, guided by a simple but powerful mantra: building founder ecosystems, from first idea onwards.
Her role is less about a single programme and more about shaping the pipeline of innovation itself, actively designing entry points into entrepreneurship for first‑time founders and supporting them as their ideas begin to take shape.
From data to real‑world impact
Another shared team strength lies in the ability to bridge worlds: between data and decision‑making, insight and implementation, experimentation and institutional change.
Arias Jordens, Senior Developer
Within the team is Arias, who began their career in hands‑on roles before moving into data science, cloud engineering, innovation, and product‑focused work. His interest in location and data started during his archaeology degree, where surveying and spatial analysis were central to understanding how places change over time.
Progressing through Ordnance Survey has given him a full view of how geospatial data is collected, modelled, refined and ultimately used to support real decisions.
I was drawn to Geovation by its focus on collaboration and experimentation, where ideas can be tested quickly with partners and scaled when they prove value.
The perfect formula
Crucially, all this experience shapes how the team thinks about impact. A key focus for the months ahead is ensuring that learning from startups within the ecosystem flows back into Ordnance Survey and partner organisations, helping to shape future datasets and directions.
Geovation offers a uniquely generous opportunity for teams to access often expensive and exclusionary tech support and location data. I think location data is often the ingredient that makes products delightful and breaks the barrier between the digital and material world. To be in the startup world is often to obsess about the next big moneymaker, I like that we focus more on innovation itself than commercial aspects.
Aba Osunsade, Ecosystem Lead
Place as lived experience
Location means relevance, connection and convenience.
Aba Osunsade, Ecosystem Lead
Ask the team what “location” means to them, and the answers go far beyond coordinates on a map, reminding us that location data is most powerful when it reflects lived experience.
For some, location is inseparable from memory and movement, helping us navigate, connect, and make informed decisions in the real world.
Having lived in Spain, Italy and the UK, I associate location with memory and emotion as much as geography. All three countries have left a mark on me.
So I guess that understanding a place means paying attention to both the human and animal experience and the physical reality on the ground.
Adrià Tarrida, Impact Lead
Tessa’s connection to place and people runs deep. A Dutch native with family roots in Suriname, she spent part of her childhood in Indonesia and the surrounding region while her mother was based there as a travel journalist. That early exposure shaped her sense of location as something lived and experienced, not just mapped.
This global perspective also informs Tessa’s passion for Climatech and responsible innovation. Having experienced different places as lived environments rather than destinations, she brings a strong sense of responsibility to build inclusive, founder‑led ecosystems that value local context and human connection as much as technology and data.
For others, location represents adventure and discovery, and an appreciation of place as something to be explored, understood, and respected.
For me, location is adventure. Maps don’t just show places; they help you discover them.
Outside of work I am a keen hiker. Cape Town and Hong Kong include my favourite hiking routes. I am also a keen runner. I used to be a fast short distance runner, now I am a long and slow runner. Last year I completed 7 marathons in 7 days to cross Tajikistan on foot. This year I will be taking on Hadrian’s Wall, hoping to complete the 110km route in one day.
Rishi Chowdhury, Incubator Manager
After graduating, Arias spent several years travelling, including time living in China, where he took on freelance mapping work for hotels in rural locations—a way to stay connected to geospatial practice while experiencing new environments first hand.
Outside work, I still gravitate towards travel and the outdoors, and see location as something defined as much by lived experience as by coordinates on a map.
Arias Jordens, Senior Developer
Looking ahead
The next chapter of Geovation will be shaped by a team who understand innovation from the inside, who value experimentation and learning, and who see location as both a technical and human endeavour.
While our backgrounds vary, there is strong alignment around building an ecosystem, not just a programme. And they are just getting started.
In the months ahead, the focus is on listening to founders, alumni, partners, and public‑sector users to understand what they need to thrive. That insight will shape how Geovation evolves its role, strengthens its network, and amplifies the stories of innovation happening within the ecosystem.