Richard Budden

Richard Budden is Esri's lead for Smart Cities, Transport and Infrastructure for the Middle East and Africa region.

For more than 15 years, he has worked closely with government clients, offering strategic advice on the development and implementation of national smart city visions in the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Africa.

In fact, Richard has been instrumental in some of the region’s most notable Smart City and Digital Transformation projects which include Dubai Pulse, an initiative under the wider Smart Dubai project which uses Esri’s ArcGIS technology to integrate and map data for better decision-making. He has also led various initiatives to extend the use of GIS technology across the Dubai government for planning, sustainability, land administration and more.

Beyond Dubai, Richard has also supported the implementation of Abu Dhabi’s Spatial Data Infrastructure, the largest initiative of its kind in the region.  Abu Dhabi government is now working with Esri on customer-centric approaches to citizen services, and the ‘City in Motion’ initiative, a sophisticated command and control platform which provides leaders with real-time information on city-wide operations and events.

Prior to joining Esri, Richard was the Regional Geospatial and Information Management Business Manager at Atkins, providing GIS services, consultancy and advice to clients including the London Borough of Islington, Crossrail, the UAE Ministry of Public Works and Kuwait Municipality.

He was also previously the Head of Information Management at the Qatar Central Planning Office, tasked with coordinating and integrating the transport infrastructure in the State of Qatar.