MidAmerica GIS Consortium

Keith J. Masback is the Owner of Plum Run, LLC, providing advisory and consulting services primarily to startups working in geospatial intelligence and related fields. He is also an early-stage investor. He is a member of the Federal Advisory Board of Orbital Insight, a member of the Advisory Boards of Hermeus, Anno.Ai, Slingshot Aerospace, Lunar Station, and Voxelmaps, and a strategic advisor to HySpecIQ, OmniSci, ICEYE, and Ursa Space. He was recognized as the Geospatial Ambassador of the Year at the 2019 Geospatial World Forum.

Prior to founding Plum Run, Keith spent over a decade as the President / Chief Executive Officer of the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF). Under his leadership, the organization more than doubled its organizational membership to over 250 member companies and organizations, quintupled its number of accredited academic programs, increased total attendance at the annual GEOINT Symposium from 3,000 to 5,500, launched the award-winning trajectory Magazine, established a fully accredited professional certification program and vastly expanded the visibility and effectiveness of the Foundation’s activities.

Before joining USGIF, he spent over 20 years combined as an officer in the U.S. Army and as a government civilian employee, culminating as a member of the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). He held a variety of positions at NGA primarily focused on strategic planning and programming, including leading the community user requirements process to guide the development and acquisition of space-based imaging systems by the National Reconnaissance Office. Most recently, he served as the Director, Source Operations Group where he led a globally deployed 500-person organization responsible for 24/7/365 operational tasking of space-based missile warning systems and imagery collection systems (including contracted commercial assets).

Prior to his service at NGA, he was a senior executive civilian on the Army Staff, responsible for planning the future of Army Intelligence and serving as the Army’s first Director of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Integration, which included responsibility for insuring high-altitude airborne and space remote sensing assets were readily available to support the full range of Army operations.

Keith began his professional career in the U.S. Army, serving as an Infantry officer in the Berlin Brigade and a Military Intelligence officer at both XVIII Airborne Corps and on the Army Staff (G-2 & G-3).

He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Gettysburg College. He completed the Post-Graduate Intelligence Program at the National Intelligence University. He has also completed executive education at the Kellogg School, Northwestern University and the Elliott School, George Washington University. He’s currently a Non-Resident Advisor for the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and a member of the Mapping Science Committee of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine.

He has served as a member of the Intelligence Task Force of the Defense Science Board and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing. He is the immediate past Chair of the National Geospatial Advisory Committee (NGAC). He is currently a member of the NGAC’s Landsat Advisory Group and is also a Councilor and Fellow of the American Geographical Society, a member of the Board of Advisors of the Global Special Operations Forces Foundation, and a member of the Advisory Board of the International Spy Museum.

Originally from White Plains, NY, Keith resides in Scotch Plains, NJ. He is a single father with five children, ranging in age from 19 to 27.