Greg Babinski is a GIS management consultant and founder of GIS Management Consulting Services LLC and the GIS Management Academy™, located in Edmonds, Washington. Between 1998 and 2021 he served as GIS Manager, GIS Finance Manager, and GIS Marketing & Business Development Manager for the King County GIS Center in Seattle. Previously he worked for nine years as GIS Mapping Supervisor for the East Bay Municipal Utility District in Oakland.
He holds an MA in geography from Wayne State University. Greg is a GISP – Certified GIS Professional. Babinski is Past-President of URISA and founder and Past-Chair of URISA’s GIS Management Institute.
He was the original developer of the GIS Capability Maturity Model and co-chaired the committee that developed the Geospatial Management Competency Model. In 2012 he initiated a ground-breaking GIS return on investment study for King County, and in 2025 he completed another comprehensive GIS ROI study for the City of Seattle. He is a member of the Society for Benefit Cost Analysis.
In 2019 Greg was awarded an EthicalGEO Fellowship by the American Geographical Society to research and development best practices for applying GIS for equity and social justice. He co-authored a GIS for Equity & Social Justice workshop which he has presented 30 times to more than 700 students.
In addition to GIS consulting, he is a GIS researcher, author, and instructor. He has authored five peer-reviewed articles for the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge. He has also published articles in the URISA Journal, ArcNEWS, the GIS Professional, Government Finance Review, Washington GIS Summit (which he founded in 2005), and other publications.
He has spoken about GIS management across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Greg has taught GIS for Public Policy as an instructor with the University of Washington Evans Graduate School of Public Administration. For the GIS Management Academy, he has developed a portfolio of 18 online workshops which have been attended by more than 880 students from around the world.
In his spare time Greg likes ‘…hiking steep, narrow and dangerous trails that lead high above the clouds to awesome views.*’
*Thanks to Edward Abbey!
My passion for maps at a young age led to my geographic education. The dawning of GIS enabled me to put my education and management experience to work. Now, helping GIS managers and GIS operations succeed on a sustainable basis is my Ikigai.
When I began my GIS career with EBMUD in California, I knew most of the GIS managers and GIS operations in the area. But many of them struggled, and some even failed.
When I moved to Seattle to work for King County GIS, I met most of the GIS managers and learned about all the GIS operations in the region. Again, many of them struggled and some even failed.
A typical medium sized city spends millions to build a GIS then large annual budgets to operate and maintain their GIS. Society should care about professional and cost-effective GIS management and state-of-the art GIS operations.
My mission (and the mission of GIS Management Consulting Services and the GIS Management Academy) is to help managers develop their portfolio of GIS management competencies. The mission is also to help GIS operations understand their capabilities and process-maturity and prioritize incremental improvements to maximize their agency’s investment in GIS.
Typical services
GIS management consulting
GIS program assessment
GIS program benchmarking studies and performance metrics
GIS ethics
GIS manager coaching
GIS needs assessment and strategic planning
GIS ROI studies
GIS management education
GIS for equity and social justice
Professional expereince
GIS Management Consulting Services – GIS Management Academy (2022+)
In 2022 I launched my company GIS Management Consulting Services LLC and The GIS Management Academy™. Our mission is to help GIS managers develop competencies for successful careers, and to help GIS operations develop highly effective and sustainable practices. Consulting clients include cities, counties, regional agencies, and individuals. GIS Management Academy students come from the US and Canada, as well as Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America, Australia, and New Zealand.
King County GIS Center (Seattle)
(1998-2021) I helped transformed King County’s GIS from a typical government agency into a multiple award-winning, entrepreneurial customer-focused GIS services provider. King County GIS is a county enterprise fund that gets 100% of its revenue from the services it provides. King County GIS is a respected and trusted brand across the Pacific Northwest and is known worldwide. Today, nearly half of King County’s 16,000 employees are GIS users. Externally, King County provides GIS services, products, and training to other agencies, businesses, and citizens throughout the Puget Sound region and far beyond. After I retired from King County at the end of 2021, I continued to provide consulting services for King County for four additional years.
East Bay Municipal Utility District (Oakland) (1989 – 1998)
At EBMUD I developed the GIS for this major water and wastewater agency.
University of Washington, Evans School of Public Administration (Seattle) (2019) I developed and taught GIS for Public Policy.
Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (URISA) – Now rebranded as GPN (2007-2013) I served six years on the URISA Board, including a term as President. During this period initiatives that I developed and led included:
- Launch of the GIS Management Institute
- Co-chaired development of the Geospatial Management Competency Model adopted by the US Department of Labor
- Chaired the development of the internationally peer-reviewed GIS Capability Maturity Model
- Helped develop the GIS Glossary
- Co-chaired the launch of the development of the One URISA Initiative
- Developed the URISA International Initiative, including a promotional tour that included Jamaica, St. Marteen, Taiwan, China, Singapore, Dubai, Australia, Russia, Poland, and the Netherlands
