Secretary General, International Hydrographic Organization
Mathias Jonas is the Secretary-General of the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) since 2017 and was re-elected for another term of three years by IHO´s Assembly in May 2023. Prior to this appointment he held the posts of Vice President of the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency and National Hydrographer of Germany with responsibility for sea survey and sea cartography.
Being a mariner, Mathias has been involved in integrated navigation matters since the beginning of the nineties. In addition he has completed the world’s first technical certification of an Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) in1999 and Voyage Data Recorder (VDR) in 2002 which both have become a standard equipment on nearly all sea going vessels. He has continuously contributed to IMO and IHO standardisation activities for navigation equipment, survey and cartography since.
As one of the responsibilities of his current post he holds the Chair of the Hydrographic Commission on Antarctica. He is the author of numerous scientific papers on technical aspects of marine geoinformation systems and strategic considerations on the present status and future of hydrography.