Every other month, we’re featuring one of our all-star staff members. Staff featured in this Spotlight Series have been peer-nominated for their superb performance and values-driven work. This time, we spotlight Bernard Heng, Program Specialist at Asia Pacific Hub.
What first attracted you to work at HOT?
I remember coming across HOT and fAIr when I was working in Kakuma-Kalobeyei Refugee Settlements, Kenya. Back then, I saw fAIr and drone imagery as an exciting method that can rapidly map the expanding refugee settlements and provide us with updated and reliable map data that can inform our planning and decision-making. Since then, I was inspired to work with HOT to explore ways to address the needs most humanitarian settings typically face, including resource constraints, lack of capacities, and map data gaps.
Who/what are some of your biggest inspirations within HOT and/or wider OSM community?
In my work with communities across the Asia-Pacific region, it is inspiring to see their strength and ability to mobilize and support different open-mapping initiatives within their countries and across the region. Their community spirit underpins the successes we have had, and I am excited to continue exploring ways to celebrate and support them!
Bernard supported the Open Mapping Hub Asia-Pacific to hold the Dhaka Thrive Dissemination Workshop in November 2024.
What are you most excited about for the future of HOT / OSM?
Of course, we cannot highlight our communities without mentioning HOT’s mission to put the map in their hands. For me, it is specifically the people-first considerations that went into the design of HOT’s tools for the communities, such as its user interface and experience (UI/UX) and its accessibility, that is inspiring. I am confident that this direction by HOT will be key to a stronger, more close-knit community globally that champions data with all, by all, for all.
What is your current role at HOT, and how has it evolved?
As a Program Specialist at HOT, my role is to support different functions across the team and help ensure that projects are completed on time and successfully. Over time, this first-hand experience working with different colleagues, communities, and partners helped me better understand how to deliver projects. Today, I see my role as a cross-pollinator, one that works with colleagues to cross-share information and learnings with each other and help the project grow leaps and bounds.
What is the most interesting project you’ve worked on here?
In March 2025, devastating earthquakes struck central Myanmar, and I led HOT’s activation to support ongoing response and recovery efforts. Together with colleagues, communities, and partners globally and locally, we helped provide accurate and reliable open geospatial data to humanitarian actors in the field. Through the support of the H2H Network, we were also able to expand efforts and work with a dedicated group of local Myanmar mappers (Gurus) to reach more earthquake-affected townships. In addition, HOT is piloting a new methodology with the Gurus to identify, map, and validate damaged buildings in key priority townships.
I am thankful to have been able to learn from and support so many different passionate individuals to contribute to a meaningful endeavor. I also appreciate the opportunity to work with a dedicated group of local volunteers and support them with the knowledge and tools on open-mapping, and empower them for future disaster responses.
What fulfills you most about your role?
As a Program Specialist, my role gives me a unique overview of projects, enabling me to see how different moving parts come together to deliver a project better. The opportunity to learn and work with different colleagues across so many fields and functions is one that I cherish and keeps me going!
What’s the motto you live by?
One lesson I stand by from my experience as a humanitarian is to “go knock on their doors”. Honest, frank conversations with communities, partners, and governments are powerful ways to build rapport and strengthen our partnerships. If we need help, knock on their doors. If they need help, we knock on their doors.
Where are some of your bucket list travel locations?
I have always been fascinated by the ends of the world. Places I would like to visit are the southernmost tip of Chile, the Cabo de Hornos National Park; countries such as Bhutan and Tibet on the Tibetan Plateau (the “roof of the world”); and the poles, like Antarctica.
Learn more about Bernard here, or follow him on LinkedIn.
Photo courtesy of Bernard Heng.