Considering the precision and power technology available today, and the magnitude of climate change and biodiversity loss, we see an urgent need to use data to reduce emissions, conserve habitat & balance the health of people and the planet.

And while we’re in many ways a technology company, we design ecological solutions that use technology, not the other way around. Unlike others who map forests as part of a broader portfolio, we focus solely on environmental mapping. Instead of advertising how our technologies could be used for conservation, for us, it’s the only application.

The team

David C. Marvin, Ph.D.

Co-founder & CEO

An expert in conservation policy, forest carbon mapping, and machine learning, Dave leads Salo’s business and analytics operations. After receiving his Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from University of Michigan, he worked at the Carnegie Institution for Science’s Department of Global Ecology and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).

During his Ph.D. he worked to predict the impacts of climate change on competition between trees and vines in tropical forests. After mapping fine-scale liana distributions with airborne data, he went on to compare national forest carbon mapping approaches.

At TNC, Dave led a comprehensive report that evaluated the potential for natural climate solutions to increase carbon sequestration and offset the state’s emissions. This work is now being used to guide California’s policies reducing emissions from natural and working lands.

Nicholas Fabina, Ph.D.

Principal Data Scientist

Nick builds Salo’s data and analytics pipelines, utilizing his background in data science and software engineering. With a Ph.D. in Population Biology from UC Davis and over 15 years of experience building early-stage startups, Nick has bridged the gap between academia and industry to help protect endangered species, manage critical ecosystems & conserve water resources for efficient crop growth.

Before joining Salo Nick used remote sensing data and deep learning to map and monitor the world’s coral reefs with the Allen Coral Atlas, where his products were used by the United Nations and the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network to negotiate oceans treaties.

Kyle Gertridge, J.D.

Head of Business Development & Partnerships

Kyle is a business-minded attorney with experience counseling high-growth technology companies in IP protection and monetization strategies. In addition to his responsibilities as Salo’s Head of Business Development & Partnerships, he’s crafting Salo’s IP and commercial strategy to help the company scale.

Prior to joining Salo, Kyle attended The Johns Hopkins University and UC Hastings College of the Law, was an associate at leading tech-focused law firm Gunderon Dettmer, and served as in-house counsel at live entertainment company AEG Presents and eCommerce startup Eaze.

Christopher B. Anderson, Ph.D.

Co-founder & CTO

Chris leads Salo’s technical and visual design. He earned his Ph.D. in Biology at the Center for Conservation Biology at Stanford University. At Salo, he’s the resident expert in biodiversity mapping, plant physiology, and satellite image analysis.

He began his career at the Department of Global Ecology coordinating, collecting & processing data from international airborne ecology missions. These spanned nine deployments in five countries, where he worked to better understand and conserve unique forests in the Amazon and beyond. During his Ph.D. he developed an open source tree species mapping algorithm, which scored the highest accuracy in a data science competition, and is now working to better integrate satellite data into vector-borne disease and ecosystem services mapping efforts.