A former Bureau of Land Management senior official who served as the agency’s liaison with Western government leaders has landed a private sector job that will keep him involved with helping protect public lands.
John Gale, who resigned last month as BLM’s program executive for intergovernmental and external affairs, is stepping into a senior role as federal affairs director for San Francisco-based Pano AI.
The company uses artificial intelligence technology and software to search 24 hours a day for signs of emerging brushfires and wildfires on public and private lands through an AI-powered camera network. Pano works with government agencies, utilities and private landowners across the United States, as well as Canada and Australia, to detect blazes early, with the goal of preventing them from becoming large-scale fires that can burn tens of thousands of acres at a time.
Gale is the company’s first federal affairs director, and he will “lead government engagement on wildfire management technologies” and help to “expand public-private partnerships” that would benefit from the AI-driven technology, the company announced.
