An interview with Lily Bell, Map Impact’s Chief Technical Officer

“Climate intelligence is becoming the connective tissue between science, policy, and finance” – an interview with Lily Bell, Map Impact’s Chief Technical Officer

Donna Lyndsay, Business Development Director, had the pleasure of interviewing Lily Bell, Map Impact’s Chief Technical Officer, to learn more about her amazing background and her journey to Map Impact. Lily regularly draws on her interdisciplinary experience across academia, NGOs and industry, to bridge science into scalable software. Read the full interview below.

Donna:  Can you tell us a bit about your background and how you came to work and lead in the field of technological advancements in climate intelligence.

Lily:  My personal journey began in academia, where I was initially a cybersecurity researcher, and spent some time doing the same in industry. With an early background in software engineering, I have worked on various projects across my career, including software performance improvement, drone network simulation, and developing alternative models for carbon credit projects invested in by major banks.

Donna:  What led you to transition from academia to Earth observation and sustainability?

Lily: I’ve always been passionate about environmental issues and see earth observation data as a method to make things which are not scalable to measure on a landscape or even global way, measurable. I was a co-founder of the Climate Trace Coalition, which aims to measure greenhouse gas emissions for every industry using satellite data and machine learning. Working alongside a coalition including former US Vice President Al Gore, we built scalable models to understand the impact of greenhouse gas emissions at country and facility level.

Lily’s wide-ranging experience includes co-founding the Climate Trace Platform, providing emissions tracking data directly to the public – Copyright Climate Trace.

Donna: Your work with the Climate Trace Coalition sounds impactful. Can you share more about your research at the University of Strathclyde?

Lily: Absolutely. At the University of Strathclyde, my research included involvement in projects simulating drone networks for healthcare delivery here in Scotland and analysis of Green Bond funded avoided deforestation schemes in terms of their wildfire and financial risk. This also gave me an appreciation for the non-financial aspects of nature projects, and the impact they have on local communities, biodiversity and climate risk.

Donna: How has your experience in academia influenced your role at Map Impact?

Lily: It’s been foundational.  As CTO I regularly draw on my interdisciplinary background to bridge science into scalable software. My academic training helps me translate the complexity of the science led work we do into business value through national scale products—making our tools both scientifically rigorous and practical for end-users.

Donna: Lily, as we’re dealing with organisations that need to trust us with delivering large-scale datasets, can you talk about your experience in building robust and secure solutions at scale?

Lily: Absolutely, that’s been a core part of my approach throughout my roles in technology leadership and in academia. My background includes significant hands-on experience architecting and scaling advanced analytics and reporting platforms using the Microsoft cloud ecosystem and delivering API products. Ultimately, I consider security and robust data governance to be not just a compliance need, but an enabler to do business in high trust environments and in critical industries. When organisations know and trust that you take data protection seriously and have a strong risk management culture baked into the architecture of your platform, it opens doors.

Donna: Looking ahead, what is your vision for the future of climate intelligence?

Lily:  I see climate intelligence becoming the connective tissue between science, policy, and finance. As the planet changes, we’ll need smarter, faster, and more transparent data to evaluate the real-world outcomes of climate solutions. I believe Earth observation data will be critical for forecasting the future condition of landscapes and ecosystems and measuring the risk to them in an ever-changing planet. By integrating earth observation data with other environmental and socioeconomic data, we can help de-risk investments, improve regulatory compliance, and accelerate action on nature-based solutions. My focus is on building that infrastructure—so that decision-makers have the foresight and confidence to act boldly.

Donna: Thank you, Lily, for sharing your journey and contributions to climate intelligence. We look forward to seeing your work continue to shape the future at Map Impact.