Earth Networks Names New CMO

Anuj Agrawal has joined Earth Networks as its chief marketing officer. Earth Networks offers connected solutions that address greenhouse gas, lightning, and weather.

Agrawal was previously vice president of marketing at software-as-a-service analytics company Orchestro, which was acquired by E2open. He was also the head of marketing at consumer and marketing insights company IXI, which Equifax bought. He’s also worked in marketing at chip giant Intel and Virgin Mobile USA, which is known for its forward-thinking marketing.

Earth Networks works with Scripps Institution of Oceanography and other partners to employ sensors to measure carbon dioxide and methane to gauge the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Its Total Lightning Network, meanwhile, leverages connected sensors to detect cloud-to-ground and in-cloud strokes in an effort to detect severe weather and generate alerts about such conditions. The company also combines data it gathers using its own collection of more than 10,000 neighborhood-level sensors, and information from the National Weather Services and the World Meteorological Organization, to assess and share weather forecasts and warnings.

Using connected technology to measure, analyze, and distribute information about the weather is becoming more prevalent, which makes sense in light of changing weather patterns.

Another example of how businesses are addressing weather with connected solutions is the partnership of Gogo, IBM, and The Weather Company. As TMC CEO Rich Tehrani reported in June, the companies provide technology to help determine airplane turbulence and share it with others to ensure the planes that follow don’t go through the same rough patches.

“Prior to this solution the way turbulence information was delivered was through the experience of other planes flying through turbulence, radioing the information to a control tower, or other nearby planes to notify them that your plane had flown through turbulence,” said Sergio Aguirre, senior vice president of product management and business development at Gogo Business Aviation. “Gogo’s system delivers real time diagnostics so other planes using the similar flight patterns will have better, more accurate weather and turbulence information delivered more quickly. It turns the plane into a moving weather station in the air and crowdsources data to create more transparent information quickly.”