Tristan K. Harper, JD, MBA, SIT, is General Counsel, Mapping Discipline Lead, and a senior project manager at Prairie Engineers, P.C. He combines more than 15 years of legal, business, and risk-management experience with nearly a decade of hands-on work in hydrographic surveying, lidar, remote sensing, and geospatial data production. At Prairie, he advises engineering and surveying teams on contracts, regulatory compliance, professional liability, project risk, and dispute avoidance while managing hydrographic and mapping projects for a diverse range of governmental, commercial, utility, and industrial clients.
Before joining Prairie, Tristan was an owner, manager, and general counsel at a marine mapping company that created high-resolution digital fishing charts from multibeam and side-scan sonar, airborne topographic and bathymetric lidar, photogrammetry, satellite imagery, and other elevation data. Earlier in his career, he practiced law in state and federal court, handling contract, construction, real estate, title, boundary, easement, and business disputes. He later worked with forensic engineers and technical experts on matters ranging from equipment failures to workplace fatalities.
Tristan holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Florida, an MBA from the University of West Florida, and a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy from the University of South Florida Honors College. He is an attorney in good standing with the Florida and Alabama Bar Associations, a Surveyor in Training, and a former USCG-licensed 100-ton near-coastal captain. He is active in ASPRS, MAPPS, and The Hydrographic Society of America. His work focuses on the intersection of geospatial technology, project delivery, professional responsibility, and the creation of reliable, understandable, and defensible data.