Mario started his professional career at the IBM Scientific Center - Latin America, adapting software that IBM had developed to the requirements of governments from Latin America (agriculture, forest, natural disasters, environment, urban areas, etc.). Was moved internationally, ending at the IBM European Scientific Center (Paris).

Joined the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to assist countries with EO data to do their State of the Environment Reporting as well as to produce the Global Environmental Outlook series of books.

Mario moved then to Paris to the United Nations Educational and Scientific Organization (UNESCO) in order to establish “the European Space Agency (ESA) – UNESCO Open Initiative of the use of Space Technologies to support World Heritage sites”. He worked with a large amount of Space Agencies, Space Research Institutions and Universities. Working on Heritage related applications he basically was coordinating mini-Digital Earth solutions that, instead of dealing with the whole Earth, where focused only in the heritage site and its surroundings: (EO, GIS, visualization, virtual reality, modelling, etc.).

He has developed skills to deal with Governments in the area of applications, UN Sustainable Development Goals: sustainability, climate change, natural disasters, heritage applications, combining EO data with socio-economic data. Currently he is consultant to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals under the challenge of combining EO data with socio-economic data.

Mario has many publications in international journals and has honorific titles from peers, Vice President of the International Society for Digital Earth, Regional Representative for Latin America for the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS); invited professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and member of the Engagement Committee of Future Earth.

Mario has established an excellent network of contacts among space agencies, space research institutions and universities.