About Us

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Willard Mechem, Founder and CEO

Willard Mechem founded Jana Earth Data in 2025 because the same fragmentation that slows research and policy shows up everywhere in climate work: the information needed to understand emissions and air quality lives in many places, in many shapes, and behind many different access patterns. Jana’s answer is a single, unified API to complementary, authoritative source ground-level air quality (OpenAQ), satellite-verified emissions (Climate TRACE), and global atmospheric inventories (EDGAR so teams can ask cross-source questions without building a bespoke data stack first.

Before Jana, Willard led and built large-scale data platforms, ingestion pipelines, and analytics in financial services and related sectors. That work included directing data engineering teams responsible for hundreds of production pipelines and data-lake operations; designing ETL, ELT, and streaming workflows on AWS and modern data stacks; and delivering systems where data quality, reconciliation, and integrity are non-negotiable experience that directly informs how Jana ingests, validates, and operates environmental data at scale. Earlier, he founded and built technology for investment and analytics businesses, including research and NLP-driven analytics over news, filings, and alternative feeds—background that maps naturally to today’s need for **rigorous, transparent environmental intelligence.

He studied electrical engineering at Cleveland State University and continues to work hands-on with cloud architecture, data systems, and machine learning. Jana operates through Jana Earth Data US Inc. (United States) and Jana Earth Data Nepal Pvt Ltd (Nepal), reflecting a shared mission with the broader team: environmental transparency as the foundation of climate accountability and infrastructure that lets everyone working on climate solutions focus on the problem, not on hunting for data.

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Advisory Board - Sushil Parajuli

At Jana Earth, Sushil advises on banking and financial institution data, regulatory intelligence, and how environmental data platforms can serve the capital-markets and compliance needs of Nepal's financial sector.

Sushil is a Chartered Accountant and finance professional working across banking, capital markets, and financial regulation in Nepal. As an Associate at PwC he leads transaction advisory and sustainable finance related works, including bond structuring, institutional investor analysis, and policy dialogue with financial-sector regulators. His work spans the full lifecycle of capital-markets transactions — from financial modelling and credit coordination through prospectus development and regulatory advocacy.

Earlier roles at Pioneer Law Associates and PKF TR Upadhya & Co built his foundation in statutory audit, tax advisory, FDI structuring, and compliance for various national and multinational clients. He brings a dual finance-and-law perspective, combining his Chartered Accountancy qualification with legal training and ongoing studies in economics.