Executive Committee

TDWG is led by an Executive Committee composed of officers elected by TDWG members. The Executive Committee is responsible for strategic direction, the high-level management and coordination of standards efforts, and the oversight of day-to-day operations. This page shows the currently elected members of the Executive Committee, see the bottom of the page for previous compositions.

Image by Tim Graf

Executive responsibilities and elections

TDWG is led by an Executive Committee composed of officers elected by TDWG members. The Executive Committee is responsible for strategic direction, the high-level management and coordination of standards efforts, and the oversight of day-to-day operations. The roles and responsibilities of each officer are set forth in the Constitution and further described here.

The term of office for all roles is normally two calendar years, with terms staggered such that only half of the Executive Committee is replaced or re-elected in a given year. Elections of officers are usually held in the 3rd or 4th Quarter of the year. Nominations are typically opened a month before the annual meeting and closed near the end of the meeting. Ballots are then distributed to members by email and voting is closed in approximately 30 days. (Scheduling the annual conference late in the year requires this typical schedule to be altered so that elections are completed before the end of year.)

Executive Committee 2024

Term of office shown as span of calendar years, inclusive.

Managing officers

Role Name Affiliation Term of office
Chair Elycia (Ely) Wallis 📧 CSIRO, Melbourne, Australia 2023-2024
Deputy Chair David Bloom 📧 VertNet, Berkeley, CA, USA 2023-2024
Secretary Visotheary Ung Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France 2023-2024
Treasurer David Bloom (Acting Treasurer) 📧 VertNet, Berkeley, CA, USA 2024-2025

Subcommittee chairs

Functional Subcommittee Name Affiliation Term of office
Technical Architecture Group Ben Norton 📧 Ecosystem, Planning, and Restoration; Raleigh, NC, USA 2024-2025
Fundraising and Partnerships Patricia Mergen 📧 Royal Museum for Central Africa and Botanic Garden Meise, Belgium 2024-2025
Infrastructure Tim Robertson 📧 Global Biodiversity Information Facility, Copenhagen, Denmark 2024-2025
Outreach and Communications Mareike Petersen 📧 Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany 2023-2024
Time and Place Kristen “Kit” Lewers 📧 Information Science and BioFrontiers Institute, University of Colorado Boulder, and iDigBio, University of Florida, USA 2024-2025

Regional Representatives

Region Name Affiliation Term of office
Africa Ian Engelbrecht 📧 Natural Science Collections Facility, South Africa 2023-2024
Asia (co-rep) Vijay Barve 📧 Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, CA, USA 2023-2024
Asia (co-rep) Takeru Nakazato 📧 Biological Resource Center (NBRC), National Institute of Technology and Evaluation (NITE), Tokyo, Japan 2023-2024
Europe Laurence Livermore 📧 Natural History Museum, London, England 2023-2024
Latin America TBA   2024-2025
North America Chandra Earl 📧 NEON Biorepository, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 2023-2024
Oceania Shelley James 📧 Western Australian Herbarium (PERTH), Keiran McNamara Conservation Science Centre, Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions 2024-2025

Regularly invited participants (non-voting)

Role Name Affiliation
Conference Program Committee Co-Chair Gail Kampmeier 📧 Urbana-Champaign, IL, USA
Administrator, TDWG Secretariat Stan Blum 📧 San Francisco, CA, USA

Previous Executive Committees