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Elections were conducted by secret ballot on Day 1 of the eleventh meeting of the GBIF Governing Board, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure. Nominations had been received from the delegations prior to the meeting, and were circulated for consideration by the Board. The results of the elections are given below.
GOVERNING BOARD
 The new Chair of the Governing Board is Dr. David Penman (New Zealand). Dr Penman represented New Zealand at the working group on Biological Informatics of the Megascience Forum of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which recommended the formation of GBIF in 1999. Beginning in 2001, he served as Chair of the GBIF Budget Committee until he was elected Chair of the Governing Board in 2005.
A great deal of work is foreseen for the officers of the Governing Board over the next two years, as a new Memorandum of Understanding and Strategic Plan are implemented. For that reason, the Executive Committee approved the establishment of two Vice Chair positions for the period, as allowed by the MoU and the Rules of Procedure.
 Dr. Hideaki Sugawara (Japan) was elected first Vice Chair and will have the duties of substituting for the Chair if necessary, and sharing representational duties as appropriate. Dr. Sugawara supervises the World Data Center for Microorganisms, and is employed by the Center For Information Biology and the DNA Data Bank of Japan. He represented Japan on the OECD Working Group on Biological Informatics Subgroup on Biodiversity Informatics.
 The second Vice Chair will be Dr. Christoph Häuser (Germany), who represented Germany on the OECD Working Group that recommended the establishment of GBIF. Dr. Häuser also served two terms as the first Chair of the Governing Board. His duties as second Vice Chair will include representing GBIF as requested by the Chair, and assisting in fundraising.
BUDGET COMMITTEE
 The Budget Committee will be chaired for the next two years by Dr. Lars Nilsson, who has been Sweden's Head of Delegation to the Governing Board since 2001 and served as Vice Chair of the Budget Committee from 2003 to 2005. He works in the Swedish Research Council.
 Dr. Helmut Kühr will be Vice Chair of the Committee. He has served as a member of the Committee since 2001, as well as being Germany's Head of Delegation to the GBIF Governing Board. He works for the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR).
 The other Vice Chair of the Budget Committee is Peter Schalk (Netherlands), who is the Director of the Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification, an Associate Participant in GBIF, who has served as its Head of Delegation since 2001. He was also involved in the OECD Working Group that recommended that GBIF be established.
SCIENCE COMMITTEE
 Dr. Wouter Los (Netherlands) was elected to a second term as Chair of the Science Committee. Dr. Los also was a member of the OECD Working Group on Biological Informatics Subgroup on Biodiversity Informatics, as well as the Interim Steering Committee and the Governing Board since the inception of GBIF.
 The two Vice Chairs of the Science Committee are the newly elected Dr. Daphne Fautin (OBIS) and Dr. Jorge Soberón (Mexico), who was re-elected. Both have long been interested in biodiversity informatics developments, and Dr. Soberón served on the OECD Working Group, the Interim Steering Committee and the Governing Board as the delegate from Mexico.
Each of the four Programmes of GBIF is advised by a Science Subcommittee (SSC). These Subcommittees are chaired by persons who represents his or her Subcommittee on the Science Committee. Persons who serve in their personal capacities are elected by the Governing Board to these positions.
 Dr. Stan Blum (United States) is the re-elected SSC Chair for Data Access and Database Interoperability (DADI) Programme, and provides important liaison with the Taxonomic Databases Working Group.
 Dr. Walter Berendsohn is the new SSC Chair for the Digitisation of Natural History Collections (DIGIT) Programme. He also is active in the Taxonomic Databases Working Group, and has served as a delegate (Germany) on the Governing Board.
 Dr. Christopher Lyal was re-elected as Chair of the SSC for the Electronic Catalogue of Names of Known Organsims. He has served as a delegate (United Kingdom) to the Governing Board.
 Mr. Vishwas Chavan (India) is newly elected as Chair of the SSC for Outreach and Capacity Building. He works on issues related to Biodiversity Informatics in the Information Division of India's National Chemical Laboratory.
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