Dr Joanne Daly, Group Executive, Agribusiness of the CSIRO, Australia, was elected new Chair of the GBIF Governing Board at the GB16 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, in October 2009.

Per Backe Hansen of the Research Council of Norway was elected Chair of the GBIF Budget Committee at GB16 in October 2009.

Stephen Wilkinson was elected Nodes Committee Chair at GB19 in September 2012.

Stephen Wilkinson's original training was in Marine Biology at Liverpool University but he has always been particularly interested in the analysis of biological data. On completion of his PhD he worked as a data analyst at the Institute of Zoology (London). Following that he worked at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority exploring the potential use of spatial prediction techniques and it was during that time that he  acquired a good grounding in both databases and programming and realised the enormous potential there was in applying this field to biodiversity.

On return to the UK in 1997, Stephen began work for the Joint Nature Conservation Committee where he remains today heading up the Access to Information programme. He has been heavily involved in the establishment of a National Biodiversity Network (NBN) to mobilise the huge volume of biodiversity data available across the UK.  The NBN is now a major contributor of data to the GBIF network.  He has been closely involved in virtually all aspects of the NBN initiative from this very early stage in both the overall strategic direction and actual practical implementation. He has also been involved with a range of other biodiversity informatics projects including the development and support of a) Recorder 6, a scalable software product capable of capturing and managing multiple ecological field surveys, and of handling millions of data points, b) Marine Recorder an equivalent system for marine biodiversity samples, and he is currently heavily involved UK Government led initiatives to improve access to environmental data generally, particularly in marine, ensuring that biodiversity data is part of the overall picture.

Christoph Häuser of the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany, was elected Chair of the Rules Committee at GB16 in October 2009. Previous to that, he was first Chair of the GBIF Governing Board from 2001-2005, then in the period 2005-2009 he was 2nd Vice Chair of the GBIF Governing Board.

Leonard Krishtalka of the University of Kansas was elected Chair of the GBIF Science Committee at GB16 in October 2009.