The members of the Executive Team bring management expertise in diverse fields. In addition, its four members offer complementary research backgrounds and organizational leadership.
Chief Executive Officer
Professor
Hebert is a Professor of Integrative Biology at Guelph and a former Canada Research Chair in Molecular Biodiversity. Hebert oversees activities at the CBG and coordinates its linkages with the International Barcode of Life Consortium. Hebert first developed DNA barcoding and is the CBG’s founder and CEO.
Chief Scientific Officer
Associate Professor
Hajibabaei is an Associate Professor of Integrative Biology at Guelph and a Research Professor at the CBG. He brings experience in HTS protocols for biodiversity analysis. As founder and CSO of eDNAtec, he collaborates with ocean industries and other stakeholders to advance the ecological monitoring of marine environments. As CSO, Hajibabaei oversees genomics innovation at the CBG.
Chief Data Officer
Professor
Taylor is a Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Guelph, a Canada Research Chair in Machine Learning, a Canada CIFAR AI Chair, and Interim Research Director at the Vector Institute. As CDO, Taylor oversees the transactional data services provided by the CBG’s Informatics Unit and the innovation agenda led by its data science/AI/machine learning teams.
Chief Operating Officer
Director – Genomics
Zakharov combines extensive research experience with a strong management track record. As COO, he oversees CBG’s day-to-day operations and resource alignment. As Director of Genomics he leads the CBG’s core sequencing facility, which analyzes millions of samples annually and serves hundreds of research groups worldwide.
With a full-time staff of 80, research activities at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics are led by senior scientists who collectively oversee its operating Units.
Director, Informatics
Porter has over two decades of research experience spanning the academic, government, and private sectors. She leverages a multidisciplinary background in bioinformatics, molecular ecology, and mycology. Her contributions include the development of databases, tools, and pipelines for the scalable analysis of DNA metabarcodes.
Research Scientist – Analytics
Steinke has been involved in DNA barcoding research since 2005, initially focusing on DNA barcoding of fishes and analytical methods. He has a strong background in evolutionary biology, genomics, and DNA analysis as well as science education and research communication.
Research Scientist – Taxonomy
Monckton has been involved in DNA barcoding since 2013. His M.Sc. and Ph.D. research used DNA barcodes to inform species discovery in bees and sawflies (Hymenoptera). He has more than 10 years of research experience in molecular evolution, phylogenetics, taxonomy, and systematics, all driven by a tireless interest in the origins and patterns of biological diversity.
Canada Research Chair & Professor
Zhou is a Professor of Integrative Biology at Guelph and a Canada Research Chair in Eukaryote Biodiversity Genomics. His research focuses on advancing understanding of the patterns of insect diversity and how evolution and species interactions have shaped it.
