Catalogue of Life (COL) was originally established as a partnership between Species 2000 and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS). In 2022 a not-for-profit Catalogue of Life legal entity has been established. Catalogue of Life if a stichting under Dutch law with registration number KVK 86436481. Catalogue of Life is governed by a Board of Directors, an advisory body called the Catalogue of Life Global Team (including associated working groups), and a distributed secretariat.

Board of Directors

The Board of Directors deals with international policy and business issues, appoints new Directors, appoints and authorises ‘The COL Global Team’, including appointing the COL Global Team Chair, as well as setting up specific working groups and appoints and authorises the COL Managing Director.

Catalogue of Life has the following board:

• Dr Edward DeWalt (University of Illinois, Prairie Research Institute, Illinois Natural History Survey, USA), Acting Chair
• Prof. W. Alex Gray (United Kingdom), Treasurer
• Dr Olaf Bánki (Netherlands) Managing Director Catalogue of Life, Acting Secretary

Global Team

The COL Global Team consists of active participants who contribute to the taxonomic and IT policy and to the design of the work programme. Team members bring expertise in the fields of taxonomy and biodiversity informatics and/or as global or regional checklist data custodians. The Global Team develops criteria for selecting global and regional taxonomic content, liaises between the project and the taxonomic and informatics communities, recommends a work programme to the Directors, monitors progress of work and deals with quality maintenance issues. It meets every 6-9 months, rotating between continents.

Working Groups (max. 15 persons) may be set up by the COL Global Team for special aspects. Three working groups currently exist for Taxonomy, Information Systems, and species list governance. The working groups are each led by a member of the COL Global Team but may include co-opted non-members.

Members of the Catalogue of Life Global Team

• Thomas Pape (Denmark), Chair
• Olaf Bánki (Netherlands), Ex Officio
• Maria Marta Cigliano (Argentina)
• Markus Döring (Germany)
• Anne Fuchs (Australia)
• Stephen Garnett (Australia)
• Tobias Guldberg Froeslev (Denmark)
• Donald Hobern (Australia)
• Holy Little (USA)
• Koen Martens (Belgium)
• David Nicolson (USA)
• Li-Qiang Ji (China)
• Thomas Orrell (USA)
• Richard Pyle (USA)
• Lauren Raz (Colombia)
• Scott Thomson (Brasil)
• Sz-Yi Tsai (Taiwan, Chinese Taipei)
• Nina Wambiji (Kenya)
• Haylee Weaver (Australia)

Members of the Taxonomy Group

• Donald Hobern (Australia), Chair
• Nicolas Bailly (Canada)
• Olaf Bánki (Netherlands), Ex Officio
• Maria Marta Cigliano, (Argentina)
• Mark Costello (New Zealand)
• Edward DeWalt, (USA), Ex Officio
• Jeyaraney Kathirithamby (United Kingdom)
• David Nicolson (USA)
• Thomas Orrell (USA)
• Geoffrey Ower (USA), Ex Officio
• Thomas Pape (Denmark), Ex Officio
• Richard Pyle (USA)
• Tony Rees (Australia)
• Yuri Roskov (USA), Ex Officio
• Michael Ruggiero (USA)
• Jacek Szwedo (Poland)

Members of the Information Systems Group

• Olaf Bánki (NL), acting Chair
• Markus Döring (Germany)
• Tim Robertson (Denmark)
• Bart Vanhoorne (Belgium)

Members of the Species List Governance Group

• Stephen Garnett (Australia), Chair
• Olaf Bánki (Netherlands), Ex Officio
• Saroj Barik (India)
• Les Christidis (Australia)
• Maria Marta Cigliano (Argentina)
• Stijn Conix (Belgium)
• Haylee Crawford-Wheeler (Australia)
• Craig Hilton-Taylor (UK)
• Donald Hobern (Australia), Ex Officio
• Ronell Klopper (South Africa)
• Aaron Lien (USA)
• Thomas Pape (Denmark), Ex Officio
• Lauren Raz (Colombia)
• Scott Thomson (Brasil)
• Peter Paul van Dijk (USA)
• Nina Wambiji (Kenya)
• Frank Zachos (Austria)

Secretariat

Catalogue of Life is maintained by a distributed secretariat. The Global Biodiversity Information Facility is the administrative host as well as hosts the infrastructure, the Illinois Natural History Survey hosts part of the editorial office.

• COL Managing Director - Dr. Olaf Bánki - The Netherlands
• COL Executive Editor - Dr. Yuri Roskov - Illinois Natural History Survey, United States of America
• COL Editor - Ms. Diana Hernandez - Mexico
• COL Editor - Ms. Camila Plata - Colombia
• COL Database manager - Dr. Geoff Ower - Illinois Natural History Survey, United States of America
• Mr. Ari Örn is a volunteer with Catalogue of Life doing quality assurance checks on the ColDP archives each month

Infrastructure team

A dedicated GBIF team support the maintenance and expansion of the Catalogue of Life Infrastructure, ChecklistBank. ChecklistBank is both core infrastructure for Catalogue of Life and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.

The infrastructure team works closely with the Catalogue of Life Secretariat and its partners.

• COL Lead developer - Mr. Markus Döring - Global Biodiversity Information Facility - Germany
• COL User Interface developer - Mr. Thomas Stjernegaard Jeppesen Global Biodiversity Information Facility - Denmark