Janos Borbely

I acquired my MSc in Electronic Engineering at the Technical University of Budapest, Hungary in 1987. I started my career at the Hungarian Academy of Science, Central Research Institute for Physics as software developer writing applications to process and visualize scanning electronic microscopic data.

During the following two decades I had been working with diverse sets of data ranging from passenger flight operational data, to securities trading and banking data, to automotive parts data. Meanwhile I gradually moved from the area of programming and software development to IT business and requirement analysis.

Over the past decade I more and more turned towards my passion and endeavoured to increase my knowledge of, and involvement in, ecology, conservation and biodiversity. As I have become increasingly disenchanted with working in the worlds of financial services and insurance, so I have developed a yearning to combine my passion and IT experience in a new vocation that contributes to protecting the natural world.

I qualified as a Park Ranger in my native Hungary in 2006 and enrolled in a part-time BSc course in Biology, specialising in Ecology, at the University of Szeged, again in Hungary in the same year. Through that course I completed modules on topics such as conservation, bioinformatics and phyto- and zoo-taxonomy, systematics, bio-geography and hydrology. I also gained practical experience through participation in phyto-sociology, transect analysis, and population research programs.

Over the past two years I have focused on broadening my knowledge and understanding of biodiversity-related issues by taking courses in subjects ranging from Environmental Law to Marine Mega-fauna, Animal Behavior, Tropical Coastal Ecosystems. By dedicating my time to these courses, I have further reinforced my determination to contribute to build a new career contributing to species conservation.

In July 2014 I came up with the idea of founding The Biodiversity Alliance. Since than I dedicated all my spare time to establish this non-for-profit organization. I prepared and organized the first General Meeting of the association which was held on 21. October 2014. Through this involvement I had been appointed as Secretary and Treasurer of The BA which I consider my greatest success and is my honor. I am contributing as webmaster of The BA.

In 2015 I completed the exam for the IUCN’s online course “Assessing Species’ Extinction Risk Using IUCN Red List Methodology” and acquired a Global and Regional Assessor Certificate.