The 60th anniversary of BION`s Founder and permanent leader - Dmitri Tkachev
On April 3, 2023, BION Terrarium Center celebrates the 60th anniversary of its Founder and permanent leader - Dmitri Tkachev. In parallel, BION is celebrating its own 30th anniversary.
Should someone have interest in the official information about the Hero of the day, here is the link: https://responsibleherpetoculture.com.ua/.../dmitri-tkachev/
Anyway, today we would like to talk about all this at length informally .
Dmitri was born in beautiful capital of Ukraine, graduated from one of the best Kyiv schools and trained with the famous Ukrainian zoologist – Professor Nikolai Shcherbak.
At the age of 10 he petted his first lizard, at 18 he realized that animals were his calling, and at 27 he made working with exotic animals his main profession and life’s work. The family has always supported Dmitri in all endeavors. In 1993, with the financial support of his father, he created BION, which within 30 years has evolved from a trading organization into a well-known breeding center. https://bion.com.ua/history-of-bion/
From 1993 to 2023, BION’s specialists have bred 121 species of amphibians and reptiles. For many species, professional manuals have been developed and a unique information base has been collected that is of great interest for zoos, breeding centers and conservationists. During their activity, the BION team wrote more than 200 scientific, informational and methodological articles, and organized more than 50 conferences and seminars. Currently, BION maintains working and scientific contacts with specialists from 30 countries.
Dmitri founded the BION Breeding Center, organized Ekzo Zoo and established the “Responsible Zooculture” Center, which is engaged in educational and research work (with “Responsibly Herpetoculture Project”(RHP) as its main activity for today).
In 2019, Dmitri made a presentation "BION Terrarium Center - from reptile trade to Responsible Herpetoculture" at the Herpeton-2019 Conference in San Diego, USA https://bion.com.ua/talk-in-san-diego /
Today Dmitry Tkachev is a recognised expert in herpetoculture, founder and coordinator of the international "Responsible herpetoculture"(RHP) www.responsibleherpetoculture.com.ua
He is an active member of the Association of Zoos of Ukraine (AZU) www.azu.org.ua
Dmitri is a charismatic personality, a man with a kind heart and a wonderful sense of humor. He is fond of history, geography and literature, writes wonderful poetry and prose, and loves to travel.
Dmitri is a demanding leader, at the same time he gives his team members the opportunity to take the initiative and make their careers.
Thanks to his leadership qualities, he managed to save BION and the whole team during COVID-2019, and even during a more difficult period – from February 2022 to April 2023, during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Despite all the difficulties and trials, he did not fire a single employee.
In June 2022, BION welcomed Sergei Prokopiev and Nelly Kuzmenko to BION’s family, with all their animals. Unfortunately, their Reptile Breeding Center near Kharkov was completely destroyed as a result of shelling during the war. Now Sergey and Nelly are an integral part of the BION team. https://bion.com.ua/bion-in-the-middle-of-the-war/
At this time, our motto became "Keep cold-blooded!" Today, T-shirts with this motto (in Ukrainian and English) designed by Aleksander Tscap specially for BION are worn by our like-minded people in Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Hong Kong, Japan, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, the UK and the USA.
At the height of the war, on March 30, 2022, under the coordination of Dmitri Tkachev, the first online issue of the “Responsible Herpetoculture Journal” (RHJ) was released; by now it is quite popular with herp community in many countries (issue 8 of RHJ will be released in April 2023) https://responsibleherpetoculture.com.ua/cat.../rhp-journal/
For most of us, BION is a family, a way of life, our special world. Many of us have spent most of our conscious lives here.
Even employees who no longer work for us come to BION as if they were at home.
We are grateful to Dmitri for the atmosphere that he managed to create.
We have become part of the global community, and have a nice opportunity for profile communication with colleagues all over the world, as well as for professional growth. Before the war, our development depended on us only.
We are sure that with such a Leader we will endure all trials and meet Victory together.
AFTER ALL, HE IS ONLY 60 TODAY AND OUR TEAM IS 30 ALREADY!
By now our Chief, as always, is full of energy, ideas and plans!
Happy anniversary to you and us!
Happy Birthday and all the best from BION team!
