New leadership moves, recognition, and achievement.
The American College of Veterinary Surgeons (ACVS) has a new president, the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center (AMC) has named a new chair of its board of trustees, and the cofounder of the Veterinary Information Network (VIN) has been honored with a lifetime achievement award for his contributions to veterinary informatics. Read on for details about each individual.
Denis Marcellin-Little, DEDV, DECVS, DACVS, DACVSMR, has assumed the presidency of the ACVS at the 2026 ACVS Surgery Summit. He was elected president-elect in 2025 and advanced to the role following the organization’s standard succession process. As president, he serves on the 3-person ACVS Executive Committee, which manages urgent matters affecting the college, helps plan board meetings, and oversees the college’s CEO. He will also represent ACVS at national and international meetings, including the annual meeting of the European College of Veterinary Surgeons.¹
Marcellin-Little earned his veterinary degree in France before specializing in surgery in the United States, and noted he may be the first ACVS president to have trained in a European country whose official language was not English. He is currently a professor at the UC Davis Weill School of Veterinary Medicine. Following his year as president, he will assume the role of chair of the board of regents.¹
“Becoming President of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons is a major professional honor,” Marcellin-Little said in a university announcement.¹ “The organization has provided key leadership in veterinary surgery for more than 60 years. Leading ACVS is the end of a long professional journey. I went to veterinary school in France before I specialized in surgery in the United States. I think I might be the first president of the ACVS who became a veterinarian in a European country whose official language was not English.”
The Schwarzman AMC has named Nicole Seligman as chair of its board of trustees. Seligman has served as board co-chair since 2023, during which time AMC completed a $127 million capital campaign and an 83,000-sq-ft expansion and renovation of its hospital. Robert Liberman, who previously served as chair and most recently as co-chair alongside Seligman, will continue as a trustee and has been named chair emeritus.²
Seligman brings more than 4 decades of legal, business, and nonprofit leadership to the role. She previously served as executive vice president and global general counsel of Sony Corporation from 2005 to 2014 and as president of Sony Entertainment from 2014 to 2016. Prior to Sony, she was a partner in the litigation practice at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, DC. She currently serves on the boards of OpenAI, Intuitive Machines, and MeiraGTx Holdings, and chairs the board of The Doe Fund. She holds degrees from Harvard College and Harvard Law School and clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the US Supreme Court.²
“As a longtime client and supporter of AMC, I’ve seen firsthand the hospital’s unwavering commitment to delivering the very best in veterinary medicine,” Seligman said in a hospital announcement.² “I am honored to work closely with the Board, Helen [Irving, RN, MBA, president and CEO of the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center,] and the extraordinary AMC community as we enter this next chapter.”
Paul Pion, DVM, DACVIM (Cardiology), cofounder of VIN, has received the 2026 Allen W. Hahn Lifetime Achievement in Veterinary Informatics Award from the Association for Veterinary Informatics (AVI). The award was presented at the 32nd Annual Talbot Veterinary Informatics Symposium held virtually on September 24 and 25, and recognizes Pion for transforming veterinary information into clinical wisdom and building the community that shares it.³
Pion cofounded VIN in 1991 alongside Duncan Ferguson, VMD, PhD, establishing the first online case consulting and distance learning service for veterinarians. Over 35 years, it grew into a global, member-supported community where clinical discussion, references, and continuing education are accessible at the point of care. Earlier in his career, Pion and a UC Davis team identified taurine deficiency as the cause of feline dilated cardiomyopathy, a finding published in Science that led pet food manufacturers to reformulate their diets, after which the disease largely disappeared.³
“Paul spent 35 years convincing veterinarians to write down what they know and share it with each other,” said Brian Hur, DVM, PhD, president of AVI, said in a news release.³ “Almost everything our field can do with clinical data today rests on that.”
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