Finance Committee

Richard A. Chazal, MD, MACC

Rick Chazal is a senior cardiologist and the Medical Director of the Heart and Vascular Institute for Lee Health, a four hospital, not-for-profit system in Fort Myers, Florida.  Dr. Chazal is the Past President of the American College of Cardiology.   He has practiced clinical cardiology in Fort Myers since 1983 with expertise in echocardiography, diagnostic catheterization and coronary computerized tomography angiography. During his tenure, he has been a participant in multiple clinical trials.

Chazal received his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida and went on to complete medical school and Internal Medicine training at the University of South Florida.  Subsequently, Chazal completed a fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease at the Krannert Institute of Cardiology at Indiana University, where he spent one year working under Harvey Feigenbaum, MD, FACC as a designated echocardiography fellow.

Chazal served as councillor, treasurer and president of the ACC’s Florida Chapter. Subsequent to his stint as president and governor for the Florida Chapter, he was elected Chair of the ACC Board of Governors.  He has also been ACC Treasurer and Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee. In combined capacities, Chazal has spent thirteen years on the ACC Board of Trustees.  Nationally, Chazal has served as a member and/or chair of over 50 committees and workgroups for the College.

He is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha and Omicron Delta Kappa honoraries through the University of South Florida.  He is the recipient of multiple awards from the ACC Florida Chapter, including the Special Achievement Award, the Presidential Citation, the Distinguished Service Award, and the Founder’s Award. In 2011, the Southwest Florida Affiliate of the American Heart Association awarded him their Golden Heart Award, and in 2014 he was designated Distinguished Fellow of the American College of Cardiology. He received the inaugural Community Teaching Award from the Family Medicine Residency Program via Florida State University School of Medicine Fort Myers Program in 2015. The Lee County Medical Society honored Chazal with the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. He serves as Professor of Clinical Sciences, Florida State University School of Medicine.

He and his wife Linda have three children and four grandchildren.

DANIEL JOSÉ PIÑEIRO • Full Professor of Medicine, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina • President, World Heart Federation • Former President, Inter American Society of Cardiology and Argentine Society of Cardiology • Former Board of Trustees, American College of Cardiology World Heart Federation, • Former Board Member, World Heart Federation • Former Roadmaps Liaison Officer, Science Committee, World Heart Federation Prof. Daniel José Piñeiro currently is a Full Professor of Medicine at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina (2005-). He is very active in different international organizations: Trustee at the Board of Trustees of the American College of Cardiology (2018-2021), and Roadmaps Liaison Officer at the Science Committee of the World Heart Federation (2019-2020). Prof. Piñeiro has served twice as Member at the Board of the World Heart Federation (2011-2013 and 2017-2018), Member at Membership Committee of the American College of Cardiology (2016-2017), Chair of the Assembly of International Governors of the American College of Cardiology (2015-2017), President of the Inter American Society of Cardiology (2011-2013) and President of the Argentine Society of Cardiology (2005) He is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the European Society of Cardiology, and the American Heart Association. Prof. Piñeiro graduated as a physician with honors at the Universidad de Buenos Aires. He is involved in academic and educational activities as well as clinical practice. He also has a great interest in Public and Global Health as WHF Roadmaps and roundtables. He regularly presents his work at international and national conferences. He has publications including books, book chapters, and articles in international and national journals. Some of these articles are guidelines, consensus, white papers, and roadmaps devoted to Global Health. He has earned deserved 8 national and international awards.

Kristina Sparreljung is currently Secretary General of The Swedish Heart Lung Foundation and has held this position since 2014, during which period the Swedish Heart Lung Foundation has increased its fundraising significantly with a revenue increase from 25 million to approximately 50 million EUR per year, a testament to the successful fundraising, marketing strategies, and her commitment to operational excellence. This has consequently doubled the grants for the cardiovascular and lung diseases research in Sweden during that 10 year period. Her tenure has been marked by fostering collaboration across government and non-government agencies, professional groups and civil society.
Being passionate about the research for cures for cardiovascular and lung diseases, Kristina also holds both domestic and international board positions. She has been a board member of WHF since 2019, where she previously also held the position as treasurer, and is also a board member of the European Heart Network, the Swedish Pharmaceutical Society and King Oscar the II jubilee foundation in Sweden.
Kristina has an Executive MBA from the Stockholm University School of Business as well as an IHM Master and several leadership program exams.

Dr. Mbakwem is a professor of Medicine at the University of Lagos and a consultant cardiologist to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital. She completed her residency training in internal medicine and cardiology at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital and received a Fellowship of the West African College of Physicians. She underwent further training in cardiology at the Wolfson Heart Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel and Azienda Sanitaria, Tuscany, Italy. Dr Mbakwem’s research interest includes Heart failure, systemic and pulmonary hypertension, heart disease in women, effective communication in disease management and the psychosocial issues in cardiovascular diseases. She is a member of the Nigerian Hypertension society guidelines writing committee. She is the immediate past President of the Nigerian Cardiac Society and a member of the European Society of Cardiology working group on Peripartum cardiomyopathy. She is the treasurer of PASCAR

Alejandro Ramos Carbajales  is an Independent consultant and researcher in tobacco tax and other health policies, demand for tobacco products, Illicit tobacco trade. Background in the economic evaluation of health policies and reform and cost effective analysis of investment in health infrastructure for the IDB and World Bank as a part-time consultant.

Jean-Luc Eiselé has worked in the field of medical association management for almost 20 years. He was trained as a biochemist working at the Biozentrum in Basel and the Pasteur Institute in Paris. In 1999, he joined the European Respiratory Society as Scientific Affairs Manager in charge of the Annual Congress and was offered to develop the educational activities, in particular the online portfolio. In 2001 he was nominated Deputy Executive Director and in 2007 ERS Executive Director. In 2011, he was appointed by FDI World Dental Federation as Executive Director, developing in particular its advocacy work and launching successfully the World Oral Health Day. He joined the World Heart Federation (WHF) as Chief Executive Officer in May 2017, strengthening the business model, the focus on communication and advocacy and membership engagement.