Our Board

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.

Jagat Narula, MD, PhD, MACC, FRCP is currently the executive vice president and chief academic officer at UTHealth Houston. He works with the six deans and members of the UTHealth Houston leadership team to advance the academic mission and promote excellence in education and research. This includes leading a diverse team of faculty and administrators to oversee strategic planning and implementation of the university’s education and research platform. 

Dr. Narula after completing his cardiology fellowship training and PhD (Cardiovascular Immunology) from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, relocated to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School in 1989. At MGH, after cardiology, heart failure & transplantation, and nuclear cardiology fellowships and he joined the cardiology faculty. In 1997, he moved to Hahnemann University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, where he was Thomas J. Vischer Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Cardiology, Vice-Chairman of the department of Internal Medicine, and Director of Heart Failure & Transplantation Center. He subsequently joined University of California, Irvine School of Medicine (2003) as Chief of the Division of Cardiology, Associate Dean for Research, and Director of the Cardiovascular Center of the UC Irvine’s Douglas Hospital. He was also the Director of Memorial Heart & Vascular Institute, Long Beach Memorial Hospital, and Medical Director of the Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology in UC Irvine’s Henry Samueli School of Engineering. He moved to Mount Sinai as the Philip J. and Harriet L. Goodhart Chair in Cardiology, and the Director of Cardiovascular Imaging Program in the Mount Sinai’s Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute in 2011.

Dr. Narula has the unique distinction of being able to combine molecular and subcellular pathology and imaging with clinical imaging of the failing myocardium and high-risk coronary atherosclerotic plaques to develop novel strategies for prevention of cardiovascular disease and promotion of cardiovascular health in developed as well as developing countries. He has specifically contributed to two major areas including heart muscle cell apoptosis in heart failure, and lipid-rich atherosclerotic plaques that are susceptible to rupture and acute coronary events. He has brought novel experimental strategies to bedside and defined their applicability at the community level. He is currently actively involved in numerous population-based heart attack prevention programs including HAPPY [Heart Attack Prevention Program for You]. Based on his expertise in global medicine, he serves on the Advisory Council on Global Prevention of Cardiovascular Diseases of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences.

His research has been funded, in part, by the grants from National Institutes of Health. He is considered to be a true translationist and one of the infrequent investigators who has distinction of publishing in the best basic science and the best clinical journals including Science, Nature Medicine, PNAS, New England Journal of Medicine, Lancet, Circulation and JACC. With more than 1000 original research publications or presentations to his credit and more than 35 books or journal supplements edited, Dr. Narula has been awarded as ‘the best young investigator’ on several occasions for his research contributions. His mentoring prowess is exemplified by the fact that 20 of his fellows, working in his research laboratory, have been awarded young investigator awards. He was recently awarded as the Best Educator as also the Innovator in Cardiovascular Medicine by the American College of Cardiology in the year 2012, and was honored as the Master of the American College of Cardiology in March 2013. He has just received the Distinguished Scientist Award 2015 from the American College of Cardiology.

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

Prof. Pinto graduated at Lisbon University Medical School in 1984. He did his Cardiology internship at Santa Maria University Hospital – CHLN, E.P.E. (Lisbon, Portugal), and Stanford University Medical School (CA, USA), where he was a Clinical Fellow. He was then Clinical Attending in the Echocardiography laboratory and underwent an Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at the same institution.

He is currently Full Professor of Cardiology, Head of the Cardiology Department and of the Heart and Vascular Department of Santa Maria University Hospital, CHULN E.P.E., immediate Past President of the World Heart Federation (WHF) (2021-2022). Recently he also finished his term as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon (Lisbon, Portugal) (2015-2018)-(2018-2022).

National Coordinator of the Medical Schools Council (2018-2020) and President of the Executive Board of the Lisbon Academic Medical Centre (CAML) (2019-2021) and Director of Lisbon Cardiovascular Institute (ICVL) since 1999.

He was the President and founder of the European Association of Echocardiography (2002-04), a registered branch of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), Chairman of the CPC (Congress Program Committee) of ESC (2008-10), Chair of the European Heart Agency(2016-2018) and ESC President (2014-16). He is immediate Past President of the World Heart Federation (WHF) (2021-2022), and integrates the Board of the European Heart for Children.

He is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology (FESC), American College of Cardiology (FACC), American Society of Angiology (FASA), Society for Cardiac Angiography and Interventions (FSCAI) and the American Society of Echocardiography (FASE) and Honorary Member of several international societies, including Societé Française de Cardiologie, Sociedad Colombiana de Cardiologia, American Society of Echocardiography, Societá Italiana de Ecografia Cardiovascular, Hungarian Society of Cardiology, Japanese Circulation Society, Sociedad Peruana de Cardiologia, Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences, Romanian Society of Cardiology, Russian Society of Cardiology, and Slovakian Society of Cardiology. Appointed by acclamation (29 November 2018) as Honorary Member of the National Academy of Medicine of Brazil. He is the Honorary President of the International Committee for Education and Cooperation of the Italian Society of Medical Science (SISMED). Honorary Member of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology(Nov 2020) and Dante Pazzanese Medal(Nov. 2020).

He was the Editor in Chief of the Portuguese Journal of Cardiology (1999-2015), and is currently Consulting Editor and Member of the Advisory and Editorial of Board of several international peer-reviewed journals, and Expert Reviewer for the European Commission. Prof. Pinto has published over 600 indexed articles and has presented over 1500 lectures/chairmanships at national and mostly international meetings.

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.

Dr Juwairia is a consultant non invasive cardiologist in Rashid hospital. She is an active
member of Emirates Cardiac Society and is the current president. She is the first women to hold this title in the Arabian gulf countries. She has been part of the scientific committee for Emirates Cardiac Society annular meeting for the past 5 years. She has both organized and participated in multiple educational activities, webinar and workshops over the years and has a great passion for teaching. She is also in charge of the heart failure clinic in Rashid hospital and has been on multiple advisory boards for heart failure therapy. She is currently the program director of Saudi board cardiology fellowship program in Rashid Hospital. She has developed the educational curriculum and organized the academic teaching in Rashid hospital cardiology department. She is also a faculty member of the Saudi board of internal medicine at Rashid hospital. She is in charge of the outpatient improvement program for the cardiovascular service line in Dubai health authority.
Dr Juwairia is the first woman to hold the role of president of Emirates Cardiac Society from starting from 2022 until present. She is the Co-chair of the scientific committee of emirates cardiac society meeting annular meetings in collaboration with the American college of cardiology. She liaisons with international societies and oversees educational activities organized by the society.
Before Dr Juwairia was a board member and the vice president of the society EMIRATES CARDIAC SOCIETY from 2019 to 2021. She represented the society in conferences and meetings.
From 2016 to 2018 she was a Chairperson Of Emirates Cardiac Imaging Group, organized educational activities and workshops under the umbrella of Emirates Cardiac Society.
From 2015 until present Dr Juwairia is a Consultant Cardiologist, an expert in diagnosing and managing multiple cardiac problems including coronary artery disease, valvular heart disease, cardiac arrhythmia, and heart failure. She manages cardiovascular risk factors like hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes and obesity.
She manages the echocardiography laboratory and reviews studies performed by cardiac technicians or cardiology fellows. She performs transesophageal echocardiograms and intraprocedural echocardiograms and teaches junior cardiologists and cardiology fellows how to perform them. She is in charge of the outpatient improvement program in Dubai health authority. She is a member of the structural heart team in Dubai health authority.

ADULT ADVANCED ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY FELLOWSHIP, MCGILL UNIVERSITY,
MONTREAL, CANADA – 2014-2015
CARDIOLOGY FELLOWSHIP, MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL, CANADA – 2011-2014
INTERNAL MEDICINE RESIDENT, MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL, CANADA – 2008-2011
INTERNAL MEDICINE RESIDENT, DUBAI HEALTH AUTHORITY, 2005-2008
INTERNSHIP, DUBAI HEALTH AUTHORITY, 2004-2005

José Ramón González Juanatey MD PhD, Professor of Cardiology at the University ofSantiago de Compostela (since 2000), Head of Cardiology and Coronary Care Unit of theUniversity Hospital of Santiago de Compostela (since 2007) and past President of the SpanishSociety of Cardiology (2013-2015). José Ramón González Juanatey MD PhD is author of morethan 740 research articles (38000 times cited / H-index: 59, source WoS), published in the bestgeneralist (NEJM, Lancet, etc.) and cardiovascular journals (Eur. Heart J., JACC, Circulation,Int J Cardiol, Cardiovascular Research, Eur. J. Heart Fail., Revista Esp. Cardiol., etc.). José Ramón González Juanatey is the coordinator of the Inflammation Area and principalinvestigator of the Cardiology Group at the Health Research Institute of Santiago deCompostela (IDIS). He was recognized as Spanish Doctor of the Year in 2014, member ofthe Board of Directors of the Spanish Network on Cardiac Insufficiency (REDINSCOR), formerpresident of the Hypertension Chapter of the Spanish Cardiology Society, governor for Spainof the International Society of Cardiovascular Pharmacology and President of ACC SpanishChapter.Dr. González Juanatey is the leader of the cardioCHUS research group of the UniversityHospital of Santiago de Compostela (CHUS), integrated in the Health Research Instituteof Santiago de Compostela (IDIS), the Center for Research in Molecular Medicine andChronic Diseases of the USC (CIMUS) and also in Center of Biomedical Research in Netfor Cardiovascular Diseases (CIBERCV) of the Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII) of Spain.The intense work of the group is reflected by the number of research projects obtained inpublic calls during the last 10 years at regional (6), national (more than 20) and internationallevel (5) projects from the European Commission: 3 of them are clinical: TIMELY, EUCAREand SECURE, another pre-clinical: FABIMED project, and the last is in the manufacturingand clinical interface (ATLANTIC-KET-MED). Financial support has also been achieved fromprivate foundations (Mutua Madrileña, Spanish Society of Cardiology…) and pharmaceuticalcompanies (Novartis, Bayer, Daiichi-Sankyo, AstraZeneca…). More recently, our group wasawarded with the first “intramural project” from CIBERCV, an evidence of our capacity ofleadership.The main lines of investigation are: heart failure, with special emphasis on heart failurewith preserved systolic function, hypertension, atrial fibrillation, cardiac rehabilitation,hemodynamics, cardiomyocyte endocrinology, epicardial adipose and endothelial tissuebiology, and chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity. The Cardiology Department of CHUS hasbeen repeatedly chosen for participation in numerous clinical trials (up to 70 different clinicaltrial per year in the last times). In recent years, the Cardiology Department has been awarded with the Best in Class (BIC)award (editions of 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020), Best in Class Excellenceaward (2020), Innovation in Health award by TelecardioCHUS program and the ReCo program(cardiac rehabilitation in cancer patients).

Professor D. Prabhakaran is a cardiologist and epidemiologist by training. He is an internationally renowned researcher and is Distinguished Professor, Public Health Foundation of India, Executive Director of Centre for Chronic Disease Control, New Delhi, India and Professor (Epidemiology) London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK. He heads the NIHR Centre for Global Health at PHFI. These centres conduct cutting edge research in the prevention of chronic diseases in India and the developing world.

His work spans from mechanistic research to understand the causes for increased propensity of cardiovascular diseases (CVD) among Indians, to developing solutions for CVD through translational research and human resource development. Prof. Prabhakaran is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, UK, Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, India, Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and an Adjunct Professor at the Emory University. He is member of Executive Council of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH) and the International Society of CVD Epidemiology and Prevention (ISCEP). He has received funding from NHLBI, Wellcome Trust, European Commission and several other international and national funding bodies. He has mentored over 50 post-doctoral and doctoral students so far. He has authored several chapters and over 700 scholarly papers with an H index of 113. Listed as the topmost researcher in Medicine in India terms of publications for the years 2009-2014 by Scopus and Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. He is the lead editor of the Cardiovascular Disease Volume of the latest Disease Control Priorities Project. He is the lead editor of Tandon’s text book of Cardiology a comprehensive book on Cardiology for Indian Cardiologists and Fellows. In recognition of his work in Chronic Diseases and Global Health he was conferred an Honorary Doctor Of Science by the Glasgow University.

Liesl Zühlke, MBChB DCH FCPaeds Cert Card MPH FESC FACC PhD trained as a Paediatric Cardiologist in Cape Town and Dusseldorf, Germany. She has a MPH in clinical research methods, and her doctorate at the University of Cape Town provided new insights on outcomes of symptomatic and asymptomatic Rheumatic Heart Disease.

Prof Zuhlke is widely regarded as an emerging leader in cardiovascular medicine on the African continent. Her major research interests lie in Rheumatic Heart Disease and congenital heart disease. A paediatric cardiologist in the Dept of Pediatric Cardiology at RXH, she worked as the clinical co-coordinator of the ASAP programme, managing several large scale RHD projects in South Africa and on the African continent. In this capacity, she was instrumental in the development, coordination and management of the largest prospective RHD registry the Rheumatic Heart Disease Registry (the REMEDY study) involving 25 sites, in 12 African countries, Yemen and India and is currently the national leader of the INVICTUS study, which aims to enrol over 30 000 RHD patients.

She has received a number of awards including an academic excellence award from Discovery, NIH Fogarty Fellowship, Wellcome CIDRI and Thrasher awards and the Hamilton Naki Post-doctoral Clinical Scholarship, an award given to clinical scholars of excellence. She is the immediate past president of the pediatric cardiac society of South Africa, President of the South African Heart Association and the chairperson of the Pan African Society of Cardiology Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Task force. She was one of the organizers of the 6th World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery 2013, the World Congress of Cardiology and Cardiovascular Health 2016 and is on the organising committee for the World Congress of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery in 2017. A previous board member of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of South Africa, she is now on the board of the Hatter Institute for Cardiovascular Research and is co-director of Rheach (Rheumatic Heart Disease-Evidence, Advocacy, Communication and Hope), the recipient of one of the largest grants from Medtronic Philanthropy for work in Rheumatic heart disease. The initiative will be providing scientific and technical support for Global RHD programmes over the next five years.

Prof. Dr. med. Stephan Achenbach graduated from Medical School at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany in 1993 and subsequently completed his training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at the associated university hospital. In 2002/2003, he was a research fellow at the Department of Radiology and Cardiology Division, Massachusetts General Hospital. Since 2012, he is the Chairman of the Department of Cardiology and Professor of Medicine at the University of Erlangen, Germany. His main clinical interests are interventional cardiology, general cardiology as well as cardiac imaging. His research is focused on cardiac interventions and cardiac imaging with a special focus on computed tomography of the heart and the use of imaging to support coronary and structural interventional procedures.
Stephan Achenbach was the Founding President of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography. He is the President of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) for the mandate 2020 to 2022. Academic awards include the Jan Brod Award for Clinical Research of the Medical School of Hannover, Germany (1999), the Thomas C. Cesario Distinguished Visiting Professorship Award, University of California Irvine School of Medicine (2007), the Simon Dack Award, American College of Cardiology (2009), the Gold Medal of the Society of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (2015), the Sir Godfrey Hounsfield Award of the British Institute of Radiology (2016), the Pioneer Award in Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, Society for Cardiovascular Computed Tomography (2019) and the Fritz Acker Award, German Society of Cardiology (2020). In 2017, he was selected by AuntMinnie.com as the “Most Influential Radiology Researcher” and he has repeatedly received the 1st Prize Best Teaching Award, Clinical Medicine, Medical Faculty of the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021).

Since 2013, Dr. Ivor Benjamin has been the Director of the Cardiovascular Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and a Professor of Medicine, Physiology, Pharmacology & Toxicology, Cell Biology, Neurobiology & Anatomy, and Surgery at MCW. Dr. Benjamin’s leadership of the Cardiovascular Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin is increasing the investigative workforce as he serves as the Co-Director of an NHLBI T32 training program within the CVC. Dr. Benjamin proudly served as American Heart Association President from 2018-2019, and then Immediate Past President from 2019-2020. He was an AHA Established Investigator, a founding member of the Journal of the American Heart Association and currently serves on the editorial boards of Circulation and Circulation Research.

Professor Junbo Ge is academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences; the chief of cardiology department of Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University; the chief of Shanghai Cardiovascular Clinical Center; the chairman of Shanghai Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases; the head of Institutes of Biomedical Sciences;the head of Institute for Pan vascular Medical Research, Fudan University;the chairman of Pan vascular Fund, Fudan University; director of Engineering Research Center for Cardiovascular Devices, Ministry of Education; He was awarded Scholars of the Yangtse River; Elite of science and technology; National Labor Medal; Tan Jiazhen prize in life sciences; the national “Bethune” Medal, etc. He is also the president of the Chinese Society of Cardiology; the chairman of China Cardiovascular Association; board member of The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions; member of the international advisory board of American College of Cardiology. Prof. Ge dedicates to the optimization and innovation of diagnosis and treatment strategy for coronary artery disease and made extraordinary achievements in intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). His research areas also includes development of novel coronary stents, treatment strategy optimization of complex CAD and stem cell therapy. Prof. Ge has been responsible for over 20 scientific research projects supported by the government, Furthermore, a total of over 300 papers published by Prof. Ge have been included by SCI-E (as the first author or the corresponding author). Prof. Ge has edited 20books (one published abroad) and co-edited more than 20 monographs and textbooks. He is the chief editor of Internal Medicine (8th edition), Practice of Internal Medicine (15th edition), Cardiology Plus and deputy editor of Herz. As the first person to complete a project, Prof. Ge has received more than fourteen awards, including the second prize of National Award for Science and Technology Progress, the second prize of National Award for Technological Invention, the first prize of Science and Technology Progress Award presented by the Ministry of Education, the second prize of the China Medical Technology Award(twice),the first prize of the Shanghai Science and Technology Progress Award, etc.

Dipti Itchhaporia is an interventional cardiologist and the Eric & Sheila Samson Endowed Chair in Cardiovascular Health, director of disease management for Hoag Heart and Vascular Institute, Clinical Professor at the University of California, Irvine and the past President of the American College of Cardiology (ACC). She was the 70th President of the ACC and the first South Asian American to hold this role. Dr. Itchhaporia’s professional interests include the utilization of technology and innovation to propel the prevention of cardiovascular disease. She has been a strong advocate for the digital transformation in healthcare and achieving the Quintuple Aim. Most recently, she joined the Board for the World Heart Federation, assumed the role of associate editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) Advances and joined the innovation oversight Workgroup of the ACC.

Dr. Akasaka graduated from Wakayama Medical University in 1982 and finished his residency at Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital (KCGH). 
He had been clinical fellow at Harefield Hospital in United Kingdom in 1987. 
From 1989, he had done clinical research work in the field of coronary physiology using coronary flow velocity and pressure extensively at KCGH as a director of cardiac catheterization laboratory for 8 years. 
After he moved to Kawasaki Medical University as associate professor, he started OCT for 5 years. 
And then, he became Professor of Wakayama Medical University in 2005 and he has been devoted to the clinical research work using OCT and coronary physiology. 
He has published the many papers regarding coronary imaging using OCT in addition to coronary physiology research. Based on his clinical and research work, he has been the executive board members in various cardiology societies and the course co-directors of several coronary live-demonstration courses in the world.

Charmaine is Chief Executive of The British Heart Foundation, one of the world’s foremost funders of cardiovascular research. Prior to re-joining the BHF in February 2020, Charmaine served as Chief Operating Officer at the Institute of Cancer Research, a leading comprehensive cancer centre.

With over 25 years of experience across the health and life sciences sectors, Charmaine is passionate about the power of research to save and improve lives. She has previously held executive and non-executive leadership in a range of organisations, including the BHF, The Royal Marsden NHS Trust, The Human Tissue Authority and Brain Research UK. Charmaine has a PhD in Neuroscience from University College London and was awarded an MBA from Cranfield University in 2012.

Charmaine is currently President of the European Heart Network, Chair of the Global Cardiovascular Funders Forum, and a Board Member of the World Heart Federation. She is also Chair of the Cranfield Trust and was listed in the UK’s Top Five CEOs in 2021.

Dr. Sosa Liprandi is the Head of Cardiology, Sanatorio Guemes. Buenos Aires, Argentina. Associated Director, Austral Cardiovascular Institute. Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego. Argentina. Director. Idea Medica. Research & Education. Buenos Aires, Argentina, Director. Post graduated Medical School in Cardiology. Universidad de Buenos Aires. President Inter-American Society of Cardiology. Former President of the Argentine Society of Cardiology. Former Vice-President of the Argentine Heart Foundation. Fellow American College of Cardiology . Fellow Inter-American Society of Cardiology Full Member. American Society of Nuclear Cardiology. Full Member. International Society of cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy.

Thomas A. Gaziano M.D., M.Sc. is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH). He is Director of Global Health and Economic Evaluations within Cardiovascular Innovations at BWH where he evaluates prevention programs in clinical services. He is currently a principal or co-principal investigator on three NIH-funded grants in Argentina and South Africa, the main focus of which are the implementation of effective cardiovascular therapies or policies in low-income settings. His Harvard CVD PREDICT model is used to evaluate health outcomes, financial impacts, and the cost-effectiveness of CVD intervention strategies. He serves on the Board of the World Heart Federation.

I have enjoyed along career in education, research, health promotion and with the National Heart Foundation of Australia, as Director Cardiovascular Health and as National Director Physical Activity. I have extensive experience in community-wide programs, media, advocacy and applying evidence to interventions at local, national and global scales. I have current adjunct appointments at Curtin University and University of WA Schools of Public Health where I am engaged in various research studied in public health and have 100 publications. I have been awarded Life Membership of the Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA) and a Fellow of the International Society for Physical Activity (ISPAH) and Executive Board member of the Australasian Society for Physical Activity (ASPA). I serve of the WHO Civil Society Working Group for NCDs, which provides advice to DG Tedros on NCD matters. I am a member of the WHF Advocacy Committee and currently leading the WHF Policy Position on Physical Activity. My main motivation in engagement with the WHF is to improve global cardiovascular health (CVH) and contribute to closing the gap between the evidence for CVH and its risk factors and robust implementation of policies and interventions with proven efficacy.

Professor of Clinical Epidemiology, University Medical Center Utrecht

Rick Grobbee, is founder of the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care (1996), a division of the  University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) currently employing approximately 500 staff, and of Julius Clinical (2008), a full service Academic Clinical Research Organization. He currently acts as the chair of the Center for Circulatory Health at the UMCU governing cardiovascular patient care, research and education. Previous positions include Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at Erasmus University Rotterdam, member of the board of Erasmus University Medical Center, and visiting Associate Professor at Harvard University, Boston. He holds honorary appointments in Sydney and Kuala Lumpur. He has been a (principal) investigator in many large-scale epidemiologic studies and randomized intervention trials relating to the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular, cardiometabolic, and cardiorenal disease. In addition he works on the principles and methods of treatment research, trial design and data analysis. He is listed in the top 100 global most influential biomedical researchers (Eur J Clin Invest 2013 Dec;43(12):1339-65) and has consistently been ranked as highly cited author by Web of Science over the last decades. Rick Grobbee has been on the editorial boards of several journals and (inter) national scientific, search, and site-visit committees. Current journal roles include senior consulting editor of the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology of which he served as editor-in-chief for eight years. He is past-president of the European Association for Preventive Cardiology and member of the board of the European Society of Cardiology. In 2010 he was appointed Distinguished University Professor of International Health Sciences and Global Health at Utrecht University. Rick Grobbee is fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences and served as the chair of its Medical Section and Advisory Council for the Medical Sciences. He is honorary fellow of the Indonesian Heart Association and of the Romanian Society of Cardiology.  In recent years his attention has increasingly been directed towards global circulatory health. In 2017 he was knighted by the Dutch King (Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion). To date, Prof. Grobbee has authored or co-authored over 1,300 scientific papers (PubMed), chapters, and books, and has supervised more than 140 PhD fellows. His Hirsch index (Web of Science) is 146.

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.