Vinay Badhwar, MD is the Gordon F. Murray Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery of West Virginia University and Executive Chair of the WVU Heart and Vascular Institute and Service Line. He is an international contributor and thought leader in the management of atrial fibrillation, mitral valve disease, and robotic surgery.

Emre Belli is the immediate past Chair of the EACTS Congenital Domain and has interests in adult congenital cardiac surgery, neonatal cardiac surgery and reconstructive valve surgery. He is the Director of the Dept for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Disease in Marie Lannelobgue Hospital in Paris.

Dr. Christian Bermudez is a cardiothoracic surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. He specializes in end-stage heart and lung disease with a focus in cardiothoracic transplantation, heart failure surgery and mechanical support. He completed his surgery and cardiothoracic surgery residencies at the University of Chile and his advanced fellowship at the Mayo Clinic and the University of Pittsburgh. He held the position of Division Chief of Cardiothoracic Transplantation at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center from 2012 – 2015 and has been the Director of Thoracic Transplantation at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania since 2015. He has vast surgical experience, with close to 1000 heart and lung transplants and LVAD implantations performed. He is an active member of the most relevant national and international societies in his field and has authored and co-authored over 120 publications in peer-reviews journals in his specialty. Dr. Bermudez has focused his research on mechanisms to expand the use of transplantation in patients with end-stage cardiopulmonary disease, with the use of ECMO and LVAD. His research is currently focusing on the impact of mechanical support in cardiogenic shock and the use of organ perfusion to increase organ utilization.

Alain Berrebi is the head of Echo-Lab of Department of Cardio Vascular Surgery at the Hôpital Européen Georges Pompidou and Institut Mutualiste Montsouris in Paris, France.  He is an interventional echocardiographist with specific expertise in the field of Valvular Disease and Intra-operative 3D TEE in the operating room and Cath-Lab. Dr Berrebi is a member of the European Society of Cardiology and American Society of Echocardiography and President of the Valve Group of French Society of Cardiology.

Friedhelm Beyersdorf is Professor of S urgery and Chair man of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Heart Center Freiburg University since 1994. He has performed the first combined heart lung transplantation in the county of Baden - Wu e rttemberg in Germany and has started a large heart transplant program (including pediatric transplantation) and mechanical assist program (including total artificial heart implantation ) . He is the Editor - in - Chief of the EJCTS and ICVTS since 201 0 . He served as the Pres ident of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery from 2009 to 2011 and has published more than 250 original articles and has received the “ Professor honoris causa ” in 2000 from the Marilia University in Brasil and the “D octor honoris cau sa ” from the State University in Laos in 2008. He was the principal investigator of many national and international studies and received numerous national and international awards.

Dr. Steven F. Bolling is a Professor of Surgery in the Department of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Michigan. Both his undergraduate and medical school education were at the University of Michigan. Following this, he trained in general and thoracic surgery at Johns Hopkins. He joined the Cardiac Surgery faculty at the University of Michigan in the mid-1980s and helped create and direct the multi-disciplinary mitral valve clinic. He is an active participant in all the major cardiac surgical societies and a recognized expert in mitral valve surgery. He is the author of over 350 peer-reviewed publications and holds numerous grants, including NIH, AHA, and industry grants. He is the Director of the Myocellular Biology Laboratory. His research is in the molecular biology of heart failure, with a special interest in myocyte signal transduction. He is also the Director of the Multidisciplinary Mitral Valve Clinic.

Associate Professor of Clinical Surgery, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami Transplant Institute Jackson Health System.

Dr. Jaime Camacho, Chairman of Surgery Department and Chief of Adult Cardiac Surgery Service at the Fundación Cardioinfantil Instituto de Cardiología Bogotá, former Vice President of the Colombian Society for Vascular Surgery. Trained in Vascular and Cardiac Surgery with special interest in the approach of aortic pathology, aortic arch surgery, endovascular aneurysm repair, thoracoabdominal and abdominal interventions. Active participant of the multidisciplinary Heart Team programme for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation, Valve-in-Valve and MitraClip procedures. Associate professor at Universidad del Rosario for higher education in Medicine and Cardiac Surgery. He is an active member of the Cardiac Surgery Department with a high volume practice focused on patient safety and optimal clinical outcomes.

Dr. Javier Castillo serves The Mount Sinai Hospital as Director of the Hispanic Heart Center. He completed his internship and residency in cardiothoracic surgery at The Mount Sinai Hospital and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In addition, Dr. Castillo completed a research fellowship on mitral valve disease under Professor David H. Adams at the same institution. He has been a staff member of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery since 2010. Dr. Castillo is an author on over 100 peer-reviewed publications and serves on the Editorial Boards of several medical journals and textbooks. He has authored over 25 book chapters on the surgical management of mitral valve disease for the top textbooks in the cardiovascular field including Hurst’s the Heart, Braunwald’s Heart Disease, Sabiston and Spencer Surgery of the Chest or Cardiac Surgery in the Adult. Dr. Castillo’s clinical interests include all aspects of complex valve disease, with a special emphasis on mitral valve reconstruction, aortic root surgery, multivalve surgery and novel percutaneous valve replacement.

Dr Jorge Cervantes is a cardiothoracic surgeon specialising in congenital heart disease. He is a Professor of Cardiac Surgery of Congenital Heart Diseases in the Postgraduate Division of School of Medicine at the National University Mexico. He works in the surgery department of the National Institute of Cardiology Ignacio Chavez and is Head of Child Cardiovascular Surgery of the Tec Salud System Hospitals. He has a masters in Health Management Directive and is a member of the World Society for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery (WSPCHS), and Former head of the Governing Council. He is a current member of both the Mexican Society of Cardiac Surgery and the Mexican Association of Congenital Heart Disease Specialists (AMECC).

Ruggero De Paulis is the Director of the Cardiac Surgery Department of the European Hospital in Rome, a position he has held since 2006.  After graduating from the University of L’Aquila and completing his residency at the University of Torino, he spent two years in the Artificial Heart Programme at the University of Utah, and then two years as staff surgeon at the VI and XII University of Paris. Since then he has been working in Rome, at the University of Tor Vergata, where he was appointed Associate Professor in 2002.  In 2018 he has been appointed Associate Professor at the Weill Cornell Medicine, New York Presbiterian Hospital. His main interest is in aortic and mitral repair surgery and he is the designer of the “Valsalva” graft, currently used in most aortic root surgeries. He is currently serving as Associate Editor of the ICVTS. He has been EACTS Chairman of the Vascular Domain from 2014 to 2017. He has served as EACTS President in the period 2018-2019.

Dr. Jacob DeLaRosa is the chief of Cardiac and Endovascular surgery as well as the Surgical Director of the Trans-catheter Program at Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello, Idaho USA. He is double boarded in General surgery and Thoracic surgery. He did his Thoracic surgery training at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2004 he went to Southeast Idaho to start the first Cardiothoracic surgical program. Over the past 15-years he has built a nationally and international recognized program. He is past president of the 21st Century Cardiothoracic Surgical Society, and past member of the FDA Risk Advisory Committee. He has extensively published in peer reviewed articles, book chapters, abstracts and holds several US and International patents. He is a Ted Talk alumnus, celebrated author and expert on dealing with Physician disruptive behavior. He has extensive experience in taking an idea, moving forward to production, and being able to take the product to market. He is known around the world as the surgeon that saved the 1-pound Yorkie.

Prof. Alessandro Della Corte achieved his Cardiac Surgery Specialty Degree in 2004 and PhD Degree in 2008 Naples, Italy. He was appointed Assistant Professor in 2006 and Associate Professor in 2014. Since 2007 he has been working as staff surgeon at the Adult Cardiac Surgery Unit of the Monaldi Hospital, Naples, with particular interest in surgery of the aorta and aortic valve, also co-running the aortic endovascular treatment programme since 2007. Author of more than 140 papers published in international peer-review journals; co-author of 1 monography and 3 book chapters, editor of an eBook on bicuspid aortopathy. He is a member of the EACTS Task Force on Disorders of Connective Tissue and of the Scientific Committee of the Italian Society for Cardiac Surgery. He is currently running several research projects, particularly in the fields of bicuspid aortic valve and diseases of the aorta and participating in several collaborations with national and international research groups (including the International Bicuspid Aortic Valve Consortium and the International Aortic Arch Surgery Study Group).

Nimesh Desai, MD, PhD is a cardiovascular surgeon and assistant professor of surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Desai received his medical degree from the Schulich School of Medicine in Ontario and his doctorate of philosophy in clinical epidemiology from the University of Toronto. He completed an integrated cardiac surgery residency at the University of Toronto and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada. During his residency training, he was a member of the Surgeon‐Scientist training program at the University of Toronto and was fully funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. He most recently completed an advanced surgical fellowship at Penn Medicine with an emphasis on minimally invasive valve surgeries, complex aortic surgery and endovascular surgery.

Ismail El-Hamamsy is a cardiac surgeon at the Montreal Heart Institute and Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Montreal. He completed his medical education and cardiac surgery training at the University of Montreal.  This was followed by a 4-year fellowship in London under the direct mentorship of Sir Magdi Yacoub at Harefield Hospital. During this period, he completed a PhD on the pathophysiology of aortic valve disease at Imperial College London. Ismail has a special interest in aortic valve and wall pathologies. His main surgical expertise focuses on complex aortic root and ascending aortic surgery, including aortic valve-sparing procedures, aortic valve repair and the Ross procedure. Since 2011, he has performed over 300 Ross procedures and valve-sparing operations at the MHI and helped establish several programmes across Canada and Europe. He is also co-founder and director of the Aortic and Connective Tissue Clinic (ACTC) at the MHI.

Stephanie Fuller, MD, MS is an attending surgeon in the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is also an Associate Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. She is board certified in general surgery, thoracic surgery and congenital cardiothoracic surgery. In addition to her pediatric patients, Dr. Fuller also operates on adult patients at Penn Medicine’s Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Hospital (both in Philadelphia). She is the Surgical Director of the Philadelphia Adult Congenital Heart Center, a joint program of The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine. Dr. Fuller lectures nationally and internationally and has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and has authored and co-authored numerous chapters for cardiothoracic surgery textbooks. She has leadership appointments at the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association. Her research interests include adult congenital heart disease, neurodevelopmental outcomes and other quality of life outcomes after heart surgery; genetic factors in heart defects; and quality of life into adolescence and young adulthood in patients with pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum.

Dr. Ovidio A. Garcia-Villarreal, Cardiac Surgeon, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hospital Zambrano-Hellion in Monterrey, México. He is mainly focused in mitral valve repair, Cox-maze procedure, and aortic valve sparing operations. He is the current President and Founder of the Mexican College of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery, immediate past president of the Mexican Society of Cardiac Surgery, Member of the National Academy of Medicine México. He has published more than 60 scientific papers in PubMed, and more than 40 in some other medical indexes. Editor-in-chief of Cirugía Cardiaca en México, official journal of the Mexican Society of Cardiac Surgery and the Mexican College of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. He has conducted more than 10 workshops and hands-on about mitral valve repair and maze procedure. He has lectured at numerous universities, institutions and congresses. He collaborates with a wide range of international journals about cardiac surgery. Currently, Dr. Garcia-Villarreal dedicates himself primarily to the private practice of cardiac surgery, with offices in Monterrey, México.

A native of Spain, Dr. Grau finished his medical degree and research fellowship in Madrid in 1990 and 1992, respectively. Moving to New York, Dr. Grau completed his General Surgery Internship and Residency at NYU Medical Center, where he also served as Executive Chief Resident in General Surgery; he then completed a three-year Research Fellowship at the NYU Laboratory of Developmental Biology and Repair. In 2000, Dr. Grau became the surgeon in charge at the Trauma and Shock Unit at the Bellevue Hospital, the largest level 1 trauma centre in New York City. He then completed his cardiothoracic surgery fellowship at NYU Medical Center, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. He spent five years as Faculty Attending Surgeon at NYU School of Medicine and NYU Medical Center and in 2008 moved to Philadelphia to join the faculty at The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, followed by Columbia University in 2011. He was recruited to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in 2016 to establish a translational research program in cardiac surgery. Dr. Grau’s surgical expertise includes minimally invasive complex mitral valve repair, minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass (MIDCAB) and hybrid coronary revascularization procedures, as well as total arterial coronary revascularization using off-pump techniques. Dr. Grau is also the surgical director of the Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy program.

Dr Viktor Hraska is a professor of surgery and the chief of the Division of Congenital Heart Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin and the surgical director of the Herma Heart Institute at the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, both in Milwaukee, USA. Dr Hraska earned his MD from the Comenius University in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. He trained at the Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases and then in cardiac surgery at the Children’s Hospital, both in Bratislava, before completing his cardiac surgery training at Boston Children’s Hospital in Massachusetts, USA. During the last 20 years, he has served as the surgeon-in-chief of several pediatric cardiac surgical programs, first at Children’s Hospital Bratislava in Slovakia, then at the University Hospital Eppendorf in Hamburg, Germany, and at the German Pediatric Heart Center Sankt Augustin in Germany. Following this, he moved to his current role at the Medical College of Wisconsin. Dr Hraska is a member of EACTS, ECHSA, AATS, STS, WSPCHS and he serves on the editorial board of the World Journal for Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery. Dr Hraska regularly lectures worldwide on pediatric cardiac surgery topics and has published extensively, including books, book chapters, and articles.

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Christián Kreutzer is a South American leader of Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery. Currently, he is the Chief of Congenital Heart Surgery at Austral University Hospital. He has trained under Professor Billy Kreutzer at Buenos Aires Children's Hospital and at Boston Children's Hospital. His areas of interest include Univentricular Heart Palliation and the Lymphatic System in Fontan Kreutzer Circulation.

Dr. Leshnower hails from Texas and received his Bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Texas at Austin. He received his medical degree from University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, TX. Following medical school, Dr. Leshnower completed a residency in general surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa. During his time at Penn, Dr. Leshnower completed a two year post-doctoral fellowship in the Harrison Department of Surgical Research studying myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury as a member of the Gorman Cardiovascular Research Group. Following completion of his general surgery training, Dr. Leshnower completed a cardiothoracic surgery residency under Dr. Robert Guyton at Emory University School of Medicine. Dr. Leshnower pursued advanced training in thoracic aortic surgery under Dr. Joseph Bavaria at the University of Pennsylvania and endovascular surgery at the Arizona Heart Institute. Dr. Leshnower joined faculty of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Emory in 2011 as a cardio-aortic surgeon. He performs all adult cardiac surgery and specializes in open and endovascular therapies for diseases of the thoracic aorta.

Steven Livesey received his undergraduate training at Manchester University, graduating MB, ChB in 1979. He trained in cardio-thoracic surgery in Papworth, St Georges and Middlesex Hospitals before becoming Senior Registrar at the Royal Brompton and National Heart Hospitals in London from 1987 to 1989. From 1989 to 1990, he was a Fellow at Duke University, North Carolina, USA. On return to the UK he went to Southampton as a consultant cardiac surgeon, in 2010 he was appointed Lead Surgeon in Cardiac Surgery. He is a member of the Specialist Advisory Committee for Cardiothoracic Surgery as well as a National Clinical Lead for NHS improvement (HEART). In December 2018 Mr Livesey became Associate Medical Director for Cardiac Surgery at St George’s University Hospital, London. He has performed over 7500 open heart operations including some 2000 mitral valve operations.

Michael Mack, M.D. has practiced cardiothoracic surgery in Dallas, TX since 1982. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, General Surgery, and Thoracic Surgery and is currently the Chairman of the Board for Baylor Scott & White Research Institute, Director of the Cardiovascular Service Line for the Baylor Scott & White Health, Chair of the Baylor Scott & White Cardiovascular Governance Council and Director of Cardiovascular Research at The Heart Hospital Baylor Plano. He also co-founded the Cardiopulmonary Research Science and Technology Institute (CRSTI). He has over 650 peer reviewed publications. He is the Senior Vice Chair of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Network (CTSN) of the NIH and is the Associate Editor of the Journal of American College of Cardiology ( JACC) as well as a member of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Governance Committee, ACC Innovations Work Group and is the Co-Chair of the STS/ACC National Transcatheter Valve Therapy (TVT) Registry Stakeholder Advisory Group. He is a member of the FDA MDEpiNet Advisory Committee. He is currently a Director of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery and was a member of the National Medical Device Planning Board of the FDA/Duke Margolis Institute. Dr. Mack was President of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) 2011 and is Past President of the Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education (TSFRE) 2009-2011, the Southern Thoracic Surgical Association (STSA) 2009 and the International Society for Minimally Invasive Cardiothoracic Surgery (ISMICS) 2000. He is an honorary member of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and the Indian Association of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery and has received the Presidential Citation of the American College of Cardiology and the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics (TCT) Lifetime Achievement Award.

Dr Omar Mejía, M.D. graduated in Medicine at the National University of Cajamarca, Peru (1991-2000). He attended the residency program in General Surgery at the University of São Francisco (2000-2003) and in Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of São Paulo (2004-2008), Brazil. Dr Mejía did his Doctorate (2008 – 2011) and Post-doctorate (2012-2013) in Cardiovascular Surgery Program at the University of São Paulo (2004-2008), Brazil. He is a Professor at the São Paulo Medical School and Harvard Medical Alumni (Since 2017). He is also an Adjunct Member of the Brazilian College of Surgeons (2010) and Full Member of the Brazilian Society of Cardiovascular Surgery (2014). He is the Coordinator of Quality and Safety Surgical Unit at Heart Institute of São Paulo Medical School and the São Paulo Registry of Cardiovascular Surgery (REPLICCAR). Dr Mejía has experience in Surgery, focused on improving the experience of patients undergoing cardiovascular procedures. He learned that the best result is achieved with trained and synchronized teams. In this way, non-technical skills training and process optimization through effective communication make the difference. For this reason, he coordinates multicentric projects in search of opportunities for improvement and standardization of protocols that can generate value in a gradual and sustainable way.

Ezequiel Jesus Molina, MD is a cardiac surgeon at MedStar Heart and Vascular Institute - MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington DC. He is the Surgical Director of the LVAD Program, Heart Transplant Program and ECMO Program. Dr. Molina is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Georgetown University. He completed his training in Cardiothoracic Surgery at Columbia University Medical Center, where he served as a clinical instructor, focusing on cardiac transplantation and ventricular assist device support. He is proficient in all aspects of adult cardiac surgery, and specializes in surgery for acute and chronic heart failure (ECMO, temporary ventricular assist devices, durable ventricular assist devices and heart transplantation), complex reoperative surgery, surgical coronary revascularization and valve surgery. Dr. Molina publishes and presents extensively in his field and national and international meetings. He is also a reviewer for a number of prestigious medical publications. He is a member of the STS INTERMACS Database Task Force and the STS/EACTS Latin America Cardiovascular Surgery Conference Task Force.

Marc R. Moon, MD graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a Bachelor of Science degree in computer sciences from the University of Michigan and a medical degree from Wayne State University. Dr. Moon completed his residency in general surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin, which included a period of training in vascular surgery at Oxford University in England and two years in the Cardiovascular Physiology Laboratory at Stanford University with Dr. D. Craig Miller. He completed his cardiothoracic surgery training at Stanford University in 1998. Dr. Moon then joined the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine and was promoted to associate professor in 2002, professor of surgery in 2005, Joseph C. Bancroft Professor of Surgery in 2008, and in July 2014, he was honored as the John M. Shoenberg Chair in Cardiovascular Disease. Dr. Moon was named director of the Center for Diseases of the Thoracic Aorta in 2000, Program Director for the Cardiothoracic Surgery Residency Program in 2004, and Chief of Cardiac Surgery in 2014. Dr. Moon has authored more than 200 scientific publications and received NIH/NHLBI funding for research in right ventricular function in pulmonary hypertension and pathophysiologic changes of atrial fibrillation. Dr. Moon is the President-Elect of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, the world’s oldest and most prestigious society dedicated to thoracic disease and is a consultant to the Circulatory System Devices Panel of the Food and Drug Administration.

Dr. Nguyen specializes in minimally invasive valve surgery, complex adult cardiac surgery, and transcatheter valve repair/replacements.  He is the Chief of Cardiac Surgery for McGovern Medical School Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery Department, Director of Minimally Invasive Valve Surgery, and Associate Program Director for the cardiothoracic surgery training program.  His research interests encompass minimally invasive valve surgery, TAVR, and surgical simulation/education with prior grants from the NIH, TSFRE, TSF, and AHA. Dr. Nguyen has received numerous research and teaching awards. He was the past President of the TSRA, resident editor of CTSNet, and member of the ACGME/RRC. Additionally, he is the editor of several surgical textbooks. In his spare time, he enjoys traveling and volunteered as a surgeon in Africa (Asmara, Eritrea) for 6 weeks. Recently, he was a recipient of the Houston Business Journal’s top 40 under 40 award, the Benjy F. Brooks Outstanding Clinical Faculty Award 2017, Arnold P. Gold Humanism and Teaching Award, and the Houston Business Journal Healthcare Heroes Award.  He also received a first-place award from the American College of Cardiology for co-editing a transcatheter handbook.

Domenico Pagano is a consultant cardiothoracic surgeon at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, UK and a Professor at the University of Birmingham. He is also the Secretary General of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS), Chair of EACTS Quality Improvement Programme (QUIP), and International Director of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS). His interests include aortic valve surgery, coronary revascularisation and clinical outcome research.

Dr. Palacios-Macedo is Chief of Congenital Heart Surgery at the Instituto Nacional de Pediatría (INP) and Medical Coordinator of the ABC Medical Center/Kardias Congenital Heart Surgery Program. He is co-founder of the Kardias Foundation, and his medical director. After doing his medical school studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and his residency in Internal Medicine and General Surgery at the National Institute of Medical Sciences, in Mexico City, he trained as a fellow in cardiovascular surgery at the Texas Heart Institute and in congenital heart surgery at Texas Children´s Hospital. He is the former president of the AMECC (Mexican Association of Specialists in Congenital Heart Disease). Since 2001, when he was appointed Chief of Congenital Heart Surgery at the Insituto Nacional de Pediatría, he has helped develop, in many ways, quality improvement strategies to ameliorate the care of children with congenital heart malformations in Mexico.

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Carlos Riera-Kinkel M.D M.Sc studied medicine at La Salle University and went on to study cardiothoracic surgery at the National University of Mexico. Dr Riera-Kinkel has a Masters in Medical Science and Health Administration. He is certified by the Board of Thoracic Surgery in Cardiac Surgery Adults and Paediatrics and is the Chief of the Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Cardiology Hospital, National Medical Center Siglo XXI where he is also Head of the Surgical Team for the Heart Transplantation Program. He is a member of the Mexican Society of Cardiac Surgery and the College of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery.

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Eric Roselli, MD, is Chief of Adult Cardiac Surgery, Director of the Aorta Center and a Staff Surgeon in the Cleveland Clinic Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and on the teaching faculty at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. His speciality/clinical interests are: Adult Cardiac surgery, surgery for thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection including endovascular treatment, Aortic valve repair and replacement including minimally invasive and percutaneous treatment, high-risk reoperation surgery, and surgery for cardiovascular tumors.

Joseph F. Sabik III, MD, is Chairman of the Department of Surgery, University Hospitals, Cleveland Medical Center and Surgeon-in-Chief and Vice-President of Surgical Operations for the University Hospitals Health System and Professor of Surgery, Case Western University School of Medicine. He is board certified in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery and has specialty interests in adult cardiac surgery, valvular heart disease, coronary artery disease, surgery of the thoracic aorta, minimally invasive cardiac surgery and off-pump coronary artery bypass surgery. A Massachusetts native, Dr. Sabik earned a BS in Life Sciences from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received his MD from Harvard Medical School. He completed his surgical internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. During his surgical training, Dr. Sabik was a Research Fellow in Cardiovascular Surgery at Children's Hospital, Boston. Following his general surgery training, Dr. Sabik completed a residency in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at Cleveland Clinic. In 1996 he was appointed to the Cleveland Clinic Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery as a staff physician and in 2008 was named chair of The Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. During his tenure as Chair of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, he held the Sheik bin Rashid al Maktoum Distinguished Chair in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery and was Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine. In 2016, Dr. Sabik was named Chairman of the Department of Surgery, University Hospitals, Cleveland Medical Center and Surgeon-in-Chief and Vice-President of Surgical Operations for the University Hospitals Health Systems and Professor of Surgery, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

Dr. Jorge D. Salazar was born in San Francisco, California.  Dr. Salazar is Professor and Chief of Pediatric Cardiovascular Surgery at the McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.  He is board certified in Thoracic and Congenital Cardiac Surgery.  After receiving a BS in Mathematical Sciences at the University of Washington in Seattle, Dr. Salazar received his MD at the School of Medicine at the University of Washington.  Dr. Salazar trained in General Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He subsequently spent a year of sub-specialized training in Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the University of California in San Francisco before joining the faculty at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio as Director and became Chief of Congenital Heart Surgery.  Dr. Salazar was then recruited to Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine. He was then recruited to be the Chief of the Division of Pediatric and Congenital Heart Surgery at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.  In 2013 he became the Division Chief for both adult and pediatric cardiac surgery.  Dr. Salazar was then recruited to Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, were he specialized in complex congenital heart surgery and the development of international heart programs.

Prof. Dr. Malakh Shrestha is the Vice Chairman & Director of Aortic Surgery, Div. of Cardiothoracic, Transplantation and Vascular Surgery Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany. He has done pioneering work in the field of modern ‘self anchoring aortic valves’ as well as thoracic aortic surgery.

Marta Sitges completed her Degree in Medicine and Surgery in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 1993 and is Associate Professor of Medicine at this University since 2010. Since that period she has stayed at the Hospital Clínic (Barcelona, Spain) as resident, research fellow and permanent staff cardiologist. She also visited the Cardiovascular Imaging Center at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, USA, for a 1-year fellowship. In 2003, she obtained her PhD degree from the Universitat de Barcelona, Spain. Her main research interests currently consist in cardiac imaging, valvular heart disease and cardiac remodeling and mechanics. She has published more than 200 peer reviewed papers, presented more than 280 lectures in National and International meetings, written more than 25 book chapters, received more than 50 grants and directed 12 PhD thesis. She is also referee for most of the principal cardiovascular journals. She is also responsable of the program of Sports Cardiology at FC Barcelona since 2009. She has been staff cardiologist since 2001 at the Cardiovascular Institute in Hospital Clinic in Barcelona, Head of Cardiac Imaging from 2013 to 2015 and Director of the Cardiovascular Institute since October 2015.

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Dr. Vazquez is pediatric cardiologist and Head of Pediatric Echocardiography Department of the National Institute of Cardiology Mexico. She is Professor of specialty training in Pediatric Echocardiography of the UNAM, and has trained several Mexican and foreign specialists and she participated in the preparation of the first Certification exam in Pediatric Echocardiography. She has also been a member of the Board of Directors of the Mexican Council of Cardiology. She is a researcher of the National System of Researchers, her lines of research are Echocardiography in Congenital Heart Disease, Intraoperative echocardiography and 3D Echocardiography. Dr Vazquez is an author of peer-reviewed publications and book chapters in national and foreign publications, and serves of the Editorial Boards of medical journals. She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and founding member of the Mexican Society of Echocardiography and an honorary member of the Mexican Society of Cardiology, as well as a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and Eco SIAC.

Dr Carlos Villa is staff surgeon of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at Fundación Cardioinfantil – Instituto de Cardiología in Bogotá – Colombia, and he is part of the complex valve repair surgery group. He underwent his postgraduate studies as cardiovascular surgeon at Fundación Cardioinfantil and then completed a fellowship program in aortic root and complex valve repair surgery with Professor Gebrine el Khoury at Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc in Brussels – Belgium. Dr Villa has co-authored publications in cardiothoracic surgery journals and has participated in congresses and lectures nationally and internationally. In addition, he is the academic coordinator of cardiovascular surgery fellows at Fundación Cardioinfantil and serves as clinical instructor.

Jan Vojacek is the professor of cardiac surgery of Charles University in Prague. He works at the Department of Cardiac Surgery at University Hospital in Hradec Kralove. Prof. Vojacek is the consultant of cardiac surgery and vascular surgery and his current position is the vice-chief of the department. He graduated from the medical school in 1993. His major interest is the reconstructive valve surgery (aortic and mitral) and aortic surgery including the Ross procedure. He has large experience with aortic valve repair. One of the promoters of this technique in the Czech Republic and he helped to introduce this technique in other European countries. He is the member of Aortic Valve Repair Group of the Society for Heart Valve Disease.