Speakers

Angelos Hatzakis, MD, PhD, MSc, Professor of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine

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Angelos Hatzakis, MD, PhD, MSc, Professor of Epidemiology & Preventive Medicine, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, Medical School, Founder and Co-Chair of Hepatitis B&C Public Policy Association

Angelos Hatzakis is the Founder of the National Retrovirus Reference Center in Athens, Greece and Founder and Co-Chair of the Hepatitis B & C Public Policy Association, Luxembourg. He is Former President of the Hellenic Center for Disease Control & Prevention.

Angelos Hatzakis has  participated in many Executive Committees of the private and public sector. His research interests cover epidemiology, virology, preventive medicine and Public Health of infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, hepatitis and other oncogenic viruses with more than 290 international scientific publications and more than 13.000 citations.

Michael P. Manns, MD Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany

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Michael P. Manns is Director of the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology at Hannover Medical School (MHH), Hannover, Germany since 1991. Since 2015 he is also Clinical Director of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI), Braunschweig, and Founding Director of the Centre for Individualised Infection Medicine (CIIM), Hannover.

He graduated in medicine from the University of Vienna in Austria and the University of Mainz in Germany before completing postgraduate training at the Free University of Berlin, Germany, and the University of Mainz, where he became Professor of Medicine in 1986. Subsequently, Professor Manns was a Research Associate at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, USA, from 1987 to 1988.

Professor Manns is founder and Chairman of Hep-Net, a national network of competence on viral hepatitis, and the German Liver Foundation. He has been President of the German Society of Gastroenterology (DGVS), the German Association for the Study of the Liver (GASL), the German Society of Internal Medicine (DGIM) and United European Gastro­enterology (UEG).

Since 2015 Prof. Manns is member of the Scientific Panel for Health (SPH) of the European Commission. Professor Manns has received numerous awards including the International Hans Popper Award in 1995 and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) Recognition Award in 2007.

Professor Manns has a long-term research interest in liver diseases with a main focus on viral hepatitis, autoimmune liver diseases, hepatocellular carcinoma, liver transplantation and regenerative medicine.

He has published more than 1000 articles in international peer-reviewed journals such as the New England Journal of Medicine, The Lancet, Nature, Nature Medicine, Cell, Gastroenterology, and Hepatology among others. He has an h-index of 153 (as of May 8, 2018). According to Thomson Reuters he ranks among the top 1 % of most cited researchers in clinical medicine.

Mr. Cristian Silviu Busoi, MEP

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Cristian-Silviu Bușoi is a Romanian physician and politician. He is a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and Co-chair of the MEP Friends of the Liver Group.

Dr. Bușoi graduated in 2003 from the Medicine Faculty of the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest. In 2004, he also began work on two doctorates: one in Endocrinology at his alma mater, and one in Public Health and Health Management at the Victor Babeş University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Timişoara. Since 2007, he has been a lecturer at the latter institution, in the same field. In 2005, he received a degree from the Carol I National Defence University, and in 2007 he completed studies at the Law Faculty of Titu Maiorescu University.

Dr. Bușoi's political career began in 1996, when he joined the National Liberal Party (PNL). His first elected office was as a member of the General Council of Bucharest, where he sat from May to December 2004. At the 2004 legislative election, he won a seat in the Chamber of Deputies, where he sat on the health and family committee and formed part of the Romanian Parliament's delegation to the Assembly of the Western European Union. In April 2007, following the resignation of Adrian Cioroianu to become Foreign Affairs Minister, Bușoi was named an MEP. Following a by-election that November, he was elected an MEP and resigned his Chamber seat. He was re-elected at the June 2009 European Parliament election. In the European Parliament, he sat on the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection. In June 2013, he was named head of Romania's National Health Insurance Fund, subsequently resigning from the European Parliament. He resigned from this office in early 2014, when the PNL left the governing coalition. At that year's May European Parliament election, he won a new term as an MEP. Dr. Bușoi is currently among others a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety and one of the leading MEPs on public health issues.

Tatjana Reic, President of European Liver Patients' Association, Belgium

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Tatjana has been the President of European Liver Patients' Association (ELPA) since 2011.   ELPA represents the collective voice of more than 100,000 people affected by liver disease. Established in 2005, it is an umbrella organization with 34 members in 27 countries involved in the fields of advocacy, scientific research and dissemination of information, aiming to highlight the heavy burden of liver disease in Europe. By raising awareness and by addressing the issue of prevention among healthcare professionals, policy-makers and the wider public ELPA is dedicated to promoting the interests of people with liver diseases across Europe and beyond.

Prior to her tenure as President of the ELPA, back in the year 2000, she has founded “Hepatos”, the first hepatitis patient association in Croatia. Today “Hepatos” is a leading civil society organization that has played a crucial role in ensuring that viral hepatitis is recognized and put on the policy agenda as a social problem. In 2005 it became a member of ELPA where Tatjana took an active role as a member of the Steering and Advisory Committees, was the Vice President (2007 to 2011) before being elected the President in 2011.

Tatjana is a doctor of veterinary medicine and holds an MSci from the University of Zagreb, Croatia. A member of the Board of Advisors for the Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board, member of WHO Hepatitis Civil Society Reference Group, member of Hepatitis Technical Advisory Group for Georgia’s Government Hepatitis C Elimination Program and several other expert organizations in the field of liver diseases s well as a member of the Croatian National Committee for Viral Hepatitis and a founding member of the Croatian Alliance of Hepatitis Patients. Awarded, in 2010, by the Croatian Ministry of Health, the position of WHO focal point for Hepatitis she has held the position till the end of 2017.

Prof. Francesco Negro, University Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland

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Francesco Negro is Professor at the Departments of Specialty Medicine and of Pathology and Immunology of the University of Geneva, Switzerland. Professor Negro has a long-lasting research interest in viral hepatitis, focusing his work on the pathogenesis of metabolic alterations induced by the hepatitis C virus, especially steatosis and insulin resistance. More recently, he has participated into several collaborative works on epidemiology and public health issues related to viral hepatitis, such as the Polaris Observatory and the HEPAHEALTH project. He has participated in several clinical trials in acute and chronic HCV, authoring or co-authoring about 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts in the field of hepatology.

He has been member of the Editorial Board of several international journals in the field of hepatology (Journal of Hepatology, Gut, Liver International, European Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology), and of the scientific advisory board of the Agence Nationale de la Recherche sur le SIDA et les Hépatites (ANRS). He has a strong interest also in educational activities in the field of hepatology, being member of the Faculty of UpToDateTM and Clinical Care Options inPracticeTM, having developed the iLiverTM smartphone application for the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), and having served for three years as Educational Councilor for EASL and within the United European Gastroenterology Educational Committee. He is currently Co-Editor of Liver International, Chairman of the Swiss Hepatitis C Cohort Study, and Treasurer-elect of the EASL. Finally, he is member of the updating committees of the clinical practice guidelines for HCV of the EASL and the World Health Organisation.

Mr. Eberhard Schatz, Coordinator CORRELATION Network & European Civil Society Forum

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Eberhard Schatz (1955) studied social work in Germany and worked for drug counselling services in Germany and cross-border projects between Germany and the Netherlands. From 1998 to 2004, he established numerous European projects and collaborations on behalf of the Rainbow Foundation in Amsterdam. Since 2005, Mr Schatz is one of the coordinators of Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network, with more than 220 partners from all over Europe. He is responsible for the overall management of the network, the organisation of seminars and conferences and a large number of publications and reports. Correlation is member of the Civil Society Forum on HIV,HCV and TB and the Civil Society Forum on Drugs, which he chaired for a couple of years. In 2014 Correlation established the Hepatitis C Initiative. He is involved in different external projects and advisory boards at the national and international level.

Homie Razavi, Managing Director, Centre for Disease Analysis Foundation

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Homie Razavi is the managing director at the Center for Disease Analysis Foundation (CDAF).  His team has analyzed and published the hepatitis epidemiology data for over 100 countries and has worked with individual countries to develop national hepatitis strategies.  He leads the Polaris Observatory, which provides up to date estimates for HCV, HBV and HDV disease burden and the impact of strategies that meet national targets.  In addition, he is the founder of the Global Procurement Fund (GPRO), which provides affordable quality treatment and diagnostics to low and middle-income countries. 

He has a broad background, which includes basic research, business development, commercial development, portfolio management, and decision analysis. He is a fellow in the Society of Decision Professionals, an overseas fellow in the Royal Society of Medicine, and a member of AASLD and EASL.  He is also a member of the World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA) and the CDA Foundation board of directors. 

Prof Jeffrey V. Lazarus, Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal), Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, and CHIP, University of Copenhagen

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Prof Jeffrey V. Lazarus is on the faculty of the Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal), Hospital Clínic, University of Barcelona, and CHIP, the WHO Collaborating Centre on HIV and Viral Hepatitis at Rigshospitalet, the University of Copenhagen. Prior to that, his decade-long career as a health systems and communicable diseases expert at WHO’s Regional Office for Europe was followed by three years at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

He is a founding steering committee member of the multi-stakeholder ACHIEVE hepatitis elimination initiative (2017), the HIV in Europe Initiative (2007) and the HIV Outcomes Beyond Viral Suppression coalition (2016). He also serves as the Board Chair of the foundation AFEW International, a Board member of the EASL International Liver Foundation, and a steering committee member of the European Commission’s two Joint Actions on HIV, hepatitis and other coinfections. He is the author of more than 200 publications. In 2017, he was awarded The Economist Intelligence Unit Hepatitis C Changemaker award.

Dr. Antons Mozalevskis, WHO Europe

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Dr. Antons Mozalevskis is currently working as a Medical Officer at the WHO Regional Office for Europe in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is responsible for all viral hepatitis-related activities at the Regional Office and technical support to the Member States in the Region. He completed his medical training and residency in Family Medicine at Riga Stradins University, Latvia. He worked as a clinician for seven years and was involved in a number of civil society, professional organisations and regional expert networks active in the field of HIV/viral hepatitis prevention and research. In 2012–2014, he completed the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET) and received a Master Degree in Applied Epidemiology from the National School of Public Health in Madrid, Spain.

George A. Papandreou, Former Prime minister of Greece, President of Socialist International

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George A. Papandreou served as Greece’s Prime minister on the outbreak of the Greek financial crisis, managing to avoid his country’s bankruptcy, whilst applying a series of structural reforms for modernizing his country. In 2010 he was awarded Germany’s

Quadriga Award in the category “Power of Veracity”, for his achievements related to government Transparency. For his efforts to reform Greece he was named one of the Foreign Policy magazine’s TOP 100 Global Thinkers in 2010. 

As an MP (1981-2015), he served in several government posts, as undersecretary of Culture and Minister of Education, before becoming Foreign Minister from 1999-2004.

In 1997,  as Foreign Minister, George Papandreou in collaboration with his Turkish counterpart, late Ismail Cem, achieved a breakthrough in Greek - Turkish relations, initiating a gradual rapprochement following the Imia crisis that brought the two countries almost at the edge of a war. He also played a key role in the negotiations that led to Turkey's EU candidacy in 1999 and Cyprus's entry in the European Union in 2004. 

As Minister of Education, he founded the Greek Open University, which allowed for all to participate in distance studies for University degrees, he established multi-cultural schools, and instituted a minimum quota for students in Greek universities who were members of the Muslim community in Greece.

Currently he is the President of the Socialist International, the largest global political family. The SI brings together 153 social democratic, socialist and Labour parties from all continents. Currently, 53 member parties of the SI are in government and numerous represent the main opposition. The SI has a consultative status - Category I - with the United Nations . 

He is also the co-chair of the Democratic Alignment , a coalition of the center left parties in Greece, composed by the Panhellenic Socialist Movement ( PASOK), the Democratic Left       ( DIMAR) and the Movement of Democratic Socialists .   

RECENT - CURRENT INTERNATIONAL ACTIVITY

• President of  the Socialist International
• Founder & Vice-Chairperson of the International Olympic Truce Foundation
• Council Member of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR)
• Founding Member and Commissioner of the Global Commission on Drug Policy (GCDP)
• Member of the Global Leadership Council of Mercy Corps
• Co- founder of the Cem-Papandreou International Peace Award 
• Member of the Aspen Ministers Forum

Zobair M. Younossi, MD, MD, MPH, FACG, AGAF, FAASLD Inova Fairfax Hospital, Virginia Commonwealth University, Inova Campus, George Mason University

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Zobair M. Younossi, MD, MD, MPH, FACG, AGAF, FAASLD Inova Fairfax Hospital,  Virginia Commonwealth University, Inova Campus,  George Mason University  

ZOBAIR M. YOUNOSSI, MD, MD, MPH, FACG, AGAF, FAASLD Chairman of the Department, Inova Fairfax Hospital  Professor of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Inova Campus  Affiliate Professor of Biomedical Sciences at George Mason University  

Zobair M. Younossi, MD, MPH is the Chairman of the Department, Inova Fairfax Hospital, and He is also       Professor of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Inova Campus and Affiliate Professor of Biomedical Sciences at George Mason University. 

Dr. Younossi earned his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in Rochester, New York (Alpha Omega Alpha, 1989), and completed his residency in internal medicine as well as a fellowship in gastroenterology and hepatology at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla,           California. During his residency and fellowship, he earned his master of public health degree from San Diego State University (SDSU) School of Public Health in San Diego, California, being awarded the Hanlon Award and Outstanding Student Award for SDSU. He then served as the Staff Hepatologist and Senior Researcher at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio (1995-2000). 

Dr. Younossi specializes in hepatology and gastroenterology and has authored over 400 articles and 12 book chapters in his field. He has also presented over 600 abstracts at international meetings and over 300 faculty lectures. 

Dr. Younossi's experience in scientific publishing includes being associate editor for Evidence Based Gastroenterology, former associate editor of Liver International, and editorial board member and journal reviewer forHepatology. He also worked with many other journals in the areas of hepatology, gastroenterology, internal medicine, and with prominent publications such as The American Journal of Medicine and Journal of American Medical Association.

Prof. Sylvie Deufic-Burban, French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM)

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I am an academic researcher at Inserm IAME-UMR1137 in Paris (DeSCID team led by Yazdan Yazdanpanah) with strong collaborations with an Inserm unit (LIRIC-U995) and an university hospital in Lille. I have an academic background in applied mathematics and epidemiology, and obtained a PhD in biomathematics in 1999. My research work focuses on modeling of infectious and liver diseases aiming to assess epidemiological, medical and economic impact of public health interventions on disease burden. I am working especially on hepatitis C infection, but also on hepatitis B, alcoholic-related liver disease and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease/non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NAFLD/NASH).

David Tordrup, WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation University of Utrecht, Netherlands

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David Tordrup, WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation University of Utrecht, Netherlands                                          

David Tordrup is a health- and pharmaceutical economist with a background in life sciences. He is managing director of Triangulate Health Ltd, a consulting firm working closely with the private sector, non-governmental and multilateral organisations on health economic evidence generation. His past projects include economic modelling of infectious disease management programmes, systematic reviews, financing and policy analysis, and a range of other data-driven projects in health economics. He has previously supported WHO with costing studies for the TB, HIV and Hepatitis Action Plans of the EURO region, and is currently working with Dr. Yvan Hutin and colleagues at WHO HQ on a costing model for bringing hepatitis B and C services under universal health coverage. Prior to this, David worked at the World Health Organization in Brussels, where he managed and implemented the Research Agenda for Health Economic Evaluation project, and at the LSE where he contributed to several FP7 projects on Health Technology Assessment and on health system financial sustainability with Dr. Panos Kanavos. He is undertaking part-time doctoral research at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Pharmaceutical Policy and Regulation at the University of Utrecht, Netherlands, is acting as an external expert in health economics for the European Commission, and is an Associate Editor at the Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice, focusing on pharmaceutical policies in low/middle income countries. Prior to his career in health economics, David worked for almost 5 years in life sciences, specialising in diagnostics and drug targets for infectious diseases. 

Jagpreet Chhatwal, Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School, Boston, United States Senior Scientist, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, United States

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Jagpreet Chhatwal, PhD is an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and a senior scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital. His research is centered in decision science, data analytics, and health economics. He has over 10 years of experience in developing simulation/mathematical models to evaluate disease outcomes. Dr. Chhatwal’s recent work on hepatitis C has informed several highly-debated questions surrounding the cost-effectiveness of hepatitis C screening and treatments. In partnership with the World Health Organization, he recently developed an online modeling tool, the Hep C Calculator, that allows policymakers from 28 countries to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of hepatitis C treatment in those countries. His work has been featured in leading media such as The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and National Public Radio.

Ricardo Baptista Leite, MP, MD, PhD(c) | Member of Portuguese Parliament

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Member of the Portuguese Parliament, National Spokesperson for Health of the Social Democratic Party, Medical Doctor trained in infectious diseases and Head of Public Health at Católica University of Portugal. 

Under the auspices of UNAIDS, Ricardo is the Founder and President of ‘UNITE – Global Parliamentarians Network to End HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and other Infectious Diseases’, a global platform of policy makers.

Awarded by ‘The Economist Intelligence Unit’ as a ‘HCV Change Maker’ (2016). This acknowledgment, attributed to solely six people globally, came in due recognition of Ricardo’s academic work and policy leadership in the field of hepatitis c. 

National Spokesperson for Health of the Social Democratic Party and Member of the Portuguese National Parliament, currently on a 2nd term (2011-Present). Serving as coordinator (PSD) of the Parliamentary Health Committee and permanent member of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee; having served as Vice-President of the Foreign Affairs Committee, permanent member of the Parliamentary group on Population and Development, Chair of the all-party Parliamentary HIV/AIDS workgroup and President of the Portuguese-Canadian Parliamentary Friendship Group.

Head of Public Health at the Institute of Health Sciences of Católica University of Portugal. Guest Lecturer at NOVA Medical School (Infectious Diseases and Microbiology) and at NOVA Information Management School (Coordinator of Sustainable Healthcare Unit), both at NOVA University. Senior Fellow at New Westminster College (BC, Canada) and PhD candidate in Public Health and Health Systems at Maastricht University (The Netherlands). Previous experience includes having been an elected member of the supervisory board of the National Genetic Database Protection Agency and a decade of experience in health technology as a medical consultant at Glintt Healthcare Solutions (2009-2016), a multinational software house.

From 2015 to 2017, Deputy Mayor and City Councilor of Cascais, responsible for local health policy, academic partnerships, international relations (including economic diplomacy), youth (including Cascais European Youth Capital 2018) and employment policies.  

In the past, practicing physician for 7 years, including a 5-year Infectious Diseases residency program at the Western Lisbon Hospital Center. Intern in public health (HIV, Hepatitis and STI’s) as a formal collaborator of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, based in Copenhagen (2011). 

Post-graduate studies in many universities in Europe and abroad, among which are Johns Hopkins University (MD, USA), Harvard Medical School (MA, USA), Harvard Kennedy School of Government/IESE (Madrid, Spain), Albert Einstein College of Medicine (NY, USA), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain) and AESE Business School (Lisbon, Portugal). 

Volunteer work related to health and development organizations, such as being member of the Center for Health and Development International Advisory Board (Mangalore, India), member of the Hepatitis B and C Public Policy Association (Luxembourg), among many other affiliations with Patient Associations. 

Fellow of the Millennium Fellowship at The Atlantic Council and of the Marshall Memorial Fellowship at the German Marshall Fund. Member of the European Leadership Network (www.europeanleadershipnetwork.org), European Young Leaders (Friends of Europe | Europanova), European Young Leaders Forum (BMW Foundation), Emerging Leaders in Environmental and Energy Policy Network (ELEEP | The Atlantic Council), Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs). Fellow at the ZEIT Stiftung - Fundação Gertúlio Vargas 2015 Latin American Forum on Global Governance and member of the ZEIT Stiftung alumni. Member of the Antigua Forum alumni at Universidad Francisco Marroquín (Guatemala).

Founder of CREATING HEALTH – Research and Innovation funding, a sustainable nonprofit which has been set up within the Católica University of Portugal to help capture funding for health innovation and research projects (http://creatinghealth.ics.lisboa.ucp.pt). 

Co-founder of the Estoril Conferences, which are focused on the issue of globalization under the motto Global Challenges, Local Answers (www.estorilconferences.com).

Main author of the book “Citizenship for Health” (PT, 2015), which is focused on the role of Citizens in health promotion and disease prevention, and of the book “Strategic Consensus on Integrated Management of Hepatitis C in Portugal” (PT, 2014), among other publications. 

Professor George V. Papatheodoridis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

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George Papatheodoridis is a Professor in Medicine and Gastroenterology at the Medical School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Director of the Academic Gastroenterology Department of Laiko Hospital, Athens, Greece. He was trained in Medicine and completed his PhD thesis entitled “Acute on Chronic Hepatitis B” at the Medical School of Athens University. He was trained in Gastroenterology at Tzaneion Hospital of Piraeus, Greece and had a 2-year research fellowship in Hepatology at the Royal Free Hospital of London, UK.

He served as member of the Scientific Committee/Governing Board of EASL and is member of EASL and AASLD (fellow). He is president of the Hellenic Association for Study of Liver, president of Hellenic Foundation of Gastroenterology & Nutrition, chair of the Scientific Committee for Viral Hepatitis of Hellenic Center for Prevention of Diseases and chair of the committee for the implementation of the Hellenic National Plan for hepatitis C elimination. He was general secretary of Hellenic Society of Gastroenterology and Hellenic Association for the Study of Liver.

His main research interest has been focused on viral hepatitis. He has co-authored >260 papers published in PubMed journals with a total IF>1600 and >11000/17500 citations (h-index 52/65) in Scopus/Google Scholar. He was Associate Editor of Liver International and has served as Editorial Board member of other international journals and as reviewer for all gastroenterology/hepatology journals, many major internal medicine journals (New Engl J Med, Lancet, Ann Intern Med, BMJ etc), ILC/EASL-UEGW abstracts, EU 7th Framework Programme for research and Horizon 2020. He has given >130 lectures, chaired >45 lectures/round tables and presented >260 abstracts in international meetings.

Prof. Mojca Maticic MD, PhD Clinic for Infectious Diseases and Febrile Illnesses University Medical Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia

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Mojca Maticic is Head of the Viral Hepatitis Department and Head of the STI Outpatient Service at the Clinic for Infectious Diseases and Febrile Illnesses, University Medical Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She is also a Full Professor of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ljubljana. After gaining her medical degree, Professor Maticic specialised in internal medicine and in infectious diseases at the University of Ljubljana, before completing a masters and PhD in HIV/AIDS and HCV. Subsequently, she undertook international postdoctoral training at the Middlesex Hospital and Royal Free Hospital in London, UK. Professor Maticic’s research interests focus on viral infections, primarily viral hepatitis and STIs.

A member of numerous professional societies including EASL, INHSU (International Network for management of Hepatitis in Substance Users) and ESCMID (European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases) where she actively participates in the Study Group for Viral Hepatitis (ESGVH), she is an advisor for the Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board (VHPB),and served as an advisor for the World Health Organization HIV/Viral Hepatitis/STI Committee. Professor Maticic is also a member of the HIV/AIDS Committee of the Slovene Ministry of Health and a co-author of the National strategy for the management of HCV infection in Slovenia (in 1997). She leads the Slovene National Viral Hepatitis Expert Board and co-authored the national clinical practice guidelines for the treatment of HCV and HBV. She was one of the founders of the National Healthcare Network for the management of HCV in PWID in Slovenia (in 2007). A Senior Clinical Editor for Hepatology, Medicine and Policy (HMAP), she has authored or co-authored more than 450 articles in national and international peer-reviewed journals.

Prof. Malliori Minerva-Melpomeni, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece

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Meni Malliori is Professor of Psychiatry at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens Medical School and she is working in Eginition Hospital. She worked as a Consultant in the Mental Health Department of the World Health Organization-Geneva (1987) and then she was President of the Greek Organization Against Drugs-OKANA during 1997-1999 and 2010-2013. After her first Presidency in OKANA she was elected as a Member in the European Parliament (1999-2004) working in the field of Public Health and after her mission she was Representative of the European Parliament in the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (2004-2016). She also acted as Vice President of the Greek Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (2008-2012) as well as Member of the Management Board of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (1997-1999 and 2010-2013).  

She has been involved in several projects on infectious diseases and was co-investigator in a large RDS programme in injecting drug users during an HIV outbreak in Athens. She is the author or coauthor of 83 papers published in peer-reviewed international journals.

Sharon Hutchinson, Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at Glasgow Caledonian University

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Sharon Hutchinson is a Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health at Glasgow Caledonian University and holds an honorary appointment at Health Protection Scotland. She has over 20 years experience in conducting epidemiological research to inform on the design and impact of public health interventions. Authoring over 180 publications and PI/co-I on grants worth over £15 million, she leads a broad translational research programme on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of hepatitis C (HCV) and other blood-borne viruses. SJH’s research provided the key evidence to guide a public health response to HCV in Scotland, which culminated in Scottish Government investing significantly in their Action Plan (£100 million during 2008-15). The evidenced-based National Plan – cited as an example of best practice by the United Nations Drug Policy Unit, Global Commission on Drugs, and the European Commission – was the stimulus for WHO and the World Hepatitis Alliance staging their inaugural World Hepatitis Summit (involving governments and civil society representatives from over 80 countries) in Glasgow during 2015. With UK collaborators, SJH recently secured a £2.8 million NIHR research grant to evaluate the population impact of HCV treatment as prevention for people who inject drugs (EPIToPe). Internationally, SJH is an expert advisor to WHO and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), having led on the review of the evidence for European guidance on the prevention of infectious diseases among people who inject drugs (PWID) and WHO’s guidance for the screening, care and treatment of HCV infection.

Markus Peck-Radosavljevic, M.D., MBA, Klinikum Klagenfurt am Wörthersee Klagenfurt, Austria

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Markus Peck-Radosavljevic, M.D., MBA Professor of Medicine Chair, Dept. of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology (IMuG) Hepatology, Endocrinology, Rheumatology and Nephrology Centralized Emergency Service (ZAE) Klinikum Klagenfurt am Wörthersee Klagenfurt, Austria 

Professor Markus Peck-Radosavljevic, MD MBA, is Professor of Medicine and Chairman at the Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Endocrinology, Rheumatology and Nephrology at Klinikum Klagenfurt in Klagenfurt, Austria.  Prof. Peck is a graduate of the Medical University of Graz Medical School, did his research training Medical University of Graz, University of Alberta in Edmonton Canada, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston Texas, and completed his clinical training in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, Infectious Diseases, and Intensive Care Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria.  He began his research in liver disease in the field of portal hypertension and he has been running a translational lab testing novel approaches to the treatment of portal hypertension and HCC for many years, while working at the Medical University of Vienna. He has been actively involved in the management of post-OLT hepatitis C and has been running clinical trials in HCV-infection in hemodialysis patients and HIV-HCV coinfection.  Professor Peck  served as Vice-secretary of EASL from 2011 to 2013 and as Secretary General of EASL from April 2013 to April 2015. He also served as the Secretary General of the Austrian Association for Internal Medicine from 2006-2014. He is member of the UEG Council since 2015 and Chair of the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) Public Affairs Committee (PAC), which he took over in 2018.  For many years until the end of 2015, Professor Peck lead the Portal Hypertension, the HIV-HCV-Coinfection, and the Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) Study Groups at the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, where he has conducted a number of clinical trials in these indications as well as on new antivirals in HCV-infection in special indications. Since January 2016, he has taken over as Chair of Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology in Klagenfurt, which also includes the Endocrinology, the Rheumatology, the Nephrology (including Hemodialysis) and the Emergency Medicine service. He has set up a new Clinical trials study unit there and is running a broad range of clinical trials in various different indications, including HCC, NASH, and Hepatitis C.  

Prof. Dr. Nurdan Tözün, Acibadem University

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Professor Nurdan Tözün earned her medical degree from Istanbul University Istanbul Faculty of Medicine and made her postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the same Faculty.

She worked at Marmara University School of Medicine as head of GI department, Dean of medical school and Director of the first Institute of Gastroenterology of Turkey of which she has been the founder in 1992. She formerly served as president of the Turkish Association for the Study of the Liver and the Turkish Society of Gastroenterology.

Professor Tözün actively worked as a member of various international councils, executive committees or subcommittees including at the World Gastroenterology Organisation, at United European Gastroenterology (UEG – Public Affairs Committee), at the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA – Ethics Committee), and at the Asian Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL - Administrative Council). Currently she serves as the Chairperson of the Training Recognition Committee of the European Board of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Her main areas of research and interest are viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases.

Professor Tözün is the author of 95 articles in peer reviewed journals, 65 articles in Turkish, 4 book chapters in English and 12 in local languages she received several awards for her studies. She concentrated her efforts on the prevention and control of viral hepatitis as well as colorectal cancer in the Mediterranean Region. She is the current president of Mediterranean Task Force for Cancer Control (MTCC), an organization which aims to raise public awareness about cancer.

Since 2007 she has worked as the Head of Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine departments at Acıbadem University School of Medicine for which she acted as founding Dean and vice-president.

Prof. Gamal Esmat, MD, Professor of Hepatogastroenterology & Infectious Diseases Past Vice President of Cairo University, Egypt Egyptian Nile Award in Science 2016 State Merit Award in Medical Science 2010 WHO STAC Member Past President of International Association for Study of Liver Diseases

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Dr. Esmat was past president of the International Association for the Study of the Liver (IASL), 2006-2008. He is currently a board member of the strategic and technical advisory committee for viral hepatitis (STAC-Hep), WHO and member of the scientific committee for the World Hepatitis Alliance. Dr. Esmat has served as principal investigator of numerous research studies in Egypt and has a long list of international and regional publications in the field of hepatology. He has also been included in the Who’s Who biography book as one of the most effective contributors to the field of hepatology (2007) and was nominated as one of the top 100 health professionals in 2008 by an international biographical center in the United Kingdom.

Prof. Dr. Charles Boucher MD, PhD, Erasmus Medical Centre, the Netherlands

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Charles Boucher, MD, PhD, is Professor in the Department of Virology Erasmus Medical Center, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Dr Boucher received his medical degree cum laude from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Specializing in medical microbiology, he also received a PhD degree from that institution.
He then furthered his studies in clinical microbiology and virology at the Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam and the University Medical Center Utrecht. He is the chairman of the European Society for Antiviral Resistance. He published over 240 publications.

Dr Boucher is an organizer of international workshops, meetings and conferences, a consultant throughout Europe and the United States, a reviewer for scientific journals and cochairman of several international committees.  He is the author of numerous publications that have appeared in such journals as Science, The Lancet, Nature Medicine, Journal of Infectious Diseases and AIDS.