Ileana L. Piña is a heart failure and cardiac transplantation cardiologist expert. She serves as an advisor/consultant to the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health. In January 2019, Dr. Piña joined the faculty of Wayne State University as Professor of Medicine.

Dr Subodh Verma is an internationally renowned cardiac surgeon-scientist and Professor at the University of Toronto. He is the Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Surgery and a past recipient of the Howard Morgan Award for Distinguished Achievements in Cardiovascular Research and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Gold Medal in Surgery. He served as Canada Research Chair in Atherosclerosis for 10 years from 2007-2017.

Nikolaus Marx, born in 1968, is Professor of Medicine / Cardiology and Head of the Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital Aachen, Germany. Professor Marx is a member of several organisations within the field of cardiology and diabetes, including the European Society of Cardiology, American Heart Association (AHA), German Diabetes Association and the European Association for the Study of Diabetes.

Professor Martin Cowie is a consultant cardiologist based at Royal Brompton Hospital, and also non-executive director of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).


John Spertus is a cardiologist and the Lauer/Missouri Endowed Chair and Professor of Medicine at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he serves as Clinical Director of Outcomes Research at Saint Luke’s Mid America Heart Institute. He is a graduate of UCSF Medical School and completed his internal medicine, cardiology and health services training at the University of Washington.

Dr. Horst Sievert is the Director of the CardioVascular Center Frankfurt, chief of the Department of Internal Medicine, Cardiology and Vascular Medicine of the Sankt Katharinen Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. He is also a Professor of Internal Medicine/Cardiology at the University of Frankfurt, as well as Honorary or Visiting Professor at Universities in the UK and China.

Giuseppe Rosano is currently Consultant Cardiologist and Professor of Cardiology (Hons) at the St George’s University Medical School in London and Scientific Director of the Nutramed program at the IRCCS San Raffaele, in Rome and Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Catanzaro.

Dr. Ovidiu Chioncel received his medical degree from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila, Bucharest in 1992, and earned his PhD in 2012. Since 2014, he is leading ICCU and Cardiology 1st Department at Institute of Emergency for Cardiovascular Diseases, C.C.Iliescu, Bucharest, Romania. Dr Chioncel is Associate Professor of Cardiology at University of Medicine Carol Davila, Bucharest.

Petar Seferovic is President of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology. He has a long standing experience in the activities of ESC, and later was involved in Heart Failure Association projects for almost a decade.
