Nísia Trindade Lima is the first woman to lead the Ministry of Health. The minister was also the first woman to preside over the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), a historic institution of science and technology and an international reference, from 2017 to 2022.

Nísia holds a Ph.D. in Sociology (1997) and a master’s degree in Political Science (1989) from the Rio de Janeiro Institute of Research (Iuperj – currently Iesp), and a bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj, 1980).

Prof. Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar is a prominent figure in the field of dentistry, with a distinguished career that spans several decades. He currently serves as the Minister of Health and Population of the Arab Republic of Egypt, having previously served as the Minister of Higher Education & Scientific Research for five years, and Acting Minister of Health and Population as well. As a professor of Oral Medicine, Oral Diagnosis, Oral Radiology, and Periodontology at the Faculty of Dentistry, Ain-Shams University, Prof. Abdel-Ghaffar has played an instrumental role in enhancing medical research and practices both in Egypt and abroad. He has published a vast number of research papers in international peer-reviewed journals, publications, and magazines, and has received several national and international awards for his contributions to the field of dentistry. In addition to his teaching and research endeavors, Prof. Abdel-Ghaffar has held numerous high-ranking positions, including Clinical Professor at the Medical College of Georgia and Visiting Professor at the University of Texas. He also served as Vice President for Postgraduate Studies & Research, and Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry Ain-Shams University, where he oversaw the development and implementation of various educational programs. Prof. Abdel-Ghaffar’s exceptional achievements and contributions have earned him an esteemed reputation and widespread recognition and acclaim both nationally and internationally. He received a PhD in Dental Surgery from the University of Texas after graduating from Cairo University’s Faculty of Oral and Dental Medicine. In recognition of his significant contribution to the field of Higher Education and Scientific Research, he was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the University of Hiroshima in Japan. Additionally, he received an honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow in 2019. Overall, Prof. Abdel-Ghaffar’s remarkable career accomplishments and tireless efforts in advancing dentistry have positioned him as a leading figure in the field. His exceptional leadership, dedication, and commitment to excellence continue to inspire and benefit countless individuals in the medical community and beyond.  

Dr Kerstin Vesna Petrič is the head of the Office for Cooperation with WHO at the Ministry of Health of Slovenia. She assumed this position following a successful engagement as Director General of Public Health (2019-2022) and Head of the Division for Health Promotion and Prevention of Noncommunicable Diseases at the Ministry of Health of Slovenia (2004 -2019). Holding a master’s degree in public health and clinical aspects of addiction she contributed to the development and led implementation processes of different policies in area of alcohol and tobacco control as well as illicit drugs at national and international levels.

From 1998 to 2004 she was acting as WHO Liaison Officer. She was a member of the WHO Standing Committee of the Regional Committee for Europe (SCRC) from 2016 to 2019. Dr Kerstin Vesna Petrič is since 2021 a member of the Executive Board of WHO. In May 2022 she assumed the position of Chair of the WHO Executive Board.

leksander Krag, MD, PhD, MBA is Professor and Department Chair, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Odense University Hospital, Director of Centre for Liver Research (FLASH) Odense University Hospital and DIAS Chair of Health Sciences, University of Southern Denmark. He also serves as Vice Secretary General, European Association for the Study of Liver (EASL) and is the incoming Secretary General 2023-2025. Aleksander Krag is involved in and hold leader positions in a number of large research collaborations in liver diseases, including being director of FLASH: Fibrosis Fatty Liver and Steatohepatitis Research Centre Odense, Coordinator in the H2020 project GALAXY: Gut and Liver Axis in Alcoholic Liver Fibrosis and partner and PI in the H2020 projects MicrobPredict, LiverScreen and The International Human Microbiome Action and PI in the Center of Excellence Center for Functional Genomics and Tissue Plasticity. 

Maria Buti is EU Policy Councillor from January 2020. She is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Internal Medicine and Hepatology Department at Hospital General Universitari Valle Hebron, Barcelona. Professor Buti’s main area of interest and expertise is viral hepatitis with particular experience in diagnosis and therapy of hepatitis B and C. 

Prof Jeffrey V. Lazarus (PhD, MIH, MA) is a Professor of Global Health at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy in New York City and the head of the Health Systems Research Group at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), Spain.His decade-long career as a health systems, HIV and viral hepatitis expert at WHO’s Regional Office for Europe was followed by serving as Vice-Chair of the EASL International Liver Foundation, Board Chair of AFEW International and the first director of Health Systems Global. He is currently a member of the EASL Public Health and Policy Committee, where he is leading the establishment of the Healthy Livers, Health Lives coalition, and the Global NASH Council. He is chair of the Wilton Park NAFLD meetings and co-chairs the annual Innovations in NAFLD Care (INCBCN) meeting and as well as the EASL NAFLD Summit and Liver Connect’s NASH Connect Summit in 2023.He is the author of more than 300 publications including the global NAFLD public health consensus statement and the expert recommendation on models of care in Nature Reviews GastroHep and the forthcoming NAFLD nomenclature consensus statement. 

Prof. Dr. Sven Francque is currently Chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology of the University Hospital Antwerp and Full Professor of Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Antwerp in Belgium. He has a longstanding interest and expertise in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and conducted basic research focusing on the vascular changes in steatosis and their contribution to disease progression. His research unit continues to study pathophysiological mechanisms of NASH. He also conducts clinical research, and his unit is a partner in several research consortia supported by the European Commission. He and his unit participate in most of the clinical trials in the field, and he is a scientific committee member involved in the design of several phase 2 and one of the current phase 3 trials in NAFLD. He is a senior clinical researcher for the Research Fund of the Flemish government. He is board member of several scientific societies and currently also scientific coordinator of the Belgian week of Gastroenterology. Prof. Dr. Francque obtained his MD at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, in 1994 and was subsequently trained in internal medicine and in gastroenterology and hepatology at the Antwerp University Hospital, Belgium and at the Department of Hepatology of the Beaujon hospital, Clichy, France. 

Guy Fones received his MD from the University of Chile, and since then has gained more than 25 years’ experience and achievements in the public, private and global health sectors. He joined WHO in 2015 and currently holds the position of Head of the Global Coordination Mechanism for Noncommunicable Diseases, within WHO’s Global NCD Platform Department. The main purpose of his current work is to support WHO’s priority of responding to country needs by supporting coherent leadership and governance and catalyzing multistakeholder engagement, cross-sectoral collaboration and partnerships in support of the NCD and NCD-related SDGs, ultimately translated into meaningful and effective commitments and contributions from relevant partners. Dr Fones previously served as Health Attaché for the Permanent Mission of Chile to the United Nations Organizations in Geneva where he gained solid experience in international public health, global health policy and forging strategic pro-health partnerships bridging national, regional and global multistakeholder interests.

Dr. Slama is a medical doctor, and he is the current Unit Head, spearheading the global work of NCD management at WHO. With 16 years of clinical work experience as an Internal Medicine specialist at the Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland. In 2014, he joined the World Health Organization Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO), based in Cairo, Egypt. During the seven and half years, he provided technical assistance for non-communicable disease prevention and management to 22 Member States.

Zobair M. Younossi, MD, MPH, FAASLD (Chair) Professor of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University-Inova Campus Chairman, Department of Medicine, Inova Fairfax Hospital Vice President for Research, Inova Health System Betty & Guy Beatty Center for Integrated Research Falls Church, Virginia, USA Dr. Zobair Younossi is the Chairman, Department of Medicine, Inova Fairfax Medical Campus, and Vice President for Research of Inova Health System. He is also Professor of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Inova Campus, and Affiliate Professor of Biomedical Sciences at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. 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 both 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). In 2000, Dr. Younossi was recruited to establish Inova’s Center for Liver Diseases. The center is currently well known for its excellence in clinical hepatology, teaching, and research. Inova’s Center for Liver Diseases is not only involved in “cutting-edge” clinical trial protocols and outcomes research projects, but also has pioneered research in the genomics and proteomics of obesity and its related liver diseases. The center has participated in over 90 research projects in translational research, outcomes research, and “cutting-edge” clinical trials.

Research Director of the Cardiometabolic Risk UNIT at CNR-IFC in Pisa Italy; currently also appointed as Professor of Medicine adjunct at the Diabetes Division of the University of Texas Health Science Centre (UT Health) in San Antonio, Texas, USA and associate researcher in Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa. She has more than 25 year experience in investigating metabolic diseases including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), obesity and type 2 diabetes, focusing on alterations in glucose and lipid metabolism, insulin resistance and ectopic fat accumulation, in collaboration with many institutions in Europe and United States.  She is currently the chair of the European NAFLD Study Group, which provides a joint forum for diabetologists and hepatologists to explore the diagnosis, pathogenesis and treatment of NAFLD and NASH, and the chair of EGIR- European Group for Insulin Resistance which focuses on insulin action and secretion. She has authored more than 350 publications as articles in international journals and book chapters, with a global H index of 94 and more than 34,000 citations. She has been invited speaker in more than 90 national and international congresses and recognized among the best Italian women scientists for biomedical sciences.

Pablo Perel is a cardiologist and epidemiologist, who has dedicated his career to improving the care of people living with cardiovascular diseases in low- and middle-income countries, and humanitarian settings. He currently serves as Senior Science Advisor at the World Heart Federation. He is also a Professor of Clinical Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and editor of several journals, including Global Heart, Diagnostic & Prognostic Research, and the Mayo Clinical Proceedings Digital Health. He has published over 150 papers in peer review journals and is actively engaged at the global level providing scientific advice to different organizations such as the Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases, the Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics, the Medicine Patent Pools, and the World Health Organization.

Dr Rinella is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and is the Director of the Metabolic and Fatty Liver Program. During the earlier part of her career, she studied basic mechanisms of steatohepatitis with funding from the American Gastroenterological Association and the National Institute of Health (NIH). Currently her focus is on clinical research in the area of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) / non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) both before and after liver transplantation.  She primarily focuses on the associations between NASH, metabolic co-morbidities and the recurrence of NASH after liver transplantation. Dr Rinella is actively involved in the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD) where she recently served as Councilor-at-large on the Governing Board.  She was an author on the 2018 AASLD Practice Guidance for NAFLD and is the chair of the 2023 AASLD NAFLD Practice Guidance.  She has held several national leadership roles in the field of NAFLD including Chair of the AASLD NAFLD Special Interest Group (SIG) and Chair of the AASLD NASH Task Force.  As Chair of the NASH Task Force, she is was charged with fostering research collaboration and advancing best practice through collaboration with other medical societies, federal agencies and patient advocacy organizations to improve outcomes in patients with NASH.  Currently, she is co-leading a pan society global initiative using a Delphi process to identify a more suitable terminology for what we currently refer to as NAFLD.  She was recently appointed chair of the Steatotic Liver Disease task force, which will oversee 2 subcommittees focused on national and global strategies, respectively, to increase disease awareness and foster implementation of best practice.

Prof. Shivaram Prasad Singh is the current president of South Asian Association for Study of Liver (SAASL), and the Indian National Association for Study of Liver (INASL).  He is the Former President of the Indian Society of Gastroenterology (2012-213), served as a Member of Public Health Panel of World Hepatitis Alliance (WHA 2008-2011), and launched World Hepatitis in Atlas 20098. Under his leadership, the World Hepatitis B Eradication Day was started in 2001, which was later endorsed by WHO.  He is Fellow, American College of Gastroenterology (FACG), Fellow, American Gastroenterological Association (AGAF), Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Edinburgh) FRCP (Edin) Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (Ireland]) FRCP (Ireland), Master of Indian Society of Gastroenterology (Master-ISG), and member of the Global NAFLD Nomenclature Committee.

Marko Korenjak is the president of the European Liver Patient Association, representing 32 liver patient associations from 25 countries. He has two Master’s Degrees, the first in business and economy and the second in international relations and diplomacy. His work is focused on patient advocacy at the highest European level and is connected to changing the landscape of liver patients’ care. He is a co-chair of PCWP and alternate member of PRAC at EMA, a member of the EASL Policy & Public Health Committee, EASL Task Force on Liver Cancer prevention, ECDC and HERA Advisory Forum, and a working group on monitoring hepatitis B and C in EU and WHO EURO Collaborating Committee on TB, HIV, and viral hepatitis. He is also a member of the HERA Civil Society Advisory Forum. In ELPA, he also leads a team that collaborates on 11 Horizon 2020 projects representing 100 million EUR spent in high-level liver research among more than 140 collaborating partners in the European Union.

José Willemse is board member and co-founder of Liver Patients International, an umbrella organisation for liver patient organizations; executive director of the Dutch Liver Patients Association; member of the management board of the European Reference Network Rare-Liver. Besides this, she is a member of several NAFLD/NASH related advisory boards and committees.  She has been active in the (international) field of NAFLD/NASH since 2014. One of the highlights is being one of the co-authors of the EASL guideline NAFLD from a patient perspective. Besides her involvement in the world of NAFLD/NASH, she has 25 years of experience with the patient perspective in healthcare. She knows what a disease means to a patient, how it affects their live and how stigma can affect their wellbeing.

As the head of the European Office for the Global Liver Institute, Giacomo is supporting the international expansion of GLI and the outreach of new partners around the world to build a solid international base for the Institute and widen the list of international partners collaborating with GLI on liver disease awareness initiatives.  Before joining GLI Giacomo has had significant experiences as Project Manager for International Organizations and NGOs- UNRWA and Save the Children among many others.  By working in the MENA region on emergency project refugees, he has developed a firm understanding of how to deliver a project from its very start to its end.  Killed communicator, he speaks Italian English, Arabic and French.  Giacomo holds a BA in Oriental Languages and Civilizations from La Sapienza University, Rome, an MA in Middle Eastern Studies from SOAS University, London, and he recently completed his MBA at LUISS Business School, Rome.

Dr. Alina M. Allen is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology and the Director of the NAFLD Clinic at Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minnesota. She is an NIH-funded investigator in the field of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) with clinical expertise in liver diseases before and after liver transplantation. Her research interest includes the development of noninvasive biomarkers for the diagnosis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and pathways to improve the identification and management of patients with NAFLD. Her research program includes biorepositories/biomarker databases, longitudinal population-based studies of natural history and clinical trials.  She is actively involved in national societies as a member of the NAFLD Special Interest Group within the American Association for the Study for Liver Diseases and as a GRADE methodologist of the Clinical Practice Guideline Committee of the American Gastroenterology Association.  She serves as Associate Editor of Hepatology and member of the AASLD Annual Meeting Education Committee.

Ms Jacqueline Bowman-Busato is Head of Policy at EASO (European Association for the Study of Obesity) in Brussels. She has worked in the Brussels environment since 1995 towards transforming health ecosystems from policy to reality. A pioneer of multi-stakeholder coalition building for societal impact, Jacqueline has previously worked for an MEP, ran the expert secretariat of a European Parliamentarian Interest Group, headed up the Brussels office of a global NGO, transformed a patient-led platform into an equally-weighted multi-stakeholder think tank for patients, science and industry. She strongly believes in empowering all actors to be effective and engaged in optimising health ecosystems for health outcomes relevant to all actors across sectors through evidence-based policies. She lives with two major complex chronic diseases of autoimmune hashimotos and obesity: both of which affect physical and mental health and wellbeing. Jacqueline holds degrees in English Law, French Law, Strategic Communications and an MB A. She’s a Guyanese born dual British-Belgian national, speaks fluent French and has a very good passive understanding of Dutch.

Dr Ajay Duseja is presently working as Professor and Head in the department of Hepatology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India. He did his MBBS in 1988, MD (Internal Medicine) in 1992 and DM (Gastroenterology) from PGIMER, Chandigarh in 1996. For last more than 25 years, he is working as Faculty with focused research in the field of Hepatology. He is Fellow of National Academy of Medical Sciences (FAMS), Fellow of American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (FAASLD), Fellow of American College of Gastroenterology (FACG) and Fellow of the Society of GI Endoscopy of India (FSGEI), Fellow of Indian Society of Gastroenterology (FISG), Fellow of Indian National Association for Study of the Liver (FINASL) and Master of Indian Society of Gastroenterology (Master-ISG). He is currently the Secretary General of the Indian National Association for the Study of the Liver (INASL). He is also the National Convener of the Task Force on Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) and the Principal Investigator of the Indian consortium on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (ICON-D) –an on-going real-life study on NAFLD in India involving 43 centres.

He is the member of the Chronic Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF) NASH Committee (USA), member of Global Council on NASH, member of the Asia- Pacific Working Party on NAFLD and member of the Gut and Obesity in Asia (GOASIA) working group. He is also an active member of the INASL Task Force on Hepatitis C virus, Hepatitis B virus, Hepatocellular carcinoma, Alcohol-associated Liver disease and Drug Induced Liver Injury.

Dr Manal El-Sayed (Cairo, Egypt) is Professor of Pediatrics at Ain Shams University. She is the clinical director of the national HCV Pediatric treatment program and the director of the clinical research unit and co-supervisor of the viral hepatitis treatment center at Ain Shams University. Manal has worked with pediatric hematology and oncology teams at Ain Shams University, National Cancer Institute, and 57357 Children’s Cancer Hospital since 1990.Manal is a founding member of the Egyptian National Committee for Control of Viral Hepatitis (NCCVH) charged with planning and implementing the nationwide program for prevention and management of viral hepatitis since 2006. She contributed to the establishment of a nationwide network of 55 specialized liver centers that provided interferon therapy to 350,000 HCV-infected patients. Since 2014 when the NCCVH introduced the new direct-acting antiviral agents for HCV, more than 3 million patients have been treated. Manal collaborated on the development of the national action plan for prevention and control of viral hepatitis published in October 2014 with representatives from WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S. CDC), Pasteur Institute, and national stakeholders. In addition to co-supervising the nationwide mass screening program for adults and children reaching so far more than 56 million people.

Mohamed Hassany is the Health Minister’s assistant for projects and public health initiatives in the ministry of health and population (MoHP), Egypt; Infectious Diseases and Hepatogastroenterology Associate professor at the National Hepatology and Tropical Medicine Research Institute (NHTMRI) , Cairo ; executive director of the national committee for control of viral hepatitis (NCCVH) , director of the hepatitis elimination program at MoHP ,.Dr. Hassany has many international peer reviewed publications /book chapter in the fields of viral hepatitis and its related complications and serves as editorial board member and reviewer in many of international peer reviewed journals.

Dr. Jake P. Mann is an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in paediatric hepatology at the in Birmingham, UK. He has been working in the field of genetic and metabolic liver disease for over a decade. He is chair of the ESPGHAN Fatty Liver Specialist Interest Group. Working with this network he has contributed to our understanding of common genetic variants that drive fatty liver disease. Having completed a cell biology PhD at the Institute of Metabolic Science, University of Cambridge, Jake has moved to Birmingham to establish his own group studying mechanisms of liver inflammation.

Veronica Miller is the Director of the Forum for Collaborative Research (the Forum), a public/private partnership addressing cutting edge science and policy issues through a process of stakeholder engagement and deliberation at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health, and Adjunct Professor at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Under her leadership the Forum’s deliberative process to advance regulatory science applied successfully to HIV was extended to drug development for hepatitis C infection in 2007, and starting in 2014, to the treatment of liver diseases (NASH, PSC and other cholestatic liver diseases), Hepatitis B and D infection, Transplantation Associated Viral Infections, and Ocular Diseases. The Forum’s most recent addition is the collaborative Data & Analysis Center to support drug development with disease specific placebo arm cohorts, development of innovative analytics to explore randomized clinical trial and real-world-date contributions to assessment of clinical efficacy.

As professor, she developed and teaches courses on regulatory science and drug development, and on development and regulation of diagnostics. She mentors interns and fellows pursuing regulatory, biotech and translational medicine careers. She has published more than 120 peer-reviewed publications. She joined the Forum in 2001 after directing the interdisciplinary HIV Research Group at the HIV Outpatient Clinic of the JW Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. Together with Joep Lange, she co-founded and chaired the Euro-Guidelines Group on HIV Drug Resistance, the first pan-European group established for the purpose of assuring a common standard-of-care for patients in all European states.

Dr. Mário Guimarães Pessoa, MD, PhD is the Second Vice-President for the Latin American Association for the Study of the Liver (ALEH). He Graduated in Medicine at Federal University of Bahia; Salvador – Bahia, Brazil and his Medical Residency in Internal Medicine as well.  He specialized in Medical Residency in Gastroenterology at University of São Paulo School of Medicine – HCFMUSP PhD in Pathology (Liver Pathology) at University of São Paulo School of Medicine – HCFMUSP Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Gastroenterology/Hepatology at University of California, San Francisco Assistant-Professor at Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at University of São Paulo School of Medicine – HCFMUSP.

Dr. Shiv Kumar Sarin obtained his MBBS degree with seven gold medals (1974), his MD in General Medicine (1978) from Rajasthan University, and his DM in Gastroenterology from the AIIMS in 1981. He moved to the G.B. Pant Hospital of Delhi University in 1983, becoming the Head of Gastroenterology in 1997. He is currently the Professor and Head, Department of Hepatology and Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences, New Delhi India. Dr. Sarin is a Gastroenterologist, with special interest in Liver diseases. His main thrust has been on providing first rate clinical diagnosis and management to patients with liver diseases. His major research interests in Liver diseases. He has published over 300 original articles in International journals/National journals, Review, Editorials and Book Chapters. Due to his deep interest in basic science and research he was also appointed as Adjunct Professor in Molecular Medicine at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Due to his vision and high quality of scientific work, Dr. S.K.Sarin and his department has been sanctioned the first Advanced Center for Liver Diseases in the Country. This is a tribute to his dedication and outstanding research potentials. He is a visionary and has developed a superb Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), the first of its kind in Asia.