EACTS Council is the decision-making body of EACTS
Setting the strategy for the association to ensure we serve the needs of our members.
Council is responsible for ensuring compliance with our governing document, relevant legislation and best practice guidelines.
EACTS Council
Franca Melfi, President
Volkmar Falk, Vice-President
Patrick Myers, Secretary General
Joseph Bavaria, Treasurer
Matthias Siepe, Editor-in-Chief
Filip Casselman, Acquired Cardiac Disease Domain Chair
Jürgen Hörer, Congenital Heart Disease Chair
Richard Milton, Thoracic Disease Domain Chair
Florian Schoenhoff, Vascular Disease Domain Chair
Patrick Perier, Immediate Past President
Jan Hendrik Ankersmit, Councillor
Rafael Sadaba, Education Committee Chair
Nabil Hussein, Residents’ Committee Chair
Domains and Task forces
Our four domains, representing the four main areas of practice of our members – Acquired Cardiac Disease, Congenital Disease, Vascular Disease and Thoracic Disease – drive the Association’s mission of improving outcomes for patients with heart and lung conditions.
Task forces provide expert knowledge and experience within sub-specialty areas of each domain.
Our domains and task forces work hard to ensure we are addressing the most prevalent and important topics in cardiothoracic surgery across all strands of our activities, including the Annual Meeting scientific programme, EACTS Academy and publications.
Our committees
Our committees bring together members with specific interests and expertise, often applying across domains.
Their work is instrumental across a range of projects and programmes, from delivering better patient care through quality improvement, education and clinical guidelines to supporting an inclusive community by empowering women surgeons, allied health professionals and the next generation of surgeons.
There are currently eight committees. These include:
- Clinical Practice Guidelines
- Education
- Quality Improvement Programme
- Residents
- Allied Health Professionals
- Francis Fontan Fund
- Pre-trainee
- Women in Cardiothoracic Surgery
Our committees bring together members with specific interests and expertise, often applying across domains.
Our executive team
Our executive team, based in Windsor, UK, includes dedicated professionals from a wide range of backgrounds, who support the breadth of activity within EACTS. The team provides critical support to our domains, task forces and committees and ensures we are well placed to meet the needs of our members.
Meet the team
Ikode Agbi, Event Assistant
Adrienn Bestel, Finance Director
Lucy Burden, Online Education Events Coordinator
Amanda Cameron, Registration and Systems Manager
Kirsty Clarke, Education Programme Manager
Chantal Crossland, Education Events Coordinator
Colin Drummond, Managing Editor
Rachel Elewe, Office Manager and Executive Assistant to Chief Executive
Brendan Eley, Chief Executive
Stephanie Halksworth, Governance and Operations Manager
Archie Leitch, Editorial Assistant
Elvira Lewis, Membership and Exhibition Manager
Ash Merrifield, Publications Director
Clara Mealing, Education Events Coordinator
Mia Millison, Management Accountant
Rebecca Parsonage, Education Project Coordinator
Sharon Pidgeon, Events Director
Nisha Varma, Finance and Resource Assistants
Katie Webster, Events Coordinator
Monika Wilusz, Digital Projects Manager
Giulia Zuodar, Guidelines Programme Manager