Chair 2021-2023

Councillor-at-large 2022-2025

Chair 2022-2025

Dr Rafael Sádaba graduated in Medicine and Surgery from the University of the Basque Country (Bilbao, Spain) and completed his basic and advanced training in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery at the Leeds General Infirmary and East Yorkshire Hospitals in the UK, and the Sir Charles Gardner Hospital in Perth (Australia). During his training, he was awarded a Master’s Degree in Science by the University of Leeds. Subsequently he was awarded a PhD degree by the Public University of Navarra for his work on degenerative aortic valve disease. Dr Sádaba is currently working in the Dept of Cardiac Surgery at the "Complejo Hospitalario de Navarra" in Pamplona (Spain), where he is Coordinator of Cardiovascular Research and Innovation, and Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Navarra. He is the former Secretary of the European Board of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. Dr Sádaba is a Fellow in Cardio-Thoracic Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. As member of the European Society for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, he holds leadership positions in this association as Council member, Chair of the Education Committee and Chair of the Francis Fontan Fund. He is also member of the Spanish Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, the Heart Valve Society, and the Society of Thoracic Surgeons. He is Associated Editor of the journal “Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery” and lead clinician in the “Translational Cardiology Research Group” at NavarraBiomed Foundation. His research interests have focused on the surgical pathology of the aortic valve and myocardial regeneration therapy.

Past President 2021-2022

Mark Hazekamp is currently chief of the congenital cardiothoracic surgery programme of University Medical Centers of Leiden and Amsterdam in the Netherlands and a professor at Leiden University. After graduating from Leiden medical school in 1982 he spent several years in general surgery in Spain and the Netherlands before training as a cardiothoracic surgeon in Leiden. He has a special interest in arterial switch, double switch, Ross and Nikaidoh operations promoting long-term follow-up studies in the field of congenital heart surgery. More basic research interest is focused on homograft valve tissue engineering and on 4D flow MRI to study circulatory energy loss after surgical procedures. Organizational work has focused on public reporting of surgical outcomes and quality improvement programs in the field of congenital heart surgery.

Immediate Past President 2022-2023

Friedhelm Beyersdorf received his medical degree at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in 1981. His work was driven by a research stay at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he worked with Gerald Buckberg on crucial work on blood cardioplegia of the heart, which is now the standard cardioplegia at most cardiac surgery centres. He was appointed full professor at the Clinical Centre of the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg, Germany in 1994 for cardiovascular surgery. Friedhelm has been a member of the Council of the European Association of Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS) since 2002 and was elected Editor-in-Chief from 2010 to 2020. Between 2009 and 2011 Friedhelm was President of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (DGTHG). In 2013, he was appointed "Membre correspondant étranger de l'Académie nationale de Médecine". In 2000, he was awarded the title of Professor honoris causa by the University of Marilia (Brazil) and in 2008 he was awarded an honorary doctorate (Dr. h. c.) by the National University of Laos (Ventiane). Friedhelm holds more than 700 publications and patents.

Secretary General 2022-2025

Member 2020-2023

Patrick Myers is a consultant cardiac surgeon at CHUV - Lausanne University Hospitals in Switzerland and appointed Privat Docent at the Geneva University Medical School. After finishing medical school in Geneva, Patrick completed his cardiovascular surgery residency at the Geneva University Hospitals. He served as senior fellow in adult cardiac surgery at Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School and then as fellow in cardiac surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital. He was appointed instructor in surgery at Boston Children’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School, before returning as attending surgeon in adult and congenital cardiac surgery in Geneva, Switzerland, where he was named associate of the chief of cardiac surgery. Since 2017, he has focused on adult cardiac surgery in his private practice in adult cardiac surgery in Geneva and serves as consultant cardiac surgeon at CHUV Lausanne. He serves as secretary of the European Board for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. His areas of interest are multiple arterial coronary artery bypass grafting, evolving transcatheter techniques to treat structural heart disease, HOCM and critical appraisal of clinical trials and their discussions on social media.

Domain Chair 2018-2021

Chair 2018-2021

Eric Dominic Roessner graduated in 1999 as a medical doctor at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany. After graduation he moved to the University Medical Center in Mannheim, Germany and started his surgical training. In 2005 he took the German board for general surgery. Subsequently he started his training in advanced abdominal surgery with a focus on upper GI surgery. He interrupted his training in 2007 and started his Thoracic surgery training. In 2009 2010 he changed to start a senior fellowship in the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, UK. In 2010 he returned to Mannheim and was appointed as a Consultant Surgeon for Thoracic and General Surgery. In 2014 he took the European Boards of Thoracic Surgery and completed his GI training in 2017 and took the German Boards for Advanced Abdominal Surgery. His academic activities in the field of tissue engineering lead to his appointment as an assistant professor in 2014, in 2018 he was appointed as a full professor now focusing in the field of hybrid operating technologies. In 2019 he was appointed as the head of Thoracic Surgery in the University Hospital Mainz, Germany, and became the Speaker of the Steering Committee of the Department of Cardio- Thoracic Surgery. He clinical focus is the minimal invasive treatment (uniportal VATS) of lung cancer, thoracic sarcoma and tumours of the mediastinum with a focus on robotic surgery.

Domain Chair 2018-2021

Chair 2018-2021

Member 2020-2023

Member 2020-2023

Chair 2020-2023

Florian Schoenhoff is an associate professor of surgery and consultant cardiac surgeon in the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University Hospital Bern, Switzerland. He received his MD from the University of Heidelberg, Germany and trained in cardiac surgery in Bern with a special focus on diseases of the thoracic aorta. He spent 2 years as a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University, USA, working on biomarkers in patients with connective tissue disorders. Florian is responsible for the Marfan clinics in Bern, seeing patients with connective tissue disorders and cardiovascular involvement, as well as patients with complex aortic disease in general.

Editor-in-Chief 2020-2025

Matthias Siepe graduated in 2002 as a medical doctor at the Freiburg University and started his surgical residency in the local Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery. After research fellowships in Paris (Prof. Menasché) and Berne (Prof. Carrel), he completed his training for adult cardiac surgery in 2009, for congenital surgery in 2012 and for vascular surgery in 2014. Currently, he is Co-Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular Surgery at the Freiburg University Heart Centre and Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine. His areas of interest are minimally invasive heart valve surgery, complex aortic surgery, congenital surgery and surgical options for heart failure. From 2016 to 2020, he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Interactive Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery. Since October 2020 he is the Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.

Member 2016-2021

Nick Freemantle is Professor of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics, in the Institute of Clinical Trials and Methodology, University College London. He directs UCL’s Comprehensive Clinical Trials Unit which undertakes trials in all clinical areas from phase 1 to phase 4, including clinical trials of investigational medical product, advanced medical products and devices. A skilled methodologist, Nick has published methods for the use and interpretation of composite outcomes in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which were taken up by the US Food and Drug Administration in their practice. He has undertaken a number of major trials and meta analyses which have influenced clinical practice. Nick is a widely cited author with a Web of Science H Score of 71. Nick is an experienced and committed PhD supervisor, who has supervised 10 students to successful completion.

Chair 2019-2022

Member 2019-2022

Can Gollmann-Tepeköylü graduated in 2012 as a medical doctor at the Medical University of Vienna. He obtained a PhD in Molecular Cell Biology focusing on heart failure and valve disease. He has done research fellowships in Taiwan and the USA and is currently leading a translational research group. He is currently completing his residency in cardiac surgery at the Medical University of Innsbruck. His areas of interest are minimally invasive heart valve surgery, coronary revascularization and heart failure surgery.