Laurent Beaugerie is Professor of Gastroenterology and Head of the Gastroenterology & Nutrition Department at Saint-Antoine Hospital in Paris.

Professor Thomas Berg is Head of the Department of Gastroenterology and Rheumatology – Section Hepatology at the University Hospital Leipzig (Germany).

Marco J. Bruno (1963) is a full professor of Gastroenterology & Hepatology and chief of the department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam.

He received his training at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam under the supervision of Prof. dr. Guido Tytgat and Prof. dr. Kees Huibregtse. His clinical and research activities focus on gastrointestinal oncology, hepato-pancreato-biliary diseases and interventional endoscopy, including endoscopic retrograde cholangio¬pancreatography (ERCP) and endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). He (co)-author of numerous peer reviewed articles in high ranking journals including the New England Journal of Medicine. He is a recognized international authority on the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic diseases and has served as invited faculty at many international conferences and live endoscopy workshops. He is chairman of the Dutch Pancreatitis Study Group, council member end treasurer of the European Association of Gastroenterology, Endoscopy & Nutrition (EAGEN), and past council member and chairman of the Education Committee of United European Gastroenterology (UEG).

The Erasmus Medical Center is a large tertiary care 1320 bed academic hospital located in the city of Rotterdam the Netherlands. The department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology employs 16 staff members covering all the relevant GI & H specialty areas including hepatology (hepatitis, hepatocellular carcinoma, and liver transplantation), advanced endoscopy, GI oncology (esophageal, stomach, pancreas and colon), and inflammatory bowel disease and intestinal ischemia. The department has 16 fellows in training to become gastroenterologists and 2 foreign fellows for advanced endoscopy training. The department has its own dedicated laboratory facilities for translational and basic research. In total, 40 PhD students are working in the department to complete their PhD thesis on clinical, translational and basic research topics covering the various focus areas of the department.

Pierre A. Clavien is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery in Zurich.

After a Swiss board of surgery in 1989, he moved to Toronto, Canada, to complete a PhD program in organ
preservation, followed by a clinical fellowship in HPB surgery and liver transplantation. He then moved to Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, where he initially led the liver transplantation and HPB programs, and subsequently the division of Transplantation, and obtained the rank of full Professor within 4 years.

Dr. Clavien’s main interests have been in several aspects of transplantation and liver surgery. Since 1994 he has run an active basic science laboratory funded through NIH and Swiss National Grants and other private and non-private sources. His areas of research include organ preservation, liver ischemia-reperfusion injury and liver regeneration, and pathogenesis of cancer, as well as outcome research with publication in Science, PNAS, Gastroenterology, Lancet, and NEJM. His laboratory made the discovery of serotonin as a key mediator of liver regeneration and pathogenesis of cancer (Science 2008). Dr. Clavien has also developed a simple and widely used system to evaluate complications after surgery, which holds his name. The impact of his research might be highlighted with an H factor of 112.

Dr. Clavien has been president of the European Surgical Association (ESA), European Hepatobiliary Association (E-AHPBA) and the Swiss Transplantation Society. Furthermore, Dr. Clavien was appointed Congress President of the 13th IHPBA World Congress in Geneva in 2018 and organized this major event.

Dr. Clavien is currently on the Editorial Board or Associate Editor of several high ranked international journals, such as Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Surgery, Am J of Transpl, Journal of Hepatology. He was appointed Associate Editor of Ann of Surgery to cover the liver topics, and Editor for the ESA articles. He received many competitive grants and awards, including one of the most prestigious prizes for scientific research in Switzerland, the Otto Naegeli Award 2008, and the UEGW (European Union of Gastroenterology) Award 2012 for his research in partial liver graft. He has also written several books, with the very popular book of “Medical Care of the Liver Transplant Patient” and an atlas of upper GI and HPB surgery. Dr. Clavien received the honorary fellowship of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) and of the American Surgical Association (ASA). He was also appointed honorary member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine in France.

Michel Ducreux is Head of the Gastrointestinal Unit at Gustave Roussy, and Professor of Oncology at University of Paris Saclay.

Professor Ducreux trained in medicine, gastroenterology, and gastrointestinal tract oncology at the University of Paris Sud, and holds a masters degree in biological sciences and a PhD in health sciences. He has held positions as assistant physician and professor of oncology at the Gastrointestinal Unit of Gustave Roussy and Paul Brousse Hospital in Villejuif. He became medical affairs director of Gustave Roussy in January 2011. He is the former chair of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer Group, and is the former chair of the Gastrointestinal Group of the French Federation of Anticancer Centers (FNCLCC). He is co-editor for GI oncology of the European Journal of Cancer.

Professor Ducreux has published more than 430 scientific articles, with papers for which he was lead author, focussing on the management of metastatic colorectal cancer, locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic carcinoma, biliary tract carcinoma, hepatocellular carcinoma, and treatment of neuroendocrine tumors. Further to this, Professor Ducreux is author to over 150 invited lectures in various national and international congresses.

Peter Malfertheiner is Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Infectious Diseases at the Otto v. Guericke University of Magdeburg in Germany, an appointment he has held since 1995 and has been Professor for Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology at the University of Bonn from 1993 – 1994.

He received his MD from the University of Bologna, Italy in 1975, and gained subsequent medical experience at the Regional Hospital of Bozen, Italy, and the University Hospital of Ulm, Germany (1978-1992), a Research Fellow at the Mayo Clinic GI Unit in Rochester, MN, USA. Professor Malfertheiner has been Chairman of the UEGF (2004) and President of the UEGW 2006 and of the Education Committee of the United European Gastroenterology Federation (UEGF). He is also the Editor of Digestive Diseases, Associate Editor of the American Journal of Gastroenterology, and a member of the Editorial Boards of several other journals; the European Journal of Gastroenterology, Helicobacter, Digestive Surgery, and the International Journal of Pancreatology. His main research interests are Helicobacter pylori infection and related diseases, chronic inflammation and carcinogenesis, gastric cancer, hepatocellular cancer, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).

Frederik Nevens, MD, is chairman of the Department of Hepatology, the Head Lab of Hepatology at University Hospital Gasthuisberg, Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium) and the medical director of the Liver Transplant program In Leuven, as well as senior clinical investigator of the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders. He is also a professor of medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven.

A specialist in internal medicine, gastroenterology, and hepatology, he earned his medical degree from the Catholic University of Leuven as well as a PhD in the pathophysiology of esophageal varices. Current research interests include complications of cirrhosis, liver transplantation, and chronic hepatitis B and C viruses and polycystic liver disease. The author of more than 200 peer-reviewed manuscripts, Dr. Nevens is a board member of the Flemish Society of Gastroenterology and the Belgian Transplant Society, and is a member of the European and International Associations for the Study of the Liver and the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. He cofounded the Belgian Association of the Study of the Liver, and has served as an EASL board member and president of the Belgian Liver and Intestinal Transplantation Committee.

Oliver Pech is Head of Gastroenterology and Interventional Endoscopy at St. John of God Hospital, Regensburg.

Gerhard Rogler is a Professor of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, and Head of the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Zurich.

Dr. Rogler received his medical degree from the University of Ulm, Germany, and doctoral degrees from the Universities of Augsburg and Ulm, Germany. He completed postdoctoral training at the Division of Gastroenterology at the University of Ulm and at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry at the University of Regensburg, Germany. He also completed a Heisenberg Fellowship with the German Science Foundation. He was appointed head of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Regensburg in 2002 and full chair of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of Zurich in 2014.

Dr Rogler’s research interests focus on translational research to better understand unmet needs in the field of IBD, especially intestinal stricture and fistula formation. His group has developed new models for intestinal fibrosis and achieved a completely new understanding of fistula pathophysiology. Dr Rogler is principal investigator of the Swiss IBD cohort study, a nationwide cohort project currently supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. He is a member of the International Organisation of IBD Research and on the governing board of the European Crohn’s and Colitis Organisation. He has authored hundreds of original peer-reviewed articles and received various awards and memberships, including honorary membership to the South African Society of Gastroenterology in 2013 and the LeVaillant Award in 2015. Dr Rogler is the co-founder of PharmaBiome, a start-up developing new technologies in microbiota therapy.