Samer Ellahham has served as Chief Quality Officer for SKMC since 2009. In his role, Dr. Ellahham has led the development of a quality and safety program that has been highly successful and visible and has been recognized internationally by a number of awards. As Chief Quality Officer and Global Healthcare Leader, Dr. Ellahham has a focus on ensuring that that implementation of this best practices leads to breakthrough improvements in clinical quality and patient safety.Dr. Ellahham is a recognized leader in quality, safety, and the use of robust performance improvement in improving healthcare delivery. He serves on a number of US and international committees and advisory bodies. Dr. Ellahham is Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ) by The National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ). He is Certified in Medical Quality (CMQ) by The American Board of Medical Quality (ABMQ). He is the recipient of the Quality Leadership Award from the World Quality Congress and Awards and the Business Leadership Excellence Award from World Leadership Congress in 2015. He is one the nominees for Safe Care magazine Person of the Year in the United States. He is the recipient of SKMC Infection Prevention Award in 2011 and 2012.

Ahmed N Ghanem was qualified in 1968, Mansoura University, Egypt. He gained all postgraduate experience in UK where he was promoted in posts up to the consultant level. He practiced as consultant Urologist in UK, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. During his career life he reported over 60 articles of which he made important discoveries in medicine, physiology, urology, nephrology, cardiovascular and surgery. He discovered two new types of vascular shocks, proved that one physiological law is wrong and provided an alternative. He resolved the puzzles of 3 clinical syndromes; the transurethral of the prostate (TURP) syndrome, the loin pain hematuria syndrome (LPHS) and the adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). He is now on the editorial board of many medical and surgical journals and he is happily retired in Egypt.

Mahadeo is an Associate Professor, leading a research group at University College London in the UK. She has been a principal investigator actively involved in medical research since 1992 and has carved a niche in studying how transcriptional regulation of gene expression can control the fate of normal cells and changes that contribute to diseases e.g. cardiovascular disease or cancer. Our research has been primarily based on analysing the molecular mechanisms through which transcriptional master regulators control gene expression and cell fate in different tissues and under different conditions. Specifically, we have focused on the POU IV subgroup of homeobox transcription factors, which includes POU4F1/Brn-3a and POU4F2/Brn-3b that can drive complex changes in multiple cellular processes such as cell specification, proliferation and survival/apoptosis, in a tissue-specific manner. Pioneering studies undertaken by this research group has shown how these DNA binding proteins can mediate diverse effects on gene expression and cell fate by interaction with other co-expressed regulators e.g. p53, thereby increasing the complexity by which expression and cell fate are governed. Our recent research, using in-vivo studies (knockout mice) or in-vitro models (using shRNA or siRNA targeting) have identified novel and important functions for this family of transcription factors in maintaining cardio-metabolic homeostasis since loss of regulators such as Brn-3b can cause metabolic dysfunction e.g. hyperglycaemia/insulin resistance and associated adverse cardiovascular remodelling altered responses to cardiac stress. Our research will be pivotal for helping to understand the complex mechanisms that control gene expression and cell fate during development and to identify changes that can lead to pathological responses to injury or cause cardiovascular diseases.

Katarzyna Maresz holds a PhD in Biological Sciences at the Medical Faculty of the Jagiellonian University, Poland. She held her practice at the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, Blood Research Institute in Milwaukee, WI, USA. Dr. Maresz has published more than 30 scientific papers, which reached more than 2000 citations. She is involved in clinical trials with Vitamin K2 in Poland and Europe, cooperating with many research centers regarding Vitamin K2 health effects and mechanism of action, publishing peer-reviewed papers in the K2 field, and presenting at scientific meetings. Dr. Maresz is currently the President of the International Science and Health Foundation, and the Scientific Coordinator of the educational portal VitaminK2.org.