Gemma is a Professor in Medicine at the University of Sydney and an Interventional Cardiologist at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney. She is the Chair of the University of Sydney’s multi-disciplinary Cardiovascular Initiative. Gemma is committed to improving the care for heart attack patients, unravelling key mechanisms underlying susceptibility and response to heart attack, with studies extending from the bench to large cohort studies and clinical trials. Discoveries in her Laboratory have been published in leading journals including the Lancet, Circulation, JACC and European Heart Journal, with > 250 publications. Gemma is a principal investigator on grants >$42 Mill. Her discoveries and innovative strategies have resulted in a US patent, and 5 provisional patents spanning diagnostic and therapeutic fields. Gemma is founder and CSO for Australian start-ups Prokardia and Kardiomics, and the not-for-profit CAD Frontiers Pty Ltd. She was awarded a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Excellence Award for Top Ranked Practitioner Fellow (Australia- 2018), NSW Ministerial Award for Cardiovascular Research Excellence (2019) and was the second female to be awarded the prestigious Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand RT Hall Prize for outstanding and sustained research achievement (2023). Gemma serves as a member of the Editorial Board of leading international journals including Circulation and Cardiovascular Research and an Associate Editor for Heart, Lung and Circulation. She is a passionate advocate for cardiovascular research, working as President of the Australian Cardiovascular Alliance with a national team to secure $220 Million Federal funding for the Mission for Cardiovascular Health, and to build new pathways for research to best serve the unmet health needs of Australians. She chairs the MRFF Mission (CV) Expert Advisory Panel. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and serves/has served as a non-executive Director on multiple community Boards, including the Heart Foundation. In 2023, Gemma was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), in the Australia Day Honours.

Associate Professor Lee Nedkoff is a Principal Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia, Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Centre at UWA, and the head of the Cardiology Population Health lab at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. Dr. Nedkoff leads a research program on population studies measuring the burden of cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease and stroke, and has expertise in the use of multi-jurisdictional linked health data in cardiovascular epidemiological studies. Dr. Nedkoff is a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow, the Chair of the Allied Health, Science and Technology Council for the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand and is the co-chair of the Big Data Flagship for the Australia Cardiovascular Alliance.

Dr Andrew Goodman is an Aboriginal an from Iningai Country in Queensland. Prior to his PhD (UQ 2023), Dr Goodman spent more than 13 years as an Indigenous Healthcare Worker in Queensland, focusing on cardiac and healthcare services in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Currently, he is a Research Scientist with CSIROs Australian eHealth Research Centre, exploring the intersection, challenges and opportunities of digital health and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ health and wellbeing. With his core value system of ‘Relationships before Partnerships’, Dr Goodman takes a relational approach to research agenda setting anchored by a value-based accountability with prospective partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and organisations.

Prof Tomasz Guzik's research focuses on understanding how inflammation and oxidation intersect in vascular biology, especially in the context of hypertension. His group most important contributions include understanding the mechanisms of oxidative stress and vascular dysfunction in humans (Circ Res, 2000; Circulation, 2002; JACC; 2008; J Clin Invest, 2022) and, more recently, the defining novel role of inflammation and adaptive immunity in hypertension (J Exp Med, 2007; Circulation, 2020; Circ Res, 2020). His most recent work focused on identifying neuroimmune reflexes controlling atherosclerosis (Nature, 2022). In 2021, he was recognised as a Highly Cited Scientist by Clarivate. He published over 250 original studies with top-cited papers receiving >1000 citations (WoS H factor – 65; with a total of 18900 citations). His group is currently funded primarily by the European Research Council, European Commission and the British Heart Foundation. Prof Guzik is an Editor-in-Chief of Cardiovascular Research, serves as a board member of the European Society of Cardiology, Chairperson of the European Society of Cardiology Research and EU Grants Committee, and Treasurer of the British Atherosclerosis Society.

Professor Clara Chow is Academic Director of the Westmead Applied Research Centre (WARC), Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Sydney. She is a cardiologist and Clinical Lead of Community Based Cardiac Services at Westmead hospital. She was appointed to the Board of the National Heart Foundation in 2024 and is also a member of the Western Sydney Local Health District (WSLHD) Governing Board, Sydney, Australia. Professor Chow is Director of the Australian Stroke and Heart Accelerator (ASHRA). Her recent award highlights include being a finalist for the NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year - Woman of Excellence Category - in 2024 and 2020 respectively, receiving a Research Australia Digital Health Technology – Highly Commended Award, becoming an Honour of Australia recipient as well as a Fellow of the AAHMS in 2023 and being honoured with a Telstra Health - Brilliant Woman in Digital Health Award in 2022. She holds an honorary appointment as the Charles Perkins Centre Westmead Academic Co-director and is past (first female) President of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand. Professor Chow’s research focuses on the prevention of cardiovascular disease, innovation in the delivery of cardiovascular care and the evaluation of digital health interventions. She has expertise in the design, delivery and implementation of clinical trials. Her PhD from the University of Sydney, Australia was in cardiovascular epidemiology and international public Health and her Postdoc from McMaster University, Canada in clinical trials and cardiac imaging. She has over 300 publications including papers in internationally leading medical journals NEJM, JAMA and Lancet. She is supported by an NHMRC Investigator grant.

Professor Zoe Wainer is the inaugural Director General of the Australian Centre for Disease Control, responsible for establishing and leading Australia’s national public health agency and strengthening the country’s preparedness for future health threats. The Australian CDC provides independent, evidence-based advice on disease prevention, surveillance and response to safeguard the health of Australians. Professor Wainer is a values-driven C-suite health leader with experience across government, academia and the private sector. She previously served as Deputy Secretary for Community and Public Health at the Victorian Department of Health and as Chief Medical Officer for Bupa Australia and New Zealand. A medical doctor with a background in cardiothoracic surgery and a PhD from the University of Melbourne, she has expertise in public health, value-based healthcare and women’s health. Professor Wainer has worked internationally in global health, including public health initiatives in Timor-Leste and surgical programs in Fiji and Tonga.

Roxana Mehran, MD, FACC, is an internationally renowned interventional cardiologist, clinical research expert, and trialist in the field of cardiovascular disease. She is among the most prolific researchers in the United States and is a globally respected leader of an academic research center focused on designing and implementing randomized clinical trials, outcomes research projects, and high-impact academic publications. She has focused on personalized medicine and developed individual risk scores for bleeding and acute kidney injury, and she regularly contributes to the development of clinical guidelines. With over 3,000 publications, she has been listed by Clarivate Analytics among the Most Cited Researchers – Top 1% and The World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds (Thomson Reuters) for the past ten consecutive years, ranking among the top 50 researchers worldwide. Dr. Mehran currently serves as President (2026–2027) of the American College of Cardiology and leads The Lancet Commission on Women’s Cardiovascular Diseases, which aims to bridge gaps in scientific discovery, clinical trials, and care for women with cardiovascular disease. She is Director of the Women’s Heart and Vascular Center at Mount Sinai Heart, spearheading a program designed to meet the unique needs of women’s cardiovascular health. She also founded Women as One, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to advancing opportunities for women in medicine. Dr. Mehran is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Ellis Island Medal of Honor; the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Silver Medal; the ESC Andreas Grüntzig Lecture Plaque; the Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award; the CRF Pulse-Setter Champion Award; the Jacobi Medallion from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; and, most recently, the ESC Gold Medal (2025) and the AHA Laennec Master Clinician Award (2025).

Prof. Filippo Crea, FESC, was born in Cosenza, Italy on 19 September 1953. He graduated from Pisa Medical School with full honours in 1977 and passed the Postgraduate Boards in both Pulmonary and Cardiovascular Diseases, again with full honours, at Pisa Medical School in 1980 and 1983 respectively. During the whole of 1984 he was Research Fellow at the Division of Cardiology of the University of Florida, directed by Professor Richard C. Conti. From 1985 to 1991 he was Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant at the Cardiovascular Research Unit of the Hammersmith Hospital in London, directed by Professor Attilio Maseri. He returned to Italy upon his appointment as Chief of the Catheterization Laboratory at the Institute of Cardiology of the Catholic University of Rome. In 2000 he became Associate Professor of Cardiology and Chief of the Intensive and Sub-Intensive Care Unit. In 2001 he became Professor of Cardiology, Director of the Institute of Cardiology, Director of the Postgraduate School in Cardiology and of the PhD program in Clinical Research in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Catholic University of Rome. From October 2008 to January 2020 he was Director of the Department of Cardiovascular Sciences. From February 2020 to October 2023 he was Director of the University Department of Cardiovascular and Pneumological Sciences. Since November 2023 he is Director of the Centre of Excellence in Cardiovascular Medicine at the Gemelli-Isola Tiberina Hospital. He is Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, founder and Past Chairman of the Working Group on Coronary Pathophysiology and Microcirculation, Past Member of the Education Committee, Past Member of the ESC Congress Program Committee, co-author of Guidelines on chronic coronary syndromes (2013), NSTEMI (2017), UDMI (2019). Since 2020 he is Editor-in-Chief of the “European Heart Journal” and since 2022 Chairman of ESC Publications Committee. In 1992 he received from Nobel Prize Professor Rita Levi Montalcini the Newburg Prize for his scientific contribution to the cardiovascular research. In 2013 he received the Arrigo Recordati International Prize for lifetime achievement in researching the pivotal role of microcirculation in systemic and organ diseases. In 2015 he delivered the 7th annual Robert L. Krakoff International Lecture in Cardiovascular Medicine at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard University Medical School. His main field of interest is the study of mechanisms, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of ischemic heart disease. He is the author of more than 1500 publications in peer reviewed journals with an H-Index of 95.

Kim leads the Office for Health and Medical Research. Prior to her appointment to OHMR, she held Director roles at the Agency for Clinical Innovation and the Bureau of Health Information. Kim is a health services researcher with experience in evidence synthesis and sensemaking, performance measurement and reporting and change management in healthcare organisations. She played a central role in the development of frameworks for the assessment of unwarranted clinical variation and healthcare performance measurement in NSW and in the UK and co-authored a series of reports on the English NHS quality agenda. Kim holds a Master of Science from London Hospital Medical College, a Master of Business Administration from Imperial College London and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. In 2022, Kim received the Public Service Medal for outstanding public service to NSW Health.

Associate Professor Lee Nedkoff is a Principal Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia, Co-Director of the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Centre at UWA, and the head of the Cardiology Population Health lab at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute. Dr. Nedkoff leads a research program on population studies measuring the burden of cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease and stroke, and has expertise in the use of multi-jurisdictional linked health data in cardiovascular epidemiological studies. Dr. Nedkoff is a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow, the Chair of the Allied Health, Science and Technology Council for the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand and is the co-chair of the Big Data Flagship for the Australia Cardiovascular Alliance.