Dr. Emile Bacha is a board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon with a subspecialization in pediatric cardiac surgery. From 2000-2004, he was the Surgical Director of the Congenital Heart Center at the University of Chicago. From 2004-2009, he was Senior Associate in Cardiac Surgery at the Children's Hospital Boston and Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School, as well as Cardiac Surgery Fellowship Program Director, and Director of the Pediatric Heart Valve Center. Since January 2010, Dr. Bacha has been Director of the Congenital and Pediatric Cardiac Surgery program at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, Columbia University's Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Weill Cornell Medical School. In July 2011, he was appointed Chief of the Division of Cardiac, Thoracic, and Vascular Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center. In 2026, he became Chair of the Department of Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief for NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia.

Dr. Robert Justo is a paediatric cardiologist, with subspecialty training in interventional cardiology. He is a staff specialist at Queensland Children’s Hospital where he was Director of Cardiology from 2006-2021. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Queensland with research interests in long-term medical and neurodevelopmental outcomes of interventions in congenital heart disease, and rheumatic heart disease.

MBBS PhD FRACS

Damien Kenny MD, FACC, FSCAI, FPICS completed his senior fellowship in Interventional Cardiology at the Rush Center for Congenital and Structural Heart Disease in Chicago, USA and served there as Assistant Professor of Pediatric and Internal Medicine and Director of the Hybrid Cathterization Suite until 2015. He is currently the Clinical Lead for Cardiology in the National Children’s Hospital in Dublin, Ireland. He is a Director of the PICS~AICS meeting and Vice-President of the PICS Society. He is a past Chair of the Congenital Track at the SCAI Annual Scientific Sessions. To date he has published over 150 peer reviewed articles and co-authored 20 chapters in International textbooks.

Shree is a Paediatric Intensivist with a clinical focus on cardiac intensive care. Her areas of clinical interest include the ICU management of heart failure and temporary and durable mechanical circulatory support. With additional formal training and interest in clinical ethics, she is particularly passionate about improving how multidisciplinary teams navigate collaborative decision-making in complex cases.