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.

Nelson Alphonso is a cardiac surgeon and the ECMO Co-Lead at the Queensland Children's Hospital. He is a Professor at the University of Queensland and has co-authored over 140 publications in paediatric cardiac surgery. He is also the co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of the Australia New Zealand Congenital Outcomes Registry for Surgery (ANZCORS).

Professor Christian Brizard has acquired international leadership as a Cardio-thoracic Surgeon in the field of Paediatric Cardiac Surgery. He is the Director of the Cardiac Surgery Department at the Royal Children’s Hospital, the largest paediatric cardiac centre in Australia. Dr Brizard has extensive experience in cardiopulmonary transplantation, circulatory supports (VAD & ECMO) and reconstructive valve surgery.