Debbie Shawcross is a Clinician Scientist and Professor of Hepatology and Chronic Liver Failure at the Institute of Liver Studies and James Black Centre, King’s College London. She works as a Consultant Hepatologist on the King’s Liver Unit with a specialist interest in hepatic encephalopathy and the complications of cirrhosis. She was elected to the EASL Scientific Committee and Governing Board in October 2022 and is an advocate for high quality education and training in gastroenterology and hepatology having been a Health Education England London Gastroenterology Training Programme Director for 10 years serving on the British Society Gastroenterology (BSG) Specialist Advisory Committee and Training Committee, BSG Mentor and an active member of the BSG Supporting Women in Gastroenterology. She is Deputy Chair of the BSG Research Committee. Her research programme characterises the immunobiology of chronic liver failure focusing specifically on the gut-liver-brain axis in the context of the gut microbiome as a driver of immune dysfunction, inflammation and encephalopathy. She is leading the field in clinical trials of faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) in Europe and is Chief Investigator of the NIHR-funded EME UK multicentre randomised placebo-controlled clinical trial of FMT (capsules) [PROMISE Trial] in patients with metabolic-associated and alcohol-related cirrhosis.

Jörn M. Schattenberg is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Department of Medicine II at the University Medical Center Homburg and University of the Saarland in Germany. He received his medical degree in 2002 after studying at the University of Mainz (Germany) and at the Tulane University in New Orleans (US). He completed his post-doctoral training at the Albert-Einstein College of Medicine, New York, where he focused on delineating signalling pathways involved in the pathophysiology of acute and chronic liver injury with a special focus on metabolic liver disease and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology & Hepatology and Infectious Disease. His research focuses on translational sciences and clinical trials in Hepatology. He is involved in multinational, EU-funded research consortia exploring new technologies and approaches for the prevention and screening of metabolic liver disease and the development of novel biomarkers. Professor Schattenberg is member of the Policy, Public Health and Advocacy Committee of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), a member of the Editorial Board of Hepatology and the Alimentary Pharmacology & Therapeutics and an Associate Editor of JHEP Reports.

Prof. Frank Murray is Consultant Hepatologist/Gastroenterologist at Beaumont Hospital, Dublin and Associate Professor of Medicine at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and EASL Policy and Public Health Committee Member. He graduated from University College Dublin in 1980 and trained in Dublin, Boston USA, and Nottingham, England. He was previously Consultant Gastroenterologist in Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, Dundee, Scotland. Prof. Frank Murray became a a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland in 1994, was elected to the Council in 2002, and was appointed Registrar in 2007. He was the 141st President of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland from 2014-2017. Prof. Murray is also the former chair of both the Basic Specialist Training Committee and the Irish Committee on Higher Medical Training. He is a founding member of the RCPI/HSE EQUALS Initiative, a group which sources decommissioned medical equipment in Irish hospitals to send to hospitals in less developed countries and is partnering the development of Post-graduate Training in Zambia. Prof. Murray is Chairman of the RCPI Policy Group on Alcohol in 2102 , and Chairman of Alcohol Health Alliance Ireland in 2015. He has played a prominent national role in highlighting alcohol harm in Ireland and supported the introduction of evidence-based alcohol counter-measures, such as those in the Public health Alcohol Bill. Prof. Murray has recently been appointed Director, National Doctors Training and Planning (NDTP), HSE in Dublin.

Prof. Loreta Kondili is a specialist in Gastroenterology and Digestive Endoscopy since 2005 and earned her Ph.D. degree in 2015. She is trained in Sapienza University and Policlinico Umberto 1- Rome and in the Liver Unit of Queen Elisabeth Hospital/ University of Birmingham (UK). She is a Clinical Researcher at the Center for Global Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome. Prof. Kondili has worked in viral hepatitis and liver diseases for the last 25 years, and her main research areas focus on epidemiological, clinical, and therapy of chronic viral liver disease. She has been involved in the scientific coordination of several Italian Networks in the field of chronic liver disease of different etiologies with specific regard to chronic viral hepatitis, liver cirrhosis, and its complications. She is currently the principal investigator of the Italian Platform for the study of Viral Hepatitis Therapies (PITER). She has strong competencies in the Health Technology Assessment and management and analysis of real-life big databases. She has collaborated with the Center for Economic and International Studies (CEIS) of the Tor Vergata University of Rome and the Center for Disease Analysis Colorado (USA), for the definition of the HCV elimination strategies in Italy as a goal of the World Health Organization. She is currently serving as expert for the Italian Ministry of Health on the implementation of the National Hepatitis plan. She has been an expert of the Italian Drug Agency (AIFA) and is currently serving as expert at European Medicines Agency (EMA) She is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Tirana. She passed the National Scientific Qualification as Associated Professor (Bando D.D. 1532/2016 Settore concorsuale 06/D4 Fascia: II). She holds a 2nd level master’s in Evaluation and Management of Health Technologies from the Catholic University of Rome. She is a member of the Italian Association for the Study of the Liver and of the European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL) serving also as a member of the Policy and Public Health Committee of EASL. Prof Kondili has co-authored over 100 publications on hepatitis and is a frequent speaker in national and international scientific meetings.

Born in 1975, graduated from the medical school in Aarhus, Denmark in 2003. Since then clinical training and specialisation in hepatology, alongside training in clinical epidemiology. I have published more than 100 papers, most of them in the field of hepato-epidemiology. I currently do half-time clinical work, half-time research. My primary interests are alcoholic liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma, most notably the value of surveillance for hepatocellular carcinoma among patients with alcoholic cirrhosis.

Monica Semedo is a Member of the European Parliament from Luxembourg for the Renew Europe Group since 2019. She is Member of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs and the Committee on Culture and Education and Substitute Member in the Committee of Economic and Monetary Affairs Semedo is Co-Chair of the Disability Intergroup and of the Intergroup on Social Economy. She is Member of the Anti-Racism and Diversity Intergroup (ARDI) and Member of the EU Delegation to the OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly. As Cape Verdean descendant, she is very active in promoting diversity and combating racism across Europe and the EU Institutions, and has inclusion and intersectionality as priorities during her mandate, especially for minorities, people with disabilities and youth.

José Willemse is the executive director of the Dutch Liver Patients Association; a member of the management board of the European Reference Network Rare-Liver and a board member of the umbrella organization for liver patients organizations, Liver Patients International. But overall she is a patient advocate pur sang. For her, it is hugely important that patients can keep a grip on their lives through good information and good communication with their healthcare providers. For that, healthcare professionals must know about the patient perspective: what is important for patients to keep a grip on their condition. And that’s her role too: telling the unmet needs of patients to healthcare professionals, whom she admires for their dedication and knowledge.