Alba Ancochea es una líder en la transformación social y del tercer sector, con grados y posgrados en el ámbito sociosanitario y de gestión. Al frente de FEDER y su Fundación para la Investigación, impulsó alianzas ciencia-pacientes-financiación y profesionalizó la gestión orientada a resultados en enfermedades raras. En AstraZeneca, como Sustainability & SHE Lead en España y en el hub global de Barcelona, integra sostenibilidad social y ambiental, seguridad y salud laboral y gobernanza responsable, y recientemente asume la responsabilidad de la Fundación AstraZeneca y las relaciones internacionales.

Antonio Parenti is currently the Director for Public Health, Cancer and Human Security in the Directorate General for Human and Food Security of the European Commission.

Until August 2024 he was the Head of the European Commission Representation in Italy. He represented the Commission in Italy under the political authority of President Ursula von der Leyen and oversaw the two offices of Rome and Milan.

Before Italy, he was the Minister Counsellor in charge of the economic affairs, trade and development section of the EU Delegation to the United Nations. In that capacity, he served as Chief negotiator of the European Union for the UN Global Compact on Migration. Much of his career took place in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Trade where he served as Deputy Chief negotiator of the free trade agreement with Japan, responsible for relations with the countries of the Far East including the China and Chief negotiator for the accession of several countries to the WTO. He served not only in Brussels and New York but also in Moscow where he served as the Counsellor for economic and commercial affairs of the EU Delegation during the final stages of Russia's accession negotiations to the WTO.

Antonio Parenti has a Law Degree and a LL.M in European Law from the University of Bologna and a Master of Arts in International Relations from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (Johns Hopkins University). He is the author of numerous articles and essays on European affairs and international trade.

Dr. Valentín Fuster is General Director of the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC), Madrid, Spain; President of Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital and Physician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, USA. Internationally recognised as one of the world’s leading cardiologists, he has dedicated his career to advancing cardiovascular medicine through research, prevention, education and public health.

Under his leadership, CNIC has become one of Europe’s leading cardiovascular research centres, combining scientific excellence with clinical and societal impact. Dr. Fuster has authored more than 1,000 scientific publications and has one of the highest h-indexes internationally in medicine.

He is the only cardiologist to have received the highest scientific awards from the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the European Society of Cardiology and the World Heart Federation, in addition to numerous international distinctions including the Prince of Asturias Award.

Marina Pollán is the general director of Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII) since january 2024. She holds a degree in Medicine, is a specialist in Preventive Medicine and Public Health, and an expert in cancer epidemiology.

She has been associated with ISCIII since she joined the center in 1990. Marina Pollán has served as scientific director of the Epidemiology and Public Health Area at the Biomedical Research Networking Center (CIBER), and she has been director of the ISCIII`s National Epidemiology Center. Her principal area of study is cancer risk factors, mainly those associated with lifestyle in breast cancer.

Kitti Almer is a European public health and health policy professional specialising in cardiovascular policy, prevention and health systems. She is currently working with the European Society of Cardiology as an independent cardiopolicy consultant, supporting work on cardiovascular health policy, advocacy and stakeholder engagement at European and national levels.

Previously, she served as Public Health Attaché at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU, where she coordinated public health priorities during the 2024 Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, including Council Conclusions on cardiovascular health.

Héctor Bueno is a clinical cardiologist at Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre, Madrid and PI of the Multidisciplinary Translational Cardiovascular Research Groups at the Spanish National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) and at the Hospital Universitario 12 de Octubre imas12 Research Institut.

He is an advisor for the Ministry of Health and member of the Spanish Cardiovascular Health Strategy Development Committee of the National Health System. Dr. Bueno has >500 publications in journals with >160,000 citations (h index, 91). He has chaired or served in several committees of the European Society of Cardiology, American Heart Association and Spanish Society of Cardiology.

Borja Ibáñez, MD PhD combines research activities as Scientific Director of the National Center for Cardiovascular Research in Spain (CNIC) with clinical activities as interventional cardiologist at Hospital Fundación Jiménez Díaz.

He was trained in Spain and in the USA (Mount Sinai Heart, NY). He is dedicated to STEMI, heart failure and cancer therapy cardiotoxicity at the research and clinical levels, with a particular focus on translational cardiovascular medicine and implementation of innovative therapeutic strategies.

PI of several multicenter clinical trials recruiting patients with myocardial infarction and heart failure. He served as the Chairman of the 2023 ESC ACS Guidelines and of the 2017 ESC STEMI Clinical Practice Guidelines. He is PI of several national and international projects, including ERC CoG, ERA CVD, IHI and H2020-funded grants. He is author of around 600 scientific publications in high-impact journals. He is also involved in peer review activities (funding agencies and scientific journals).

Dr José Luis Peñalvo is Director of the National Centre for Epidemiology (CNE) at the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), Spain’s leading institution for public health and epidemiological research. He is an epidemiologist with an extensive international career at leading institutions, including the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston, MA, and the National Center for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) in Madrid. His research focuses on cardiovascular health, chronic disease prevention, burden of disease analysis, and public health policy modelling.

She studied at the Faculty of Medicine in Zaragoza and passed the competitive examination for the Armed Forces, where she served as a medical officer for more than 10 years in the Navy, the Cavalry Brigade, and the Logistics Corps. She later specialized in hospital management and has directed several hospitals in Castilla y León and Madrid—both private and those affiliated with the Social Security system—while continuing her clinical practice.

After serving as director of Ruber Hospital, a pioneer in private medicine in Madrid, she joined Banco Santander as corporate medical director in 2022, drawn by the challenge of creating health prevention and promotion programs and by the opportunity to collaborate with the CNIC.

Javier Sánchez-González was born in Madrid in 1975. He studied Physics at the Autónoma University of Madrid and in 1998 he started his PhD work at Hospital Universitario Gregorio Marañón.

After his PhD and different postdoc position in 2007 he moved to Philips as the first MR Clinical Science in the Iberia. Currently is leading Philips Clinical Science team in South Europe (Spain, Portugal, France and Italy). As scientific production, Javier has contributed in more than 100 peer reviewed publication and book chapters with a H index of 43.

Prof. Asselbergs is leading the development of an ambitious roadmap for the responsible implementation of AI across cardiovascular health as Chair of the ESC's Digital Cardiology and Artificial Intelligence (DCAI) Committee. This roadmap outlines how AI can be integrated into clinical cardiology in a way that is trustworthy, evidence-based, and genuinely beneficial for patients.

A key priority of the committee is the standardisation of machine-readable disease definitions and clinical outcomes across ESC Guidelines, which Prof. Asselbergs argues will enhance the quality and reproducibility of AI algorithms used in everyday practice.

Aleida Alcaide García has assumed the position of Director General of Artificial Intelligence at the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service. She leads Spain’s representation before the EU on AI issues and oversees the development and implementation of public policies in Spain related to AI and other digital technologies. Her responsibilities include regulatory development and coordination, the protection of rights in this field, as well as the creation of spaces for public debate on the risks and benefits of these technologies. She also manages programs to promote AI in the field of R&D&I and encourages its adoption in productive sectors and public administrations.

Before assuming her current position, she worked in the private sector driving the digitalization of SMEs and startups; and in the public sector, she held roles such as Chief of Staff at the Secretariat of State for Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence, served on the Boards of Directors of Red.es, INCIBE, CDTI, and AESIA, served as Deputy Director General for European Fund Coordination at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, overseeing the execution of funds allocated to digitalization under the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, and was a professor at INAP.

Aleida holds a degree in Telecommunications Engineering from the University of Valladolid, completed the Leadership Program for Public Management at IESE Business School, and is a member of the Senior Corps of Information Systems and Technologies and the Corps of Systems and Information Technology Management within the General State Administration. She currently serves on the boards of the Spanish research agency AEI, SETT, and AESIA.

Laura holds a Master’s degree in Telecommunications Engineering and a PhD in Neuroscience. For the past 15 years she has worked at the intersection of technology and medicine, with a passion to translate scientific findings into meaningful technologies that can transform patients' lives.

After 11 years in the US, she has recently moved back to Barcelona to join AstraZeneca as the Director of the Emerging Technology Intelligence Team.

In this role, she focuses on identifying and accelerating emerging technologies with the potential to transform the life sciences and pharmaceutical industries, including quantum computing, physical AI, digital twins, agentic AI, or neuromorphic computing, among others.

Fátima Sánchez-Cabo is a mathematician by training, dedicated for over twenty years to the use of mathematical models and advanced statistical techniques to the integrative analysis of multimodal data, with the aim to improve our understanding of CV health and disease and its comorbidities. She leads the Computational Systems Biomedicine Lab and the Bioinformatics Unit at CNIC.

Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan MBBS BSc FRCP PhD FESC is Clinical Director at BHF, and previously Associate Medical Director (2018-2024), with primary responsibility for the clinical research portfolio including clinical research studies and fellowships and provides medical input to health facing activity. She is Chair of BHF Research Inequalities work, a Consultant Adult Congenital Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital, and Clinical Associate Professor at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London.

She is an internationally recognised ACHD and cardiac MRI expert and frequent advocate for cardiovascular research and healthcare, including women's health. She previously held an Intermediate Clinical Research Fellowship from the BHF, and her research is focused on improving the care and quality of life of adults who were born with heart defects (adults with congenital heart disease).

Juan Carlos Julián-Mauro is a psychologist and healthcare management professional with more than 20 years of experience in patient advocacy, chronic kidney disease, and kidney cancer. Since 2006, he has served as Managing Director of the Spanish Kidney Patients’ Federation (ALCER). He is also responsible for the Action Plan of the European Kidney Patients’ Federation (EKPF).

Alongside his management work, he is actively involved in academic, scientific, and international research activities, contributing to European projects, publications, and conferences related to chronic kidney disease, kidney cancer, patient-reported outcomes and healthcare innovation.

Rikke Nielsen is a Health Counsellor at the Royal Danish Embassy in London overseeing the government collaborations on healthcare between the UK and Denmark, focusing on non-communicable diseases. She has previously worked at the Novo Nordisk Foundation designing research initiatives on early detection of cardiovascular disease, women’s cardiovascular disease and inequity in health. She has a background as a medical doctor and researcher in cardiac intensive care.

After finishing her training in internal medicine and cardiology at the Basel University Hospital (Switzerland), moved to the Leipzig Heart Center (Germany) with for postdoc fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation. After working 5 years in Leipzig as interventional cardiologist moved back to Spain where she combines her scientific activity at CNIC with clinical as cardiologist. Current chair of the ESC Gender Task Force and therefore involved in the EU CV Safe Hearts Plan and EU Gender Equality Strategy.

Natalia Skogberg is a chief researcher, associate professor, PhD at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL). Dr Skogberg is the leading expert in transversal integration of equity and diversity in the Joint Action for Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes (JACARDI). Key international contributions include acting as an advisor at the WHO Technical Advisory Group on Migration, Health and Displacement, chair of the Working Group on Migration and cultural diversity at the World Federation of Public Health Associations (WFPHA), and steering committee member of the Section on Migrant and Ethnic Minority Health of the European Public Health Association (EUPHA).

Dr. Benedetta Armocida is a medical doctor and global health expert focused on noncommunicable disease prevention, adolescent health, and health systems strengthening. She is a Senior Researcher at the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS), where she coordinates the EU4Health Joint Action on Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes (JACARDI). She holds a PhD in Global Health and contributes to the Global Burden of Disease Study, while teaching Global Health and Global NCDs to support equitable, evidence-informed health policies.

Andreas is a medical doctor with a background in infectious disease and with a PhD in infection biology. He obtained his medical degree from the Karolinska Institutet in 1997 and where he also defended his PhD thesis in 2001. He joined AZ in 2020 and is currently leading Medical Affairs for Europe & Canada Biopharma at AZ and before that he was heading Medical & Regulatory Affairs for AZ Nordic Cluster.

Previously, Andreas spent more than eight years with GSK where he held local, regional and global roles across several therapeutic areas, including vaccines, HIV, respiratory and gynaecological oncology. Between 2018 and 2020 he was the Medical Director for the Nordic-Baltic Cluster.

Before joining the pharmaceutical industry, Andreas worked with malaria and global public health. He spent several years in Kenya, Cameroon and Tanzania as the Coordinator of the Multilateral Initiative on Malaria and served as the Deputy State Epidemiologist in Sweden between 2010-2012. Further, he worked internationally with antibiotic resistance as the Director of ReAct - Action on Antibiotic Resistance.

Andreas has a broad medical background ranging from basic science to public health and has worked extensively in the areas of Respiratory Medicine, Global Public Health, Epidemiology, Antibiotic Resistance and Infectious Diseases.

Birgit Beger is the Chief Executive Officer of the European Heart Network (EHN), a Brussels-based alliance of foundations and associations working to prevent cardiovascular disease, support patients, represent patient interests, and fund cardiovascular research across Europe. She is an accomplished senior executive with more than 20 years of experience in EU public policy, with particular expertise in leading European associations.

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the Cardiac Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Therapies group, led by Florian Anton Weinberger at CNIC.

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the Molecular and Genetic Cardiovascular Pathophysiology group, led by Vicente Andrés at CNIC.

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the Cardiovascular Health and Imaging group, led by Rodrigo Fernández Jiménez at CNIC.

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the Genetic Control of Organ Development and Regeneration, led by Miguel Torres at CNIC.

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the Intercellular Signaling in Cardiovascular Development and Disease group, led by José Luis de la Pompa at CNIC.

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the Neurovascular Pathophysiology group, led by María Ángeles Moro at CNIC.

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the Molecular Regulation of Heart Failure group, led by Enrique Lara-Pezzi at CNIC.

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the B Lymphocyte Biology group, led by Almudena Ramiro at CNIC.

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the Genetic Control of Organ Development and Regeneration, led by Miguel Torres at CNIC

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the Inherited Cardiomyopathies group, led by Pablo García-Pavía at CNIC.

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the Mechanoadaptation and Caveolae Biology group, led by Miguel Ángel del Pozo at CNIC.

Cure Heart and Brain MSCA Fellow within the Molecular Genetics of Angiogenesis group, led by Rui Benedito at CNIC.