Programme Committee and Faculty

Andrew de Beaux is Consultant General and Upper GI Surgeon at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Scotland. His main surgical interest is abdominal wall reconstruction, (in addition to bariatric surgery and elective and emergency general surgery) undertaken in both the National Health Service and private practice.  In addition, he has an active medico-legal practice.

He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh.   He has written a number of hernia related chapters in surgical textbooks in addition to original hernia related research papers.

He is Past-President of the British Hernia Society (having been Education secretary for 10 years prior to this), and co-organised the second BHS conference in Edinburgh in 2006 as well as the one in 2018.  He was Co-president of the 2014 European Hernia Society Annual Congress which was held in Edinburgh.  He has served on a number of EHS Working Parties and Guideline Groups, and became an EHS Board member in 2017 with a responsibility for Social Media. In 2020 he became the General Secretary of the EHS, as well as Co-treasurer of the UEMS Abdominal Wall Section. The latter is a joint collaboration with the UEMS and EHS to establish and maintain the diploma examination in abdominal wall surgery. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the British Journal of Surgery and the World Journal of Surgery, Associate Editor for Obesity Surgery, and a past European Section Editor of the Journal Hernia.

An international expert in complex reconstruction, microsurgery, flaps and regenerative medicine, Dr. Charles E. Butler is Chairman and Tenured Professor of Plastic Surgery and the Charles B. Barker Endowed Chair in Surgery at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is board certified and recertified in both general and plastic surgery, he is renowned for his expertise in reconstructive surgery, particularly with hernia and abdominal wall reconstructions and in oncoplastic breast reconstruction. Dr. Butler has over 400 publications and 800 invited national and international presentations, visiting professorships, keynote speakerships, instructional courses, and lectures.

After receiving his Medical Doctorate at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Butler completed his General Surgery residency at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a National Institute of Health-sponsored basic science research fellowship at Harvard Medical School and Plastic Surgery residency at Harvard. In 2016, he was President of the Plastic Surgery Foundation (PSF) and President of the American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery (ASRM).

In addition, Dr. Butler is an active clinical and basic science researcher and mentor with an interest in post-oncologic and torso reconstruction, including the abdominal wall, breast, chest wall, pelvis, perineum and spine.

Mr Dominic Slade is a Consultant general, colorectal, abdominal wall and intestinal failure surgeon and the Chair of the Division of Surgery at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK.

He graduated from Birmingham University in 1992, and undertook his surgical training in the North West of England. He was appointed to his consultant post in 2006 with interests in laparoscopy, inflammatory bowel disease, and complex abdominal wall reconstructive surgery.

He is the Chair of the Abdominal Wall Reconstruction committee of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain & Ireland, and a committee member of the AWR committee of the British Hernia Society.

He is the co-editor of “Manual of Complex Abdominal Wall Reconstruction”, a practical guide aimed at the general surgeon.

Salford is one of only 2 Reference centres for the management and treatment of intestinal failure in the UK, and is unique throughout Europe in the volume and complexity of cases it deals with.  Along the way he has developed a particular interest in the reconstruction of massive abdominal wall defects and complex incisional hernias resulting from the management of the septic abdomen. This has led to a tertiary referral service, involved the appointment of a number of senior fellows in AWR for whom he is a trainer. He is part of the North West Abdominal Wall Reconstruction group, which aims to promote collaboration, education and research to improve the management of these patients across the North West of England.

He has published on the management of enterocutaneous fistulas and AWR, the use of tensor fascia lata (TFL) thigh flaps for massive abdominal wall defects, and presented nationally on patient selection, preoperative work up, management of the open abdomen and anterior and posterior component separation. He is an enthusiastic trainer and is involved in regular teaching of complex abdominal wall reconstruction and the management of the septic abdomen both nationally and internationally.

Prof. dr. F. Berrevoet is currently the Medical Director of the Department for General and HPB Surgery and Liver Transplantation at the Ghent University Hospital. He is the current President of the Belgian Section of HPB Surgery, Board member of the Scientific Advisory Committee and Belgian National Representative of the European Hernia Society and Member of the Scientific Committee for the European HPB Association. Currently, he is Associate Editor for the Hernia Journal as well as for the Acta Chirurgica Belgica and The International Journal for Abdominal Wall and Hernia Surgery.

Dr. Belyansky is a nationally-recognized expert in the field of Abdominal Wall Reconstruction (AWR) and complex laparoscopic and robotic hernia repair.  He is currently a director of AWR Program and Chief of General Surgery at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis, Maryland.  He has authored over 35 peer-review publications, 15 book chapters and several invited commentaries.  He has special interest in minimal invasive approaches to AWR and he has described and published several novel laparoscopic and robotic abdominal reconstructive techniques.  More recently he has become a big proponent of robotic technology and his research is focused on its use for abdominal wall reconstruction.  Dr. Belyansky completed his fellowship at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Prior to that he completed his residency training at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.  He attended medical school at Virginia Commonwealth University Schools of Medicine (MCV) and college at University of Maryland, College Park.

Jeffrey Janis is full-time faculty as a Professor in the Department of Plastic Surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. He is also Chief of Plastic Surgery at University Hospital, Co-Director of the Center for Abdominal Core Health, and holds adjunct appointments as a Professor of Neurosurgery, Neurology, and Surgery.  He received his business degree from Washington University Olin School of Business, medical degree from Case Western Reserve, and did his plastic surgery training in Dallas at UT Southwestern Medical Center, where he also served as the residency program director and Chief of Plastic Surgery at Parkland Memorial Hospital.  He is a Past President of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, the American Council of Academic Plastic Surgeons, and the Columbus Medical Association, and currently serves as the President of the Migraine Surgery Society, President-Elect of the Americas Hernia Society and a Governor on the Board of Governors for the American College of Surgeons.  He is also a member of the ACGME’s Plastic Surgery Residency Review Committee.  He was recently appointed as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open.  To date, he has served as a Visiting Professor at 44 major national and international institutions, published nearly 180 peer-reviewed articles, 104 book chapters, and 6 books, with 3 more books and 3 apps pending publication, and has delivered over 920 lectures.

Marja Boermeester is professor of surgery and a clinical epidemiologist at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers, location AMC, and principal investigator of many multicenter trials on diagnostics and treatment of abdominal infections (e.g. RELAP, OPTIMA, ESCAPE, OPTIMAP, DIABOLO, SECURE). She received many grants (e.g. > 10 National Health Care & Efficacy Research Grants) and trials were published in international high-ranked publications (NEJM, JAMA, Radiology, BMJ, Lancet).
Her core business in GI / HPB surgery is surgery of abdominal infections, complex abdominal wall repair (CAWR), and intestinal failure surgery. She runs a successful Intestinal Failure Team in the AMC Amsterdam, with referrals from all over the country and an international expert center on intestinal failure surgery. The Intestinal Failure Unit of the AMC Amsterdam recently achieved full ERN (European Reference Network) membership, and is a center of expertise and training center in CAWR.
She has 15 PhD fellows under her supervision. She is member of the WHO SSI Prevention Guidelines Committee, the Amsterdam Research Board, Principal Investigator at the AMC, member of several national and international guideline committees (Antibiotics in Sepsis, Acute Diverticulitis, Chronic Pancreatitis, Peri-operative Patient Safety, Diagnostics of Acute Abdominal Pain, Emergency Surgery, Incisional hernia surgery). Also, 2017-2019 President of the Surgical Infection Society Europe (SIS-E).

Mr Oliver Warren is a Colorectal Surgeon and Clinical Director of Surgery at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. He is an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College.  He qualified from Imperial College London in 2001, coming top of his class in both medicine and surgery and was ‘proxime accesit’ to the University of London Gold Medal. In 2012 he was awarded the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland’s Gold Medal for outstanding performance in the FRCS Examinations. Oliver has published over 100 peer reviewed publications and numerous book chapters and a book. He has developed a busy tertiary clinical practice in hernia and abdominal wall reconstruction surgery. He chairs the regional Abdominal Wall Reconstruction MDT for North West London and is a member of the British Hernia Society AWR sub-committee.

Dr. Heniford completed his undergraduate degree and played football at Clemson University.  He performed his surgical residency at the University of Louisville and a fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. He has been on the faculty of the Cleveland Clinic and Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C., where he serves as Professor of Surgery and directs Gastrointestinal and Minimally Invasive Surgery and the Carolinas Hernia Center. 

Dr. Heniford is the author of over 475 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters and editor of three books.  He and his research fellows have won 69 prominent research awards, including 5 SAGES Research Project of the Year Awards, 14 Americas Hernia Society Research Awards, multiple awards from the American College of Surgeons and the Association for Academic Surgery, among others.  He has developed successful surgical apps that have been downloaded in more than 140 countries world-wide and has multiple international patents.  Dr. Heniford was the 2014 recipient of the MedStar Georgetown University Lifetime Achievement Award, the American Hernia Society Nyhus-Wantz Career Achievement Award, and named “Medical Innovator of the Year” from the Business Journal.  He is a past-President of the Americas Hernia Society.  Five of Dr. Heniford’s trainees have become President of the Americas Hernia Society and 2 additional past-fellows will become President of the AHS in the next 4 years.

• Chief of the Unit of Innovation in Minimally Invasive Surgery of the University Hospital "Virgen del Rocío"
• Head of the General, Digestive and Laparoscopic Surgery Unit of the Hospital Quirónsalud Sagrado Corazón in Sevilla (Spain).
•  Associate Professor of the Department of Surgery at the University of Sevilla (Spain)
• President of the Spanish Association of Surgeons (AEC)
• -President Elect of the European Association of Endoscopic Surgeons (EAES)
• Past General Secretary of the European Hernia Society (EHS)
• Vice-Chairman of the Chapter of Abdominal Wall surgery of the UEMS
• Spanish Association of Surgery.
• President of the Expert Committee of the Royal College of Medicine of Sevilla
• Chairman of the working group “Surgery-Covid-AEC”
• Member of the National Commission for General and Digestive Surgery of the National Council of Specialties in Health Sciences of the Ministry of Health
• Visiting Professor of the School of Medicine at the Northeastern National University (Argentina)
• Visiting Professor of the Training program of Surgery of Malta
• Faculty of the IRCARD/EITS in Strasburg (France) and in Barretos (Brazil)
• Faculty of the Italian School of Abdominal Wall Surgery
• Academic Fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Sevilla and Lugo (Spain)
• Honorary member of the Society of Surgery of Cuba, Venezuela and Club Hernié (French Society of Abdominal wall)
• Honorary Member of the Andalusian Society of Surgery (2021)
• Scientific Advisory Board of the Swiss Association for Hernia Surgery
• Papers published in peer-reviewed journals indexed in PubMed: 144
• H Index: 34
• Several books as Editor and chapters of National and International Books
• “Illustrious Doctor” by The Royal College of Medicine of Sevilla (2018)