Walter Ammann is the Founder, and CEO of GRF Davos, a foundation focused on risk reduction, disaster management, sustainable development and climate change mitigation and adaptation. He is the chairman and organizer of the biennial IDRC Conference in Davos to be held for the 4th time in 2012 in Davos, Switzerland, and is director of the GRF Risk Academy, a think tank offering knowledge management, R & D and continuous education worldwide. His interest in current R&D is risk reduction and disaster management, in particular methods and technologies on how to reduce vulnerability and increase resilience and their harmonization with climate change in all their facets. He has been lead author of the Strategy on “Dealing with Risks and Disasters” for the Swiss Government and is advisor to numerous national and international institutions. Most recently, GRF Davos has been appointed by UNCCD to organize its 2nd Scientific Conference on Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought DLDD, to be held in 2012. DLDD is one of the most neglected but most pressing issues worldwide.

He is author and co-author of over 250 papers, books and scientific reports and is a member of various national and international professional associations and expert consulting groups like the UNISDR Science and Technology Council. He is a Permanent Visiting Professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology in Harbin, China.Walter Ammann got his MSc and PhD in structural dynamics and earthquake engineering at ETH Zurich. He started his professional career in various consulting companies, was responsible for the R&D in construction technology in a globally acting company, and for 15 years Director of the Federal Institute for Natural Hazards in Davos and Deputy Director of the Federal Research Institute on Forest, Snow and Landscape in Birmensdorf, Zurich.

Reto H. Babst earned his medical degree in 1979 at medical faculty of University of Bern, Switzerland. From 1980 to 1987 he served as an assistant doctor in three cantonal hospitals of Switzerland and finally the University Hospital Basel. Following he served as a senior physician from 1988 to 1998 in the surgical ward of University Hospital Basel as well as in between from Jan. 1995 to Dec. 1995 at Clinic for Visceral Surgery, Academic Teaching Hospital Dortmund, Germany (under supervision of Prof. Dr. med. D. Löhlein). From 1997 to 1999 he was the president of AOAA Chapter Switzerland and from 2002 to 2005 president of the Swiss Society for Traumatology and Swiss Insurance Medicine (SGTV). In University Hospital Basel he habilitated in June 2000 and proceeded holding a professorship since 2005. 2008 to 2011 he was in the board of directors of ESTES. In 2010 he was the governing board of administration at Swiss Accident Insurance (SUVA) and founded the Academy for Medical Training and Simulation (AMTS) located in Luzern.

Prof. Dr. med. Babst is a member of the German Society for Disaster Surgery (DGU), the European Society of Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ESTES), the Orthopedic Trauma Association (OTA) and several national societies. He is a fellow of the Shock Trauma Center, Baltimore and Hospital for Special Surgery, New York and a visiting professor of Harborview Medical Center, Seattle. Moreover, he is chairman of the surgeon department (2003) and member of the board of directors (2005) in Luzern Cantonal Hospital, Switzerland. He was granted honor by the AO/ASIF Technical Commission (1999) and awarded with the Hardy Weber Price of the AO/ASIF for outstanding achievements in MIPO education (2006).

After four years at the University Hospital of Reims, Anne-Sophie Castex gained further experience as hospital pharmacist in South Sudan with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). She is now based at the MSF headquarters in Paris where she is  the hospital pharmacy consultant for hygiene, sterilization and medical devices. Anne-Sophie Castex's overall objectives are to secure and guarantee the quality of care and pharmacy management in all countries where the organisation works, to give additional support to specific field projects and to provide expert advice to headquarters on all matters in the above-mentioned areas.

Professor Bernd Domres has managed the medical response to a number of catastrophes in Cambodia, Nigeria, Lebanon and Pakistan since 1975. In 1988 he was in Armenia and in the 90’s he provided support in Iran, Croatia, Peru, Jordan, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt and Turkey. Bernd Domres has written numerous papers on compartment syndrome, treatment of fractures and burns as well as on the subjects of catastrophe, emergency, tropical medicine and terrestrial rescue. Bernd Domres was president of the German association for catastrophe medicine and vice-president of the German Air Rescue (DRF). He is a delegate of the United Nations Assessment and Coordination in Geneva and furthermore a member, chairman, honorary president and/or founder of many different medical associations. In 2003 he retired from being university professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Tübingen (Germany).

Professor Markus Furrer is head of the surgical department of the Kantonsspital Graubünden in Switzerland and the actual president of the Academia Raetica - a regional organisation of research institutes with an official assignment of the political authorities. Originally trained as a general surgeon, his main field is now vascular and thoracic surgery. Prof. Furrer 's professional career started in Chur, for the vascular and thoracic program he was in Bern and New York at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre. As a professor of surgery he is academically related to the University of Berne, he also has a teaching assignment of the University of Zürich and is an advisory council of the private University of Liechtenstein. He was the president of the Swiss thoracic and cardiovascular surgical societies.

Olivier Hagon is a trained emergency physician and an anaesthesiologist with specialisation in emergency medicine. He has worked in disaster care stations and emergency divisions for more than ten years. Dr. Hagon has been appointed medical coordinator of Swiss Rescue in 2005. He now holds the medical director responsibility in Swiss Humanitarian Aid and is senior physician and project manager in the Division of International and Humanitarian Medicine (DIHM) at the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG). Dr. Hagon leads emergency missions and medical support activities for SDC. After the Earthquake in Haiti in 2010, he was in charge of the Swiss medical rescue team and its efforts aid the affected population. Over the last three years Olivier Hagon has been assessing various local rescue systems under the USAR Program and is leading the JCD USAR project as well as a project in Lebanon, where trainers of the Lebanese Red Cross volunteers get trained. Over the past years, Olivier Hagon has been involved in the disaster relief activities in in Padang, Haiti, Saloum, Benghazi, Dadaab.

Born in 1966 in Munich, Germany, Dr Beate P. Hanson has received her Medical Doctorate in Germany in 1994 (Benjamin Franklin University of Berlin). Her career continued with 5 years practice and clinical experience in Trauma and Orthopedics care. Soon, she realised her deep interest in epidemiology, clinical investigation, and public health. Consequently, she completed her Masters in Public Health at the University of Washington.

In 2002, Beate took office as Director of Clinical Investigation and Documentation at AO Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Osteosynthesefragen (German for: “Association for the Study of Internal Fixation”) where she presently manages a division of considerable size, coordinating studies involving more than 300 hospitals, besides handling about 30 clinical studies and generating about 50 publications every year.
Her expertise is being sought after by many globally active companies across the globe. A caring mother of two, Beate is a person who fascinates everybody dealing with her by her warm and engaging personality. She is a real expert in her field, but at the same time an understanding tutor, respecting the clinicians’ concerns and offering practical approaches. In many national and international scientific meetings she has spoken to interested audiences, having made the search for real knowledge an enjoyable process, understandable for all.

Professor David L. Helfet is annually ranked as one of America’s top doctors. Currently he is Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College and director of the Orthopaedic Trauma Service at the Hospital for Special Surgery and the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Additionally, Prof. Helfet is orthopedic trauma specialist for the Fire Department of New York (FDNY), the New York Police Department (NYPD), the New York State Police and he provides advanced orthopedic care to members who are injured in the line of duty. Prof. Helfet has published extensively on orthopedic trauma topics including numerous articles and book chapters. He has received such visiting lectureships as the Presidential Guest and Watson-Jones Memorial Lecture of the British Orthopaedic Association, and has been the recipient of many honors and awards including the Philip D. Wilson Jr. Teaching Award.

Patrick Hérard, Consulting Surgeon, Médecins Sans Frontières France

Patrick is an orthopedic surgeon who spent 14 years as Head of Surgery in a public hospital in France. Following this, he practiced as Head of Surgical Department in Saudi Arabia and Brunei before taking up the post of Vice Manager for a Hong Kong based society where he oversaw the construction and development of surgical services for a 220-bed hospital in Vietnam. For the past six years, he has acted as a surgical referent for MSF.

Professor Dankward Hoentzsch has been head of department of Medical Technical Development at the BG Trauma Center Tübingen (Germany). He is a member of different medical organisations and head of the Working Group of AO for Minimal Invasive Percutanenous Tools and the Working Group on External Fixation. His areas of special interests are development of instruments and implants, telecommunication and videography, general trauma surgery, spine and pelvis surgery, minimal invasive osteosynthesis, external fixation, locked internal fixators etc. His special interests focus on present research projects, which have been launched between 1989 and 1998.

Boris Hreckovski is a general surgeon with subspecialisation in trauma care, chief of trauma unit at surgical department of General Hospital Slavonski Brod, Croatia. He is founder of Croatian Urgent Medicine and Surgery Association and Croatian Section of International College of Surgoens. He is reserve major of Croatian Army. He spent four years like a chief of medical corps in armour –machinery brigade during a war in Croatia and Bosnia. Boris Hreckovski with Prof.S.Lennquist and other international experts is founder of a Medical Response to Major Incidents Course – MRMI. He is also a chairman of a Education Section of European Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery – ESTES. Currently he is involved in development of a training curriculum for a first responders and strategic crisis managers for international crisis – DITAC project. Recently he is editor with E.Gursky from ANSER of a NATO Handbook : Pandemics and Mass Casualty Planning and Response. Boris Hreckovski is also active in a work of Croatian A.O.Chapter like a faculty on a Basic and Advance AO Courses. He is also an International Medical Director at FMP Protection Service at United Kingdom. 

Professor Jürg Kesselring is head of department of Neurology & Neurorehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Centre in Valens (Switzerland) and Professor of Clinical Neurology and Neurorehabilitation at the University of Bern. He has received a Golden Needle of Honour for International Achievements and was awarded by the German Multiple Sclerosis Society for which he also presided. He is former chairman of the International Medical and Scientific Board and honorary lifetime member of Directors of the Multiple Sclerosis International Federation (MSIF). Furthermore he was chairman of the WHO working group on Multiple Sclerosis, former ICRC medical delegate to Lebanon, Pakistan and Zaire, president of the European Committee on Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) in 1990/91 and 1995–1999, president of the group of experts of the National Research Programme NFP 38 “Diseases of the Nervous System“ (till 2001), founding member and vice-president of the Swiss Society for Neurorehabilitation (till 2002) and honorary senior research fellow at the Institute of Neurology, National Hospital of London. Prof. Jürg Kesselring authored 140 original publications and is an editor/co-author of 15 books which are mainly related to Multiple Sclerosis, Neurorehabilitation and Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Professor Christian Krettek started his medical career in 1982 with a classical surgical education at Hannover Medical School. After habilitation and extraordinary professorship he accepted a chair at the Monash University, Melbourne Australia where he established the first Hospital of Traumatology at the Alfred Hospital. In 2000 he accepted the chair as Professor of Trauma & Orthopaedics and Director Division of Trauma & Orthopaedics at Hannover Medical School, Germany. Prof. Kretteks different memberships e.g. as member International Society of Biomechanics, as Founding member International Society Computer Assisted Orthopaedic Surgery (CAOS International) or as Chairman of the Expert Group Computer Navigation AO International  will be reflected in his research focus on Computer Navigation & Robotics, Simulation, Molecular Biology and Tissue engineering. Professor  Kretteks clinical interest is the treatment strategies and techniques of Long Bone fractures. His creative, innovative and trend-setting research concerning minimal-invasive  Reduction- and Osteosynthesis techniques belong to the standards of every trauma surgeon today.

Dr Wilson Li is a specialist in Orthodontics at his own clinic “Smile Solutions Orthodontics” in Hong Kong. Additionally Dr. Li is director of Sports, Shoulder & Knee Surgery in the Department of Orthopaedics & Traumatology at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (Hong Kong). He is honorary clinical associated professor at the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In addition to these commitments Dr. Li is a founding co-chairman of the AOAA Hong Kong, a member of the AO Disaster Relief Surgery Task Force and the AO Trauma Asia Pacific education commission. Furthermore Dr. Li is member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (UK), vice-president of MSF-Hong Kong and training director for MSF surgical training. He has extensive working experience in disaster relief surgery with the ICRC and MSF (Medecins Sans Frontieres ) in Asia, Africa, and Haiti.

Rolf Maibach was leading a Pediatric Clinic and Practice for 29 years. In 2006 his interest for International Medicine and Cooperation lead him definitely to Haiti, after many voluntary commitments, where he finally worked as Medical Director of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in rural Haiti. His hospital got well-known after the earthquake in 2010, when 1315 injured persons were successfully treated. By building up a prosthesis workshop, more than 2000 amputees got artificial limbs. Rolf has been honored with several awards, such as “Head of the Year” by a Swiss Medical Society in 2010 and as “Swiss Person of the Year” by the Swiss TV public in 2011.

Professor Paul Manson is professor and chairman of the Department of Plastic Surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore. He is also a professor at the University of Maryland in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. Prof. Manson is board certified in both general surgery and plastic surgery, and specialises in craniofacial reconstructive and trauma surgery. He has a strong practice in head and neck tumors and head and neck cancer surgery, especially cutaneous mid face and frontal reconstruction. Prof. Manson has been elected as Trustee to the AO ASIF Foundation and currently serves as a member of the Foundation's Academic Council, the body that decides the scientific direction of the AO Foundation. He has participated as an AO faculty member and course chairman since the mid 1980's. He was the driving force behind the creation of the North American Maxillofacial Education Committee in 1988. Besides his educational activities, Professor Manson also participated in the development of new and unique implants for maxillofacial surgery, and in the early clinical use of these devices.

Professor Ingo Marzi is Chairman of the Department of Trauma, Hand-, and Reconstructive Surgery at the University of Frankfurt in Germany. Prof.  Marzi is General Surgeon, Trauma, Orthopedic, and Hand Surgeon as well as Emergency Physician. The Trauma Department at his university deals all acute trauma, from the scene, the emergency department, acute and definitive surgery including intensive care medicine. His institution is working in many organizations dealing with acute trauma and organization of prehospital care and catrastrophic organization. Prof. Marzi is currently president of the European Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ESTES) and Editor-in-Chief of the European Journal of Trauma and Emergency Surgery (EJTES).

Professor Peter Matter is a general surgeon who has a special interest in Trauma, specifically in Operative Fracture Stabilization. He was Head of the Surgical Department and Director of the Hospital of Davos (1971-1994), where in combination with the winter sports injuries a high nuumber of trauma patients are common. Prof. Matter received most of his surgical training from Prof. Martin Allgoewer, one of the pioneers and founders of the Swiss Association for the Study of Osteosyntheses (AO, 1958) and the International AO Foundation (1984). Prof. Matter has been involved in AO activities right from the association’s founding moment. He later became a member of various committees and president of the Swiss AO (1982-1992) as well as of the AO Foundation (2000 – 2002). Prof. Matter’s efforts are also directed towards competent training of paramedics and a well-functioning emergency system in Switzerland. This includes the best possible patient care and training in the event of mass casualties, also under critical environmental circumstances like earthquakes.

Dr Ian Norton is the Director of Disaster Preparedness and response at the National Critical Care and Trauma Centre based at the Royal Darwin Hospital in Northern Australia. He is an emergency physician withpostgraduate qualifications in tropical medicine and international health.He develops and delivers remote area trauma and disaster courses across the “Top End” of remoteAustralia, and directs the suite of national courses to train Australia’s disaster response teams for overseasdeployment (AUSMAT) in surgery, logistics, leaderships and safety/security courses. He is involved in disasterresearch programs ranging from mass casualty bar-code tracking systems and mass casualty patient monitors, toheat illness prevention in emergency responders and the writing of new international classification systemsfor Foreign Medical Teams in sudden onset disaster for WHO. He sits on several national committees andworking groups dealing with disaster preparedness in Australia at a federal level.Dr. Norton led the medical response to the “SIEV 36” refugee boat explosion off Ashmore reef including thetreatment and resuscitation of 44 critically ill patients 800km from the nearest hospital. He led both civilianAustralian medical teams deployed to the Pakistan floods 2010, treating 11,500 patients in two months ina politically complex area of Pakistan.

Professor Anthony Redmond is deputy-director of the Humanitarian and Conflict Response Institute at the University of Manchester, hospital dean at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust and professor of International Emergency Medicine at the Manchester Medical School. After qualifying in internal medicine from the University of Manchester in 1975 Prof. Redmond trained in Emergency Medicine. He was appointed lecturer in Emergency Medicine at the University of Manchester and subsequently consultant in Emergency Medicine at the University Hospital of South Manchester. In 1995 he was appointed Foundation Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Keele and emeritus Professor in 1999. He has responded to a range of humanitarian crises including earthquakes, active volcano, refugee camps, plane crashes, conflict and war, and in many countries, including the UK,  Armenia,  Kurdistan, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Cape Verde, Kosovo, Kenya, Iran, Pakistan, China and Haiti.

Waseem R Saeed is a Consultant Plastic, Reconstructive and Hand Surgeon at the BMI Alexandra Hospital in Manchester and Honorary Clinical Lecturer at Manchester University Medical School, UK.

He has over 20 years of UK plastic surgery experience including 14 years as a Consultant. He specialised in Plastic Surgery in 1992 and joined the UK training programme working in London, Edinburgh and a 1 year Fellowship at the Kleinert Institute for Hand and Microsurgery in the USA.

In 1999 he was appointed Consultant Plastic Surgeon and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Plastic Surgery at St James's University Hospital, Leeds, a nationally-recognised specialist centre for reconstructive plastic surgery, microsurgery and upper extremity surgery. His own practice covered these areas with subspecialisation in reconstructive microsurgery for the treatment of birth defects, trauma and cancer.

In 2002, after three years of development, Mr Saeed opened the multidisciplinary Leeds Hand Clinic for Cerebral Palsy, replacing this with the Northwest Cerebral Palsy Clinic in 2008 when he moved into independent practice in his home town of Manchester.

In 2005 the tragic aftermath of the South Asian Earthquake left thousands with severe crush injuries. Waseem Saeed and a group of his colleagues formed a surgical team that travelled twice to the region to help. He has since carried out surgical relief work after earthquakes in China, Indonesia and most recently Haiti. In 2010 he was awarded a Special Recognition Award by the UK EMBF for his work.

He is Plastic Surgery Coordinator for the charity UK-Med, is on the UK Government International Emergency Trauma Register and is working with UK-Med and the Royal College of Surgeons on training programmes for surgical relief workers as well as an active member of the UK earthquake surgical response team.

Professor Michael Schuetz (Fracs, FaOrth, Dr.med.habil) is an Orthopaedic Surgeon and the Director & Chair of Trauma at Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane. He is specialised in the management of acute injuries and severe trauma. In his capacity as the Director of Trauma is was strongly involved to build up a partnership to the National Critical Care Trauma Response Centre (NCCTRC) in Darwin since 2007. His research team is located at Queensland University of Technology and is focusing on aspects of fracture and soft tissue healing including mathematical modelling, CT/MRI Imaging, and reviewing process management in trauma care. The Australian Research Council, NHRMC and other national and international research grants support the research. Michael Schuetz is author / co-author in >100 pre-reviewed papers and is reviewer for 9 international journals. Beside holding various memberships in professional societies he is active member of PASC (Department Health and Ageing / Canberra). From 2011 until he was Chair of the AO Exploratory Research Board / Switzerland, and has just been elected to be the Chairman of the AO Research Institute Advisory Board.

Dr Robert Seelos has been instructor at the Vascular International Foundation (Vascular School)since 2000, focusing on open and endovascular techniques in vascular surgery by developing simulators for implementation in vascular surgery training. Over the past twenty years, courses have been organised throughout Europe, the US and China. Additionally, Robert Seelos is head of Vascular Surgery at the Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne as well as at the Cantonal Hospital of Zug (Switzerland). From 1991-2005 he has worked as a surgeon at the University Hospital Heidelberg (Germany), as a specialist for traumatology, transplantation surgery, vascular and endovascular surgery.

Ross D. (Rusty) Segan is the Worldwide Vice President of the Office of Science & New Technology (OSNT). In this role, Rusty will have responsibility for a center of interdisciplinary expertise collaborating with people from all operating companies and regions, across Johnson & Johnson and outside our business, todevelop disruptive technologies and new solutions that impact patient health. Rusty was most recently Group Chief Medical Officer for the Surgical Solutions Group, Covidien, leading the Medical Affairs function that is accountable for the clinical relevance, economic value and safety of the product portfolio throughout its lifecycle. Prior to joining Covidien in 2007, Rusty was a Major in the United States Army where he served in the 14th Combat Support Hospital in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Stateside, he was Chief of Minimally Invasive Surgery and also Acting Assistant General Surgery Residency Program Director at Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. Prior to the Army, he was Clinical Instructor, Department of Surgery, University of Maryland School of Medicine. Before earning his medical degree, Rusty was an athletic trainer with the Philadelphia Eagles football team and with West Virginia University. He completed an executive MBA at NYU – Leonard Stern School of Business, with concentrations in Innovation & Entrepreneurship and Leadership.

Dr Mark Vrahas is currently the Partners Chief of Orthopaedic Trauma and oversees the orthopaedic trauma services at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.  His orthopaedic residency was at the University of Pittsburgh.  Following residency he continued his training in trauma and hip reconstruction with Dr. Marvin Tile at the University of Toronto, and then in Europe with Drs. Ganz, Tscherne, and Letournel as a Muller fellow.  He started work at the Penn State University, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in 1991, and after two years moved to New Orleans to become the Chief of Orthopaedic Trauma at Louisiana State University, and Director of Orthopaedic Trauma at Charity Hospital.   In 1999 he moved to Boston to head up the newly formed Partners Orthopaedic Trauma program at Harvard.  He is internationally recognized as an expert in pelvic and acetabular surgery.