Meet the Expert Sessions
Step into an engaging and relaxed setting where curiosity is encouraged and conversation flows freely. Our Meet the Expert session offers delegates a unique opportunity to connect directly with leaders in the field, ask questions openly, and explore a focused topic in depth. In this informal 50-minute session, no question is too small and no idea is off-limits; it’s a chance to gain practical insights, exchange perspectives, and be inspired through meaningful dialogue that brings expertise to life.
Tea and coffee will be available to enjoy during the discussion, and participation is offered at a cost of US $35.
Places are limited to a maximum of 20 and tickets can be purchased during registration on a first-come, first-served basis.
Thursday 29 October 2026
15:10-16:00hrs (Liver)
Michael D'Angelica
United States
Modern Management of Colorectal Liver Metastasis
Biography
Dr. D’Angelica received his medical degree from Tufts University in 1993 and completed his general surgery residency at the University of Connecticut in 2000. During his residency he completed a 2 year research fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and after residency completed the 2 year surgical oncology fellowship at the same institution. He has been on staff at Memorial Sloan Kettering since 2002 on the Hepatopancreatobiliary Service. Dr. D’Angelica currently holds the Enid A Haupt Endowed Chair in Surgery, serves as the Vice Chair of Education and is a member and attending surgeon at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. He is also a professor of surgery at Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Dr. D’Angelica served as the program director for the complex general surgical oncology and hepatopancreatobiliary fellowship from 2014 until 2004. He has lectured throughout the world, particularly on hepatic surgery for malignancy. He has published over 500 peer-reviewed manuscripts and numerous textbook chapters and reviews. He is also a co-editor of the Blumgart textbook of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery. Dr. D’Angelica also serves in leadership roles in the SSO, AHPBA and is a vice-chair of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines for hepatobiliary malignancies.
Go Wakabayashi
Japan
Minimally Invasive Anatomical and Non Anatomical Liver Resection
Biography
Dr. Go Wakabayashi earned a medical degree from Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan. He trained in the Department of Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. In 2005, he was appointed Professor and Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Iwate Medical University School of Medicine. In April 2015, he was recruited as Director of the Center for Advanced Treatment of HBP Diseases, Chief of Surgical Services, and Deputy Director at Ageo Central General Hospital, a flagship hospital in a 6,000-bed complex near Tokyo. Dr. Wakabayashi’s expertise includes hepatopancreatobiliary surgery, liver transplantation, and laparoscopic/robotic surgery. He performed the first robotic surgery in Asia in March 2000 and the first robotic hepatectomy worldwide in July 2001. He has published over 300 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.
Dr. Wakabayashi served as President of the International Laparoscopic Liver Society from 2019 to 2021 and is now its Third Past President. He is currently the President of the Endoscopic Liver Surgery Study Group in Japan and the President of the International Society for Digestive Surgery.
Friday 30 October 2026
09:35-10:25hrs (Pancreas)
Shailesh Shrikhande
India
Strategies to Reduce the POPF Rate in High-Risk Patients
Biography
Shailesh V. Shrikhande is a Professor of Surgical Oncology and Head of GI, HPB Surgical Service & Division of Cancer Surgery at the Tata Memorial Center in Mumbai, India. He is also the Deputy Director of Tata Memorial Hospital. He was ranked first in the Master of Surgery examinations of Mumbai University in 1997 and later received specialist training in Pancreatic Research and Pancreatic Surgery at the University of Bern, Switzerland and the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He was the first Asian to receive the Kenneth Warren Fellowship of the International Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (IHPBA) in 2005. He earned his Doctor of Medicine (magna cum laude) by the University of Heidelberg for his original clinical and basic research on chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer in 2006. He has delivered over 600 lectures and orations all over the world. Apart from having published over 370 clinical and basic science research papers in leading peer-reviewed journals (including a series of 1200 Whipple Resections), Professor Shrikhande has also given 65 live operative masterclass demonstrations on pancreatic, gastric, gall bladder and colorectal cancer across India and abroad. He has contributed over 75 book chapters and is the Chief Editor of the books “Surgery of Pancreatic tumours” (2007) and “Pancreatic Cancer: Current Understanding” (2011), ‘Modern Gastrointestinal Oncology (2015) and Pancreas (2023). His h-index stands at 67. He has been an invited Visiting Professor to 12 prestigious Universities in the USA, Europe and Japan. He is Adjunct Professor in Surgical Oncology in KMC, Manipal and Honorary Doctor at KLE University Hospital, Belgavi, India.
He was the Chairman of the Indian Council Medical Research (ICMR) committee for developing guidelines for the management of Pancreatic and Gastric Cancer in India. He serves on the editorial boards of leading international journals of GI and HPB surgery. He is the Past President of the Indian Chapter of IHPBA and of the APHPBA. He is currently Secretary-General Elect of the IHPBA. In recognition of his work on pancreatic cancer and digestive cancer surgery in India, he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2014 (FRCS – Ad Eundem) and the Honorary Fellowship (ad hominem) of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in March 2025. In 2021, he became only the second Indian in the 144-year history of the American Surgical Association (ASA) to be conferred the Honorary Fellowship of ASA for “unusually noteworthy contributions to surgery of long-lasting value and worthy of the highest International Recognition”. He serves as a board member of the International Study Group of Pancreatic Surgery (ISGPS) since 2023. He was conferred Honorary Fellowship of American College of Surgeons (FACS) in San Francisco at the Annual ACS Congress in October 2024.
Stanford University published a list of world’s best contributing researchers in the PLOS One journal in November 2021-2025. Professor Shrikhande is ranked amongst the top 2% (amongst >55,000 researchers) worldwide.
Elena Rangelova
Sweden
Vascular Reconstruction
Biography
Biography to follow.
Friday 30 October 2026
15:10-16:00hrs (Biliary)
Vor Luvira
Thailand
Update on Consensus Regarding IPNB
Biography
Vor Luvira is a prominent figure of The First International Consensus Guidelines for Management for Intraductal papillary neoplasm of the bile duct (IPNB). He currently serves as an associate professor at the Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Thailand. He is currently a committee member of the Thai Hepato-pancreato-biliary association (THPBA) and Association of Surgical Oncology of Thailand (ASOT).
His research centered on the clinicopathological aspect of biliary tract tumors, particularly Intraductal papillary neoplasm of the bile duct (IPNB). He has authored over 70 biliary tumor articles. He has conducted more than 30 IPNB original research studies, over 15 of which were published as the corresponding or first author. He has significantly contributed to the advancement of IPNB knowledge by reporting one of the largest studies on the subject, proposing a morphologic classification and progression model for IPNB, and describing the patterns of mortality among IPNB patients.
He possesses firsthand experience with numerous cases of IPNB and has delivered over 30 national and international lectures on the subject.
Julie Heimbach
United States
Hilar Cholangiocarcinoma – Preoperative Assessment and Optimization; Border between Resection and Transplantation
Biography
Dr. Julie Heimbach is a professor of surgery and the Director of the William Von Liebig Center for transplantation at Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN. She is an abdominal transplant surgeon who has focused on living donor liver transplantation, liver transplantation for malignancies, and issues of obesity and transplantation. Dr Heimbach has previously served on the OPTN Board, and the governing board of the AASLD, and currently serves as the Treasurer of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.
Saturday 31 October 2026
09:35-10:35hrs (HPB 360)
Timothy Pawlik
United States
AI-Driven Precision in Surgical Treatment: Avoiding “Surgical Futility” and Case Selection Through Preoperative Predictive Models
Biography
Dr. Pawlik currently is the Chair of Surgery at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center where he holds The Urban Meyer III and Shelley Meyer Chair for Cancer Research. Under his leadership, the Department of Surgery has recruited over 90 new faculty members, is ranked #8 for NIH funding, and has a top 10 ranked surgical residency program. Dr. Pawlik has given over 650 invited talks both nationally and internationally in 40+ different countries. Dr. Pawlik has published over 2,200 articles and 130 book chapters, in addition to editing 17 surgical textbooks; he is a co-I on an NIH R01 investigating IPMNs. His research has been cited nearly 110,000 times with an H-index of 160, i10 index of 1,321, and an iCite weighted RCR of over 3367. Dr. Pawlik serves on multiple editorial boards and is Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Deputy Editor of JAMA Surgery, as well as an Associate Editor for Annals of Surgical Oncology.
Julie Hallet
Canada
Team as Innovation: Improving Clinical Outcomes through Team Design
Biography
Dr. Julie Hallet is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto and a Surgical Oncologist with a clinical practice devoted to hepato-biliary, pancreatic, and upper gastrointestinal malignancies at the Odette Cancer Centre – Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Her practice further focuses on neuroendocrine tumors as part of the Susan Leslie Clinic for Neuroendocrine Tumors. She completed general surgery residency and MSc in clinical epidemiology at Université Laval in Québec City, followed by a surgical oncology and hepato-pancreato-biliary clinical fellowship at the University of Toronto, and additional training at the Institut de recherche contre les cancers de l’appareil digestif (IRCAD) in Strasbourg, France.
As a surgeon-investigator, Dr. Hallet holds the Canada Research Chair in Patient-Centred and Quality Cancer Surgery. Her research program in health services research aims to improve the fidelity of care delivery in cancer surgery through access to quality care, high-performing team care models, and risk communication support. To support her research, she has received over $10 millions in peer-reviewed operating grants. This work has led to over 280 peer-reviewed publications.
Saturday 31 October 2026
15:10-16:00hrs (Transplant)
Jenny Philip
United States
Tips and Tricks in NRP
Biography
Jennifer Philip, MD, is a transplant surgeon and an assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She specializes in liver transplant, kidney transplant, and deceased donor recoveries. Dr. Philip is a leader in advanced preservation for abdominal organs. She has led the development and deployment of an abdominal normothermic regional perfusion team for UW Organ and Tissue Donation. She also leads a research lab with a focus on advanced preservation including normothermic regional perfusion and ex vivo machine perfusion for the preservation and assessment of deceased donor kidney and liver allografts. The goal of her research is to improve organ preservation techniques as well as improve the assessment of organs prior to transplantation, which would increase the number of organs available for transplant and improve organ function after implantation
Mohamed Rela
India
Paediatric Liver Transplantation
Biography
Chairman & Managing Director – Rela Hospitals, India.
President Elect – International Living Donor Liver Transplantation Group (iLDLT Group).
Councillor for The Transplantation Society (TTS) – South/Southeast Asia.
Past President – Liver Transplant Society of India ( LTSI.)
Associate Editor – American Journal of Transplantation.
Past President – International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS).
Founder & Trustee – National Foundation for Liver Research (NFLR).
He has authored over 900 peer-reviewed publications which includes over 18,500 citations and has an H Index of 69 .
Authored over 35 book chapters including a chapter in the latest edition of Gray’s Anatomy and Bailey & Love’s Short Practice of Surgery.
Dr. Rela has performed over 6000 liver transplantations and runs one of the busiest liver transplantation program India, performing over 300 liver transplants each year.
Dr. Rela has received over 20 International Awards & Honors and holds the Guinness Book of record for performing liver transplant on a 5-day old Child in 1997.
