Stephen Nicholls is Program Director of Monash Heart, Intensive Care and the Victorian Heart Hospital at Monash Health and Professor of Cardiology and Director of the Victorian Heart Institute at Monash University.

He is a preventive cardiologist, whose research interests span the translational spectrum with a focus on the impact of metabolic risk factors on atherosclerosis, plaque imaging, leadership of clinical trials of novel therapies and development of research acceleration platforms to deliver research discovery to impact. His research output includes having received more than $165M in funding and published more than 1160 peer reviewed manuscripts, book chapters and conference proceedings.

He is President of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand, Past-President of the Australian Atherosclerosis Society and Founding Chair of the Asia Pacific Cardiometabolic Consortium. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, has received research prizes from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand and the European Atherosclerosis Society and has been recognised by Clarivate as one of the World’s Most Influential Researchers in Clinical Medicine.

Vickie has more than 25 years of health technology industry expertise across sales, marketing, field operations, patient care and regulatory affairs. She brings cardiothoracic clinical experience and a deep commercial capability and understanding of how to successfully bring new interventional cardiac devices to market.

Dr Esther Davis is an academic-cardiologist and women’s heart specialist at the Victorian Heart Hospital and Co-Lead of the Women’s Heart Health Research Challenge at Monash University’s Victorian Heart Institute.

Esther has completed speciality training in cardiology and a fellowship in advanced echocardiography at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she worked with the Corrigan Women’s Heart Health Program. In 2022, Esther was appointed to a clinician role at MonashHeart and is establishing the Women’s Heart Health Clinic at the Victorian Heart Hospital.

Ian is currently a Vice Chancellor’s Professorial Fellow at Monash University and a non-executive director serving on the boards of both Australian and US Medtech companies. He recently retired as the Executive Vice President and Global Chief Medical Officer at Boston Scientific Massachusetts USA - a global medical device and technology company of more than 45,000 employees that provides more than 17,000 advanced medical devices and technology solutions to treat over 33 million people in 130 countries every year.

At BSC, Ian led clinical innovation, pre-clinical science and medical affairs across the global organization and provided leadership of the company’s R&D and clinical trial strategy. He focused on driving a vision of transformative clinical science and innovative care for all patients with chronic non-communicable diseases through critical input into the company’s new business development plans, M&A strategy, and Venture investments.

Prior to joining Boston Scientific in 2017, Ian was Professor & Director of MonashHeart, Monash Health, a position he held for 12 years. For over 25 years as an Australian practicing clinician, clinical trialist and interventional cardiologist, Ian mentored and fostered the career of a generation of academic and clinical cardiologists, and personally performed more than 20,000 invasive cardiac and coronary procedures. He championed new treatment paradigms into daily clinical practice and was the chief investigator or a principal investigator on more than 30 major international, multi-centre, randomized trials including many world-first-in-human studies with novel cardiovascular medtech devices.

He has published more than 450 peer-reviewed scientific manuscripts, delivered more than 500 invited lectures internationally and nationally and presented as the first operator on numerous live-case operation broadcasts from MonashHeart to most of the leading international clinical conferences globally.

Ian served as a board member and medical vice-president on both the Heart Foundation of Australia’s National and Victorian state boards and as a national board member of the Cardiac Society of Australia and New Zealand from 2008 until 2016. He was the chief medical advocate and face of the Heart Foundation’s national public education campaign on the “Warning signs of a heart attack.” He has also served on numerous professional, state and federal government committees and advisory boards, including the Department of Human Services Cardiac Services Review and the Federal Government Department of Health & Aging Cardiac Prostheses Advisory Group.

Most notably for Monash University, Ian conceived of, and developed the concept for, the Victorian Heart Hospital in 2003. He spent the subsequent 14 years as the principal driving force and chief medical advocate for the concept as well as the design and planning of the VHH project, Australia’s first purpose built, dedicated, stand-alone, technologically advanced heart hospital.

Alongside his recent role as EVP and Global CMO for Boston Scientific, Ian served the Victorian State Government as the Medtech business ambassador to North America and more recently as an executive advisor to the Victorian Govt’s Australian Medtech Manufacturing Centre.

In 2012 Ian received an Order of Australia (AM) in the General Division for outstanding service to medicine in the field of Cardiology as a clinician and researcher and for advisory roles with a range of public health and organizations. In 2019 he received a Doctor of Laws, Honoris Causa for outstanding service to Monash University.