Prof Karen Sliwa (Chairperson)

Prof Karen Sliwa (MD, PHD, FESC, DTM&H) is the director of the Soweto Cardiovascular Research Unit, Department of Cardiology, Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, and an associate professor at the University of the Witwatersrand. She was born in Germany and has been living in South Africa since 1992.

For the past 10 years, her main focus of research has related to immune activation in heart failure, idiopathic and peripartum cardiomyopathy. In addition, she initiated a large collaborative project, The Heart of Soweto, a large cardiac registry capturing research relating to more than 9000 patients from Soweto. She has established research collaborations with various national and international centres, including the Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town; Maputo University, Mozambique; University of Queensland, Australia and Hannover University, Germany. She is an editorial consultant to the prestigious medical journal The Lancet, and a working group member of the International Campaign to Revitalise Academic Medicine (ICRAM). (For more personal background, also read: The path to academic medicine: living your life; PDF, 71kb)

Dr Eric Klug (Secretary)

 

 

Dr Olaf Forster (Treasurer)

 

George Nel (Executive Officer)

George Nel has since 2003 been an independent consultant to the pharmaceutical and device industry. His main focus is on product commercialisation with a strong emphasis on pharmacoeconomics as a crucial pillar in building a successful franchise.

He is also the Executive Officer of SASCI (South African Society of Cardiovascular Intervention), a Section 21 company representing interventional cardiologists in SA, and would contribute in a similar position within HeFSSA.

His formal training was in science (M.Sc, from RAU), followed by 12 years in pharmaceutical industry with extensive senior management experience (including five years as Director Sales and Mareting) in the formal multi-national pharmaceutical corporate environment. During his tenure in industry, George was active in chronic, acute, over-the-counter (OTC) as well as hospital based sales and marketing environment with cardio-related products always being a major part of his focus. This has over time prompted his continued contribution to cardiology and the cardiology community.   

Other Members

Prof J Moolman (Education Portfolio)

Prof J Brink (Cape Town)

Dr M Mpe (Pretoria)

Dr K O’ Connell (Durban)

Dr S Middlemost (Cape Town)

Industry

William Stranix (Industry Representative: Devices)

Eva Minkov (Industry Representative: Ethical Pharmaceuticals)

Roger Moult (Industry Representative: Generic Pharmaceuticals)