Speakers

Dr Ali Aminian is a Professor of Surgery and Director of Bariatric and Metabolic Institute at the Cleveland Clinic. As an academic surgeon, Dr. Aminian has been involved in clinical and experimental research on the role of bariatric surgery in management of obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disease. His studies in high impact journals such as JAMA, NEJM, and Diabetes Care have been widely covered by the media such as New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, TIME, CNN, Reuters, Newsweek, and Forbes, indicating their importance from public health perspective.

Professor of Digestive Surgery at Lyon 1 University, Senior surgeon in the department of digestive and bariatric surgery at the University Hospital of Edouard Herriot.

Professor Rachel Batterham OBE FRCP PhD

Professor Rachel Batterham is Senior Vice President, International Medical Affairs. She is an honorary Professor of Obesity, Diabetes and Endocrinology at University College London (UCL) and an honorary Consultant at University College London Hospital (UCLH). Prior to joining Eli Lilly, she was head of the UCLH Bariatric Centre for Metabolic Surgery and Weight Management, the Director of the Director for the UCLH/UCL NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Obesity Research Theme, led the UCL Centre for Obesity Research and the Royal College of Physicians’ Special Advisor on Obesity.

In 2022 she was awarded the honour of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by HM Queen Elizabeth II for her services to people affected by obesity. She has also received several national and international awards for her obesity research including the Royal Society of Medicine’s Steven’s Lecture (2018), the Andre Mayer award from the World Obesity Federation (2016), and the Diabetes UK Rank Fund Nutrition Prize (2015). Her research has played a critical role in gut hormones being developed as treatments for obesity (Nature 2002, NEJM 2003, Nature 2007, JCI 2013, Diabetes 2020, NEJM 2021, Lancet 2021) and her papers have been cited >28,000.

Professor Batterham has made significant clinical contributions to defining the management of patients living with obesity through her membership of the NICE Obesity Guideline Development Group. She is a Council Member for British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society, Member of the National Bariatric Surgery Registry Committee and a previous Trustee of the Association for the Study of Obesity. She is passionate about reducing the stigma that people with obesity experience and ensuring that the patient voice is heard and established a charity for people affected by obesity, Obesity Empowerment Network UK.