The team

Catriona is a cardiac specialist nurse and the European Research Nurse coordinator for EUROACTION and EUROASPIRE III in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK based at Charing Cross Hospital. She read French for her first degree and subsequently trained as a nurse at Charing Cross. She then specialized in cardiac nursing and finally cardiac rehabilitation, leading a programme at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire. She was responsible for coordinating the EUROACTION project in eight countries and 24 centres in Europe from its launch in 2002. She led the multidisciplinary London team who were responsible for training project staff and developing the health professional and educational materials. In her present role, she is coordinating the third EUROASPIRE survey in 22 countries in Europe. She is currently writing her PhD on concordance for cardiovascular risk factors in families

Alison is the MyAction dietetic director at Imperial College. She is based in the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK. She splits her time between clinical, teaching and research work. She was the dietetic coordinator for EUROACTION. She has worked in clinical dietetics for 13 years and specialising in cardiology for 9 years. She lectures at Imperial College, Kings College and Chester Universities. She is a committee member for the UK Heart Health and Thoracic Dietitians Specialist group of the British Dietetic Association Group. She has recently published the updated UK guidelines for diet and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease. Alison represents the BDA for the DH & BHF cardiovascular coalition, the post MI NICE guidelines and was co-expect member of the Cardiovascular Risk NICE guidelines. She was awarded the Role of Honour from the BDA for her contribution to dietetics in 2006. She is now finalising her PhD in Nutrition and Cardiovascular disease.

Prior to becoming the MyAction Director of Physical Activity Jennifer coordinated the Physiotherapy component of the EUROACTION study. She is currently the Course Coordinator for the MSc in Preventive Cardiology at Imperial College London and an Honorary Physiotherapist for the clinical prevention and rehabilitation service at Charing Cross Hospital. She is past co-chair to the national group the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Cardiac Rehabilitation (ACPICR) and is still actively involved in its activities to develop exercise and physical activity provision for cardiac patients and their families. She is also represents physiotherapists in preventive cardiology and rehabilitation nationally in the British Association for Cardiac Rehabilitation Exercise Professionals Group (BACR-EPG) and is an assessor for a national cardiac rehabilitation exercise instructor qualification.

David Wood is Garfield Weston Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, and Honorary Consultant Cardiologist to Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust at Charing Cross Hospital. He has a special interest in prevention of cardiovascular disease and contributes to international and national guidelines on CVD Prevention, and policy development through the European Heart Health Initiative, leading to the St Valentines Day declaration on CVD Prevention, and more recently the European Heart Health Charter. He serves as a Board Member of the European Society of Cardiology, President of the European Association for Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation and Senior Consulting Editor to the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation. He is principal investigator for the EUROASPIRE studies, evaluating standards of preventive cardiology practice across Europe, and he leads the EUROACTION demonstration projects in preventive cardiology which provide the scientific foundation for the NHS MyAction vascular prevention programme. He is a Non-Executive Director of MyAction

Dr Kornelia Kotseva is a senior clinical research fellow at the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London and a consultant cardiologist at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust based at Charing Cross Hospital. She has a special interest in prevention and epidemiology of cardiovascular disease. Dr Kotseva is a member of the Steering Committee and medical coordinator of EUROACTION, EUROASPIRE III and ASPIRE-2-PREVENT studies, aiming to raise the standards of preventive cardiology in Europe and the UK. She is a consultant cardiologist for Bromley MyAction preventive cardiology programme and a module leader and lecturer at the Imperial College MSc course on Preventive Cardiology. Dr Kotseva has more than 100 publications in peer review journals and textbooks. She is a Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology, a member of the International Editorial Board of the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation and a reviewer for International Journal of Cardiology, the Heart, American Journal of Cardiology and other journals. She is acting as an expert assessor for British Medical Association grant applications.

Dr Susan Connolly is Consultant Cardiologist to Imperial College NHS Trust based at Charing Cross and Hammersmith Hospitals. She undertook the majority of her training in Ireland and completed a PhD in basic cardiovascular science in University College Dublin. She then joined the Cardiovascular Medicine academic research group based in the NHLI, Imperial College, Charing Cross Campus in 2004 and was a member of the EUROACTION coordinating team. She took up a Consultant Cardiologist post at Charing Cross Hospital and Hammersmith Hospital in 2006, now part of the newly merged Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. She has a special interest in cardiovascular disease prevention and directs the Cardiac Prevention and Rehabilitation Programme for Charing Cross and Hammersmith hospitals and also runs a cardiovascular risk management service. She is also a member of the Council for the British Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation and the UK National Coordinator for CVD Prevention.

Steve Price is the Chief Executive of Bromley Mytime, one of the country’s leading social enterprises in leisure, sports and health services. Steve formed Bromley Mytime in 2004 and led this charitable leisure trust to achieve multiple awards for excellence and service innovation. Mytime now has an annual turnover of £16m and employs 1000 full and part time staff. He is a Non-Executive Director of MyAction.

Mytime heads up a growing number of leisure and health related programmes nationally with local authorities and primary care trusts. These include management contracts for leisure facilities including golf and fitness gyms, and community based programmes to combat obesity and enable active lifestyles for all.

Steve is also a Director of My Enterprises which was formed to offer MyAction - a unique life saving programme for vascular health run as a joint venture with Imperial College (London) and Imperial Innovations.

Steve is also a National Skills Academy Board Member and Chair of the London Region. He works to develop employment and skills opportunities, and advocate better health for everyone in support of the 2012 legacy.

Steve is kept active with his family in Kent.

John Green is Chief Co-ordinating Officer of Imperial College. He is responsible for the co-ordination and integration of large projects which span faculties and/or service departments. Before this, John was Secretary of the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine with administrative responsibility for creating the largest medical Faculty in the UK through the merger of 5 medical schools into Imperial. Previously, John was Chief Executive of Royal Society of Medicine and prior to that ran the academic side of Queens’ College Cambridge.

John is a non-executive director of a number of companies, mainly in the areas of health and publishing. He is the owner of several small businesses with turnovers in range £5M - £15M and has worked with the venture capital industry, including advising on healthcare & technology-related investments. He is a Non-Executive Director of MyAction.

Jake is a consultant and former CEO of Dr Foster Intelligence, the leading supplier of health information to the NHS. He has a strong track record in organic growth in revenues and profits and extensive experience in new product development, sales and market development and team creation and leadership and a deep knowledge of health and public sector information and media markets. Jake has excellent networks and networking skills with a hands on understanding of governance requirements of public, private and voluntary sectors. His key achievements include the creation and launch of Dr Foster Intelligence (DFI), through the Department of Health’s first ever £12m investment in a commercial company in January 2006. As Director of Sales for Dr Foster and then CEO for DFI drove market penetration from zero in 2004 to more than three quarters of all English hospitals and more than half of its primary care trusts by end 2007. He recruited, developed and led a multi-disciplinary team – growing from 12 to 200 in three years. Since 2008, he has focused on growing large-scale new business opportunities and has secured partnerships with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Birmingham East and North PCT.

He is a non executive director of Ashley House plc, a company that provides infrastructure and other services to primary care providers and sits on the board of Guidestar Data Services a not-for-profit company established to provide comparators of charity performance for the public, the public sectors and donors. He is an adviser to Healthcare at Home, the UK’s biggest provider of home health services amongst other clients.

Annie is Director of Operations for MyAction. As a qualified teacher, Annie has lectured, assessed and verified courses in Sport, Exercise and Fitness throughout her career with substantial experience in Health & Fitness Centre Management and delivery of community based exercise programmes. Until 2008, Annie was the active lifestyles Partnership & Brand Manager for Bromley Mytime (a charitable Leisure Trust) with strategic responsibility for borough wide health and fitness provision which includes physical activity for special populations and referral programmes. Having worked with the EUROACTION team as the Physical Activity co-ordinator in a European wide research project, she is now the Director of Operations of the EUROACTION UK programme – ‘MyAction’ – a national initiative putting prevention first in a family based programme for vascular health – a partnership between Mytime and Imperial College.

Annie is the S.E. England British Association of Cardiac Rehabilitation (BACR) Regional Director with responsibility for Phase IV Exercise Instructor Training courses. She also represents exercise specialists nationally within the BACR-Exercise professionals Group and is a member of the BACR Phase IV Steering Group. Annie has completed a Masters in Physical Activity, Health and Nutrition.

Sarah is the MyAction Development Co-ordinator. Prior to this role Sarah was the Active Lifestyle Physical Activity Co-ordinator for Bromley Mytime (one of the country’s leading social enterprises in leisure, sports and health services) and responsible for the provision of physical activity for special populations and referral programmes.

After completing a degree in Fitness Science in 2004, Sarah became an exercise specialist delivering exercise and physical activity for special populations including primary preventive cardiology and cardiac rehabilitation.