SPEAKERS BIOGRAPHIES

Conference Chair
Professor Ian Jacobs BA MA MBBS MD FRCOG
Director of the UCL Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Institute for Women’s Health

Ian Jacobs set up the Institute of Women’s Health in 2004 as the first European interdisciplinary centre of excellence for research, clinical care, education and training in women’s health. His senior roles at UCL/UCLH include Head of the Department of Gynaecological Oncology Consultant Gynaecology and Cancer, Director R +D, Director Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre and Vice Dean of Research Medicine.

Ian combines a clinical role as a gynaecological cancer surgeon, with directing a large laboratory and clinical research programme and a leadership role in the NHS and University sector. His time is increasingly occupied with a leadership role in UCL Biomedicine, in the UCLH/UCL Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre and the Joint UCLH/UCL R+D Unit.

He is responsible for:
• 150 publications on cancer, genetics, biomarkers, screening and prevention
• Laboratory and clinical research team of over 100 staff at UCL and elsewhere in UK, focused on molecular genetics, proteomics, biomarkers, prevention and screening for gynaecological cancer
• Funded by grants of >£30m from the MRC, CRUK, DoH and Eve Appeal
• In 2006 led on the successful application for a UCLH/UCL Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre which received funding of £90m

Conference Co-Chair
Herta von Stiegel, JD

Herta von Stiegel is executive chairman of Conference sponsor, Stargate Capital Investment Group. An international executive with a consistent track record of building profitable, highly regulated structured finance businesses, she held senior positions at Citibank and JP Morgan and, most recently worked as Managing Director for AIG Financial Products, the financial services division of American International Group Inc. A US tax lawyer by training, Mrs. von Stiegel practiced law prior to becoming a banker specializing in international taxation and mergers and acquisitions. She holds a Juris Doctor degree from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Michigan, a Masters of Law degree in Taxation from New York University School of Law and a B.A. from Andrews University. She is a member of the State Bar of Michigan and New York.

She serves on several boards in the corporate and not-for-profit sectors, including Camco International (a market leader in climate change solutions with significant operations in China and Russia) where she chairs the audit committee and Opportunity International, a global microfinance organization with multiple financial services subsidiaries. She chairs the Prince’s Trust Women’s Leadership Group, serves as the International Vice Chair of the Committee of 200, and is a member of the Women's Leadership Board of Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

Dr Sarah Harper
Director of the Oxford Institute of Ageing at the University of Oxford

Dr Sarah Harper is a world expert on demographic ageing and its implications to the wellbeing of society. She will reveal to the conference attendees the latest findings of her extensive research. She is particular interested in the role of women in an increasingly ageing society and intergenerational relationships of the multigenerational family. She is predicting that the trend will be for women to work later into their lives often starting new careers in their fifties.

In the area of multi-generational families she has recently completed a Nuffield funded study into grandparents and lone-mothers (with Ruicheva, Leckman, Smith and Zeilig). She is also in the early stages of a collaborative six-country study on Grandparenthood across Western Europe, funded by the EU, and is working with Peterson, Waite and Schneider from the University of Chicago, on a cross-cultural study of UK/US grandparenthood with funding from the US National Institute of Ageing.  Her work on late life work has focused on late life work decisions and self-employment. She is also working with Leeson on developing research into the implications of the implications of the relocation of health and social care labour both in the EU and Japan.

Dr Harper trained as an ethnographer and has extensive experience in qualitative methodologies.  Throughout her research career she has collaborated with quantitative researchers, enabling her to develop extensive quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Before returning to Oxford she was a professor in Public Policy at the University of Chicago and remains a Research Associate at  the Center of Demography and Economics where she is responsible for developing the International core.

Dr Harper is UK Advisor on Ageing Issues to HSBC, a Governor of the Pension's Policy Institute, a panel member of Wellcome Trust Health Consequences of Population Change, Trustee of the Third Age Employment Network, and a member of Help the Aged’s Research Strategy Advisory Board and Social Policy Committee, She is co-editor of Generations Review,  the Journal of the British Society of Gerontology.  Her latest books are Families in Ageing Societies, an international research volume (OUP, 2004) and Ageing Societies, (Hodder Arnold,  2006).


Prof Judith Stephenson MRCP FFPH MD MSc DFP
Margaret Pyke Chair of Sexual and Reproductive Health, UCL

Great Britain has one of the highest incidents of teenage pregnancy in the developed world. It is Judith Stephenson’s mission to empower young women about their reproductive health and to enable them to make safer choices. Her talk is essential for anyone who cares about the health of teenage women. The choices they make today will drastically alter their life expectancy and quality of lives.

Judith is UCL and UCLH’s Margaret Pyke Professor of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Director of the Institute of Women’s Health. Judith is the Director of a new UK Clinical Research Network for Sexual & Reproductive Health. The purpose of the network is to bring together the expertise of clinicians and scientists to conduct high quality, innovative research in order to make a positive impact on men and women’s sexual health and reproductive lives. The initial focus of the emerging research programme is on the clinical, epidemiological, social and behavioural aspects of contraception and STIs that impact on reproductive health. Recent research includes a rapid review for National Institute for Clinical Excellence on the effectiveness of Chlamydia screening in young people. Previous major projects include a long term randomised controlled trial of the effectiveness of sex education in schools, and evaluation of national strategies to improve sexual health, including the Teenage Pregnancy Strategy in England and one stop shop sexual health services.

Judith has produced over 130 publications in peer reviewed journals including randomised trials and systematic reviews of sexual behaviour interventions and screening programmes to reduce the risk of sexually transmitted infections and teenage pregnancy.

Other Roles and Awards
Member of MRC Sexual Health and HIV Research Committee (awards research funding). Member of international expert group on Reporting of Randomised Trials: extension for the CONSORT statement to randomised controlled trials assessing non-pharmacologic treatments. Member of National Advisory Board and Consultant to the Medical Foundation for the Study of AIDS and Sexual Health (MedFASH) with responsibility for assessing the evidence base for improving sexual health services in the UK. Expert adviser to NCCHTA on prevention and management of sexually transmitted infections in young people. Deputy Director of the UCL EGA Institute for Women's Health.

Summary of Expertise: Evaluation, particularly through randomised trials, of interventions to improve sexual and reproductive health, including sex education and sexual health promotion interventions, use of contraception and screening for sexually transmitted infections.

Dr Wendy Denning

Dr Wendy Denning is a GP, with specialities of Obstetrics, Gynaecology, integrative medicine and nutrition. She presents Channel Five’s TV series Diet Doctors Inside Out and has recently given birth to her first child in her late 40s. She believes with the right nutrition and care older mothers can have healthy, safe pregnancies.

Dr Wendy Denning trained as a doctor at University College Hospital in London. Following this she completed her GP training In London and Oxford – this included rotations in general medicine, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry and accident and emergency. Having obtained a Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology she then went on to get her membership to the Royal College of General Practitioners.

A strong advocate of integrated medicine, she became interested in that field at the age of 15 and started developing her knowledge whilst still at medical school. She has trained in Acupuncture and Chinese medicine and has also spent time studying Ayruvedic Medicine in India and Homeopathy in the UK. She recently served on the Department of Health select group advising on Cosmetic Surgery Regulations; one of only three doctors involved and is also one of only two GPs involved in promoting an Integrated Approach to Obstetrics and Gynaecology in this country. She regularly treats leaders in the fields of business, arts and the professions and various celebrities. Regularly featured in the media, Dr. Denning was recently named in Tatler's Top 150 Private Doctors. In 2005, Dr Wendy was invited to co-present The Diet Doctors for C5 which was a huge success. This led to a best-selling tie in book, The Diet Doctors Inside And Out, being released by Vermillion and co written by Dr Wendy and a second series of the television show currently being filmed.

 

Prof. Donald Peebles, MA, MD, MRCOG
Deputy Director Institute of Women’s Health

Donald is a consultant in fetal medicine and leads UCL’s centre for Perinatal Brain Protection and Repair. His particular areas of expertise include management of high risk pregnancy, fetal growth restriction, perinatal brain injury and fetal gene therapy. He jointly leads the high-risk pregnancy service for women with pregnancies complicated by medical conditions or poor obstetric history.

As lead the UCL Centre for Perinatal Brain Protection and Repair, Donald oversees a multidisciplinary group of clinicians and basic scientists investigate the causes of injury to the developing brain as well as design and test possible therapeutic interventions. Ongoing studies involve in vivo studies of molecules involved in the fetal/neonatal inflammatory response, the role of stem cells for brain repair, neuroprotective strategies including amiloride, JNK inhibitors, and hypothermia, and the development of non-invasive methods to assess cerebral structure and function. Donald’s other research interest is the potential for fetal treatment using gene therapy. With collaborators at Imperial College Prof Peebles has developed clinically relevant techniques for the delivery of viral vectors to the fetus in utero. Target diseases include cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and OTC deficiency.

Summary of Publications
Recent key publications include a description of a novel technique for delivering gene therapy vectors to the fetal airways in utero, a new hypothesis concerning the origins of cerebral palsy and a subsequent paper providing supportive data describing fetal cerebral responses to combinations of infection and hypoxia-ischaemia. Click for a full list of publications. Donald is an Editor of the British Journal Obstetrics and Gynaecology and on the editorial board of Seminars in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine. He is a member of the executive committee of the British Association of Perinatal Medicine and Secretary of the Blair Bell Research Society.

 Diana Wais MA, PhD
Clinical psychologist and lecturer at London Business School

Diana Wais is a psychologist working with individuals, couples, groups and organisations. She has experience as an academic researcher, lecturer, therapist, clinical trainer, coach and consultant. She has a PhD and an MA in Clinical Psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook; as well as an MA in Political Science with emphasis in organisational politics from Stanford University
Diana is a visiting consultant at IMD business school in Lausanne, Switzerland, and London Business School; where she works on their leadership development programs. She has experience with a variety of different clients including MBA students, executives and teams from a range of private and public sector industries.

Diana is a faculty member of the AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy) Institute and its representative in the UK. She founded the UK chapter of Experiential Dynamic Therapies and she trains psychiatrists, psychologists and coaches in AEDP, a ground breaking therapeutic approach. She has been invited to conduct trainings in Norway, Poland and Spain.
Diana has a private practice working with clients at all levels of emotional functioning, from the severely traumatized to excelling individuals striving to become their fullest selves. She specializes in resolving emotional blocks and fully developing intuition, emotional and relational capacities in her clients.

Dawn Gibbins, MBE

Dawn Gibbins is Founder, Chairman, Marketing Director and HR (Happy Relations) Director of Flowcrete plc.  Founded in 1982 by Dawn and her father, Flowcrete is the UK market leader in specialist flooring with offices in 26 countries and manufacturing sites in 8 countries.  Dawn has led her business from a turnover of three hundred thousand to thirty six million in seventeen years.  She credits much of her success on creating a healthy, happy workplace for her employees.

Dawn is a member of the Government manufacturing think tank and a national ambassador for the DTI Manufacturing Advisory Service.  She was awarded the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year in 2003.

Dawn has seen challenging times when the business has not made money.  She tells the story of when Flowcrete lost nearly half a million pounds in 2004.  Calling her approach, ‘a female thing’, she began by going out and talking to her staff and her customers to get their views before turning to Feng Shui.  Using Feng Shui principles of decluttering, Dawn took radical action in pulling all her businesses under one brand, simplifying the company’s IT systems and rationalizing the product range by 50%.Now, Flowcrete has moved from loss to a 1.8 million profit in 2006 and is confidently aiming for 2.1 million profit in 2007.

She also consciously created a healthy, joyful work space for her employees – and has a remarkable staff retention rate. She will share some of her tips.
Dawn will appear with the man who helped her turn her business around – world acclaimed Feng Shui and Nine Star Qi expert Jon Sandifer.

 

Jon Sandifer
Feng Shui and Oriental Healing Expert

Jon is one of the leading experts in feng shui in the UK. He has written 8 books, taught in 14 countries and is the former Chairman of the Feng Shui Society.

In 2002 the Society made him a Life Fellow in recognition of his services to the Feng Shui Society. With more than 25 years experience in the oriental healing arts-feng shui, acupressure, macrobiotics, Chinese astrology, 9 Star Ki, face reading and the I Ching-Jon brings plenty of knowledge and practical experience to his teaching and consultation service.

 

 Marisa Peer Dp. Psych., C. Hyp., C.M.H., C.A. Hyp., D.Hyp. MHEC (USA & UK)

Marisa is an internationally acclaimed lecturer, writer, broadcaster, hypnotherapist, psychotherapist and behavioural expert will give tips on how busy executives on the go can keep slim, healthy and looking young. She has written numerous best-selling anti-ageing and healthy nutrition books and is a guest expert on ITV’s Celebrity Fit Club. Her sessions are interactive and participants will leave with practical tips and new healthy mind-sets.

Marisa’s unique approach helps employees create a surplus of energy, health and well being and be happier and more productive just by making small adjustments to how they eat.

Marisa’s topic is of particular interest and relevance to the corporate world because much of the stress and fatigue related ailments that cost industry millions in terms of employee related illness, absenteeism and poor performance are directly linked to the terrible diet people eat and the fact that in the West most people are unaware of how poor performance and depression are diet linked. The bottom line for all companies is that 80% of absenteeism due to illness has been proven to be diet related. Poor digestion, poor diet and dehydration can be precursors of depression, fatigue, irritability, skin problems, headaches, insomnia, poor performance and stress. Our modern diet is making us ill and unproductive. In an eight hour working day employees currently produce three hours of work. The foods executives on the go eat send them to work sedated and continue to have this effect all day. 70% of our modern western diet was NEVER eaten by our ancestors.

Marisa is the first in her field and possibly the only person in her field showing executives how to eat on the go, how to eat at conferences, airports and in meetings. She has been given a £120.000 advance by Time Warner for her new book on nutrition and lifestyle. Marisa is currently lecturing across Britain and due to go to America in May with her groundbreaking road show Get Thin Stay Thin. She was voted a great British Pioneer by Men’s Health Magazine (May 2006) and called the most innovative therapist in Britain today because of the work she does with premiership athletes in changing their mindset and their approach to diet and health. She is currently featured in the Tatler 2007 guide to the best doctors and specialists in Britain.

 

Professor Jane Plant, CBE

Jane Plant is a professor at Imperial College London and is living proof of the benefits of a healthy diet – after treating herself with a dairy-free diet after five bouts of cancer. She has written numerous best-selling books about the relationship between diet and health including Your Life In Your Hands, Prostate Cancer, The Plant Programme, Osteoporosis, Eat For Better Health and her new book Beating Anxiety and Depression. Jane will give her top ten tips on how to stay healthy and cancer free.

 

Ruth Barbara Rendell, Baroness Rendell of Babergh, CBE

Acclaimed as the Queen of Crime, best selling British author and Life Peer, Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine) will be speaking about her attempts to ban the brutal practice of Female Genital Mutilation or “female circumcision”.

An estimated 140 million girls and women worldwide have undergone the procedure that results in many medical complications and sometimes death. The practice is still being performed illegally in Britain and other European countries despite being outlawed.

Most girls who undergo the ritual live in Africa and to a lesser extent in Asia and the Middle East. Increasingly, however, genital mutilation occurs among migrants from these countries who have settled in the United States, Europe, and Australia.

Female genital mutilation comes in several forms, the most common being "type II": excision of the clitoris with partial or total excision of the labia minora. Some countries, including the United Kingdom, outlaw the practice, but anecdotal evidence suggests that these laws are flouted. Few women are prepared to talk about it outside their own close circle. No one has been prosecuted under the United Kingdom's Female Circumcision Act of 1985.

Baroness Rendell was a prime mover behind an UK cross party parliamentary inquiry into practice. Convinced that some UK health professionals are still carrying out the operation on request, Baroness Rendell would like to see some prosecutions under the 1985 act.

She is also pressing for resources to be put into education and awareness campaigns so that girls and women have a genuine, informed choice about whether they submit to the procedure or not. "If it is to be effective, then the approaches would best be made by health professionals or social workers of their own ethnic group. They won't talk about it to a white woman," she said.

 

Yana Richens SEN, RGN, RM, BSc (Hons) Nursing, MSc Midwifery

Yana is head of the Maternal Obesity Unit at UCLH – which aims to decrease morbidity rates of the babies of overweight mothers. She is co-founder of the Female Genital Mutilation Guideline Group which supports women who have undergone FGM and campaigns to cease the practice.

Yana is Consultant Midwife at University College London Hospital, she has a wide variety of clinical experience as a nurse and a midwife, both in a hospital and community setting, she was member of the Department of Health [DH] steering group for Making a Difference for midwives,(1999) and External working group for the Maternity module of the National Service Framework [NSF] (2004) she is a member of the Chief Nursing Officers national advisory group providing specialist advice on black and ethnic minority issues in the NHS, Research interests include the experiences of non english speaking women and maternity services, perinatal and maternal mortality and morbidity in ethnic minority groups, female genital mutilation, obesity and pregnancy.

Yana is co editor in chief of the British Journal of Midwifery, consultant editor of the African Journal of Midwifery, an editorial board member of the Nursing Standard, a member of the NICE guideline development group for the guideline on Puerperal/perinatal mental health, and an expert advisor to the National Patient Safety Agency prioritisation Board Yana is honorary senior lecturer at City University, and recently co founded the Female Genital Mutilation clinical guideline group, a group which is committed to the support of women who have undergone FGM and eradication of the practice in the UK.

 

Lord Naren Patel

Lord Patel will speak about how we are a long way off achieving Millennium Development goals for third world maternal health. Despite the targets being set nearly 20 years ago, there is little improvement in maternal mortality and health statistics. There is hope however – and this comes from the corporate sector, where Lord Patel believes there is an opportunity for big business and professionals to initiate sustainable healthcare models in the developing world that can then be replicated by governments. Lord Patel will provide what he sees as a route map for success.
Lord Patel was educated in India, Tanzania and London. He graduated from the University of St Andrews in 1964 and since qualifying has continued to work in Scotland, including more than 30 years at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School. His academic and clinical interests are in the field of high-risk obstetrics. He has published on pre-term labour, foetal growth retardation and obstetric epidemiology. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society of Edinburgh, honorary Fellow of several Royal Colleges in the UK, Ireland and honorary doctorates in the UK and overseas.

Previously he has held the positions of Chairman of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges of Scotland and the United Kingdom; Chairman of the National Health Quality Improvement Scotland; member of the General Medical Council and the Academy of Medical Sciences; Chairman of the Genetic Advisory Committee of the Medical Research Council; President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists; Chairman of the Clinical Standards Board for Scotland; and Vice President of the International Federation of Gynaecology and Obstetrics. He was also a member of the Board of the Armed Forces Pay Review.

He is currently retired and sits in the House of Lords having received a knighthood in 1997 and elevation to the Peerage in 1999. There he has been a member of the Science and Technology Committee. He is currently Chairman of the UK Stem Cell Oversight Committee, UK Stem Cell Network and Chairman of the National Patient Safety Agency of England and Wales. He is patron of a number of charities, a board member of several others, and is closely involved in developing centres for training and treatment in Africa for obstetric fistulas.

 

Dr Patrick Dixon
Chairman of Global Change Ltd.

"Dr Dixon lives in the year 2020 and sees tomorrow as history"

Global Change Guru, Dr Patrick Dixon predicts the future trends in healthcare and their personal and commercial repercussions.

Dr Patrick Dixon is described as a "Global Change Guru" by the Wall Street Journal. He has been ranked as one of the world's 20 most influential business thinkers alive today (Thinkers 50 global survey in 2005).

He is author of twelve books (455,000 in print in 22 languages). Titles include Building a Better Business, Futurewise, The Genetic Revolution, The Truth about Westminster, The Truth about Drugs and The Truth about AIDS.

He advises multinational company boards and senior teams on strategic implications of a wide range of global trends such as the new economy, the digital society, financial services, biotechnology, health care, geopolitical issues, lifestyle changes, marketing issues, consumer behaviour, employee motivation, public policy, business ethics and corporate social responsibility.

His clients include Microsoft, IBM, UBS, Google, World Bank, Siemens, Ford, ABN AMRO, Freshfields, Sara Lee, Prudential, Aviva, Barclays, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hewlett Packard, Gillette, Roche, BASF, Credit Suisse, Forbes, Fortune, Royal Bank of Scotland, Zurich Financial Services, Tetrapak, Unisys, BT, BBC, Fedex, UNIDO, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the American Management Association. He was a Fellow of the World Economic Forum (Davos) in 1997 and contributed to the World Economic Forum Governor's Meeting of the Travel and Tourism Industry in 2005. He has also taught on executive / MBA programmes at seven business schools.

Dr Dixon (MA MBBS) is a graduate of Kings College Cambridge (1978) and University of London, Charing Cross Hospital Medical School (1982). In 1978, while a medical student he took a sabbatical (first of many) to found the IT start up Medicom, selling medical software solutions in the UK and the Middle East, based on early personal computers. After qualifying as a physician he cared for those dying of cancer at St Joseph's Hospice and then as part of the Community Care Team based at University College Hospital London, while also continuing IT consulting part-time. In 1988 he launched the international AIDS agency ACET, following publication of his first book "The Truth About AIDS". ACET is now an alliance of independent AIDS care and prevention programmes in places such as the UK, Ireland, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Thailand, India, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Ukraine and Russia. Different country operations are now spawning their own partnerships and project relationships in many other nations, as part of a growing international movement to save lives and offer compassionate care.