Executive Committee

The Executive Committee is responsible for the running of VERN and delivery of specific VERN led projects.

Committee membership is open to vascular professionals, announced during official recruitment calls. Members are selected by applying to the Executive Committee when a call for new members is made by the VERN Executive Committee In 2025, we expanded our committee to include allied healthcare professionals, recognising their vital contributions to multidisciplinary vascular research.

Gwilym,B

Brenig Gwilym

I am the current president of VERN, taking on the role in November 2023. I currently work in the South East Wales Vascular Network as a Vascular Surgery Registrar, having completed previous years of surgical training across South Wales and my undergraduate studies at Cardiff University. In 2024, I completed my PhD at Cardiff University where I explored risk and outcome prediction in major lower limb amputation surgery and vascular groin wound surgical site infection. I have great interest in utilising a trainee collaborative research model to deliver large scale impactful research.

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Nina Al-Saadi

I am an ST4 Vascular Surgery Registrar working in the West Midlands. I am currently on an OOP-R undertaking an MD exploring molecular biomarkers relating to AAAs. My other interests include humanitarian surgery and medical illustration.

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Panagiota Birmpili

I am a clinical research fellow at the National Vascular Registry and associate surgical specialty lead for Vascular Surgery. I previously held an NTN in vascular surgery in the North West before moving to Public Health training in Thames Valley. I have a keen interest in collaborative vascular research and hope to use the knowledge I gained from my PhD to contribute to vascular research projects led or supported by VERN.

Hurndall,K

Katherine Hurndall

I am a training vascular surgery registrar in London and led the national VISTA project, the first collaboration between VERN and NaTRIC (National Trauma Research and Innovation Collaborative). I am currently conducting my PhD at Imperial College London (2023 – 2026) investigating the impact of cold site operating practices on equality of access to elective surgery in England. My research interests include health service design, health inequalities and vascular trauma.

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Paris Cai

I am a Vascular Surgery trainee in the Yorkshire and Humber region and an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Vascular Surgery at Hull York Medical School. I complete my doctoral research in peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and novel methods of non-invasive management of intermittent claudication. I continue to have a keen research interest in PAD, as well as venous disease and wound healing. I am also passionate about both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. 

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Tamer El-Sayed

I am a Vascular Surgery trainee in the Yorkshire and Humber region and an NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer in Vascular Surgery at Hull York Medical School. I complete my doctoral research in peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and novel methods of non-invasive management of intermittent claudication. I continue to have a keen research interest in PAD, as well as venous disease and wound healing. I am also passionate about both undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. 

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Emma Hawthornthwaite

I am a vascular trainee in the North of England and VERN’s current website lead.  

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Aminder Singh

I am an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow at the University of Cambridge and Vascular Speciality Trainee in the East of England.

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Aminder Singh

I am an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellow and vascular surgery registrar in Hull. My research interest is in diabetic foot ulcers and wounds.

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Sean Pymer

I am a clinical exercise physiologist and post-doctoral researcher at the Hull York Medical School. His PhD project considered the role of alternative exercise programmes for the treatment of intermittent claudication. He is currently leading an NIHR-funded study; ‘MAXIMISE’, which aims to identify the optimal exercise prescription for the same patient population. 
My day to day role involves leading the aforementioned NIHR-funded study, collaborating on other research projects, overseeing an NHS supervised exercise programme for intermittent claudication and performing pre-operative cardiopulmonary exercise testing for patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms being considered for repair.
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Athanasios Saratzis

I completed my vascular surgical training in 2018 as an NIHR Clinical Lecturer and I am now appointed as Associate Professor and Honorary Consultant Surgeon at the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre & Leivcester Vascular Institute (supported by an NIHR Advanced Fellowship). My academic interest is translational and clinical cardiovascular research. I have experience in designing and implementing randomised trials and leading national as well as international clinical studies. I led VERN from late 2017 until mid-2019 and I was succeeded by my colleague Miss Ruth Benson. Feel free to contact me via email: [email protected]

David Bosanquet, Vascular research, principal investigator

David Bosanquet

I am a Consultant Vascular Surgeon and Honorary Senior Lecturer working in the South East Wales Vascular Network. I joined VERN in 2014, and has been involved in all VERN projects since then, including providing senior oversight on GIVE, PERCEIVE and SIMBA. My main academic interests are in amputation surgery, wound healing, surgical site infection, CLTI, AAA, collaborative research and decision making. I have been awarded >£2 million competitive funding as the lead applicant, and ~£15 million as a co-applicant, for both randomised and non-randomised studies.

Vascular Surgery researcher, Vascular Surgeon

Nikesh Dattani

I am a Consultant Vascular and Endovascular Surgeon at Unviersity Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. I completed my MD investigating the molecular relationship between diabetes and abdominal aortic aneurysms at the University of Leicester. I have experience in gaining research funding and am interested in both arterial and venous research, although my primary focus continues to be on aortic diseases. I have been a part of VERN from the beginning and believe that collaborative research is the future.

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Sandip Nandhra

I am a recently appointed Senior Clinical Lecturer at Newcastle University and Honorary Consultant Vascular Surgeon at the Freeman Hospital Newcastle. I have an interest in optimising patient outcomes following vascular intervention in line with patient-led priorities through clinical studies; my interests include anaemia, frailty and multimorbidity. VERN is an integral part of my research activity to date, and I enjoy supporting VERN activity across the UK and the globe. Clinically I have an interest in the treatment of deep venous disease as well as superficial venous interventions. @SandipNandhra

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Matthew Machin

I am an NIHR Academic Clinical Fellow in Vascular Surgery at Imperial College London. I am interested in clinical trials with a focus on health technology assessments alongside utility of patient-reported outcome measures. I am leading the development of the core outcome set for studies investigating abdominal aortic aneurysms in addition to being a research co-investigator for the BHF-funded BEST trial and NIHR-funded PETS trial.

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Joseph Shalhoub

I am a Consultant Vascular Surgeon appointed at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Department of Surgery and Cancer, Imperial College London. My key research interests include clinical trials, analysis of large epidemiological datasets, and metabolic profiling in vascular conditions. I am currently co-investigator for three NIHR-funded randomised clinical trials.

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Sarah Onida

I am an NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Vascular Surgery at Imperial College London and Vascular Specialty Registrar in the London Deanery. My research focus is in translational basic science studies in vascular surgery for disease prognostication; I also have a strong interest in big data analysis, clinical trials and outcome assessment in venous disease.

ruth benson

Ruth Benson

I am an Edinburgh graduate and West Midlands vascualr trianee, currently practicing in New Zealand. I obtained my PhD as a Vascular Research Fellow at St Georges Healthcare NHS Trust under a Royal College of Surgeons research fellowship. I am a VERN past president with an interest in international research collaboration, clinical trials and operative pathways.