Commissioner David Byrne

David Byrne is a member of the European Commission with responsibility for Public Health and Consumer Protection. He was, previously Attorney General for Ireland, member of the Council of State, and member of cabinet subcommittees on Social Inclusion, on European Affairs and on Child Abuse. Commissioner Byrne is the author of various publications on legal affairs.

Stephen Matlin

Stephen Matlin is Director of the Human Resource Development Division in the Commonwealth Secretariat, responsible for the Departments or Education and Health. He has led a program on Women and Health, which has included the development of gender training materials and working with commonwealth countries to implement Gender Management Systems for gender mainstreaming in the health sector.

Peggy Maguire

Peggy Maguire is currently Director General of the European Institute of Women & Family Health, member of the steering group of the European Advisory group on mid life and older women's health. Appointed in 1997 to the National Women's Health Council in Ireland, this council acts as an expert advisory group to the Minister of Health in Ireland. Peggy initiated and oversaw the Research & Publication of Women in Europe Towards Healthy Ageing; Demential Care Challenges for an Ageing Europe; Promoting Gender Equity in Public Health in Europe. Peggy also participated in the UN Expert Committee, on Women's Health in 1998, which produced the framework document Women's Health, Mainstreaming the Gender Perspective into the Health Sector.

Sinead Hewson

Sinead Hewson has over 10 years PR experience in lreland focusing on youth, consumer issues, and management. She joined Edelman Public Relations in 1997 and established the company's youth market division. Sinead works vvith major international organisations developing their communication strategies She holds the Chair of Education for Public Relations Education in Ireland.

Peter Kind

Peter Kind is Acting Director of European Commission's Directorate DGRTB.BII. Peter is responsible for the implementation of actions within the Quality of Life and Management of Living resources Research Programme.

Dr. Susana Sans

Dr. Susana Sans is currently the Director of the Monitoring and Research Programme on Chronic Diseases at the Institute of Health Studios in Barcelona, Spain. She has extensive experience in the conduct analysis and co-ordination of international epidemiological studies including, among others, the chairing of the WHO--MONICA Project and " Working Group on Epidemiology and Prevention of the European society of Cardiology".

Lesley Doyal

Lesley Doyal is prof. of Health & Social Care in the University of Bristol. Professor Doyal has published widely in the field of gender health and health care and has acted as a consultant to the WHO, the United Nations and the Commonwealth Secretariat. Her most recent publications include What Makes Women Sick: Gender and the Political Economy of Health (McMillan 1995) and Health Services (Open University Press 1998).

Dr. Karen Ritchie

Dr. Karen Ritchie is a neuropsychologist and epidemiologist, currently Research Director vvith the French National Institute of Medical Research (INSERM). Dr. Ritchie is also a consultant to the Mental Health Division of the World Health Organisation and a member of the Advisory Committee on Women's HeaIth for the European Government.

Gordon McVie Professor

Professor Gordon McVie is Director General of the Cancer Research Campaign. Professor McVie's main area of research concerns the discovery of new anti-cancer drugs, clinical pharmacology in relation to drug targeting and clinical trials. He is the author of five books, and over 200 research papers.

Dr Mary Short

Mary Short a Founding Member and Secretary General of the European Society of Contraception, she is also a Board Member of the Saffron Initiative. Mary runs a Menopause Clinic in Ireland and is a Director of the Institute of Women's Health.

Mary Andersen

Mary Andersen is the Executive Director of the International Osteoporosis Foundation. Mary has been instrumental in helping generate public and governmental awareness of osteoporosis and in helping patient societies worldwide provide effective education and treatment to people at risk from the disease.

Maj -Britt Theorin, MEP

Maj Britt Theorin is a member of the European Parliament, she is the Chairperson of the Committee on Women's Rights, and Equal Opportunity since 1999, Deputy Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy since 1999.

Maria Hartl

Maria Hartl is a Social Affairs Officer at the United Nations Division for Advancement of Women, Department of Economic and Social Affairs. Her fields of expertise are, education and training of women and women's health. She was assigned to the organisation of the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijng 1995) and is monitoring the implemention of the Beijing Platform for Action in the areas of education and health.

Dr. Peter Me Kenna.

Dr. Peter McKenna is Master of Rotunda Hospital. He has worked in various hospitals such as Birmingham Maternity Hospital, Women's Hospital and General Hospital, Sheffield Hospital for Women and National Maternity Hospital. Peter's areas of interest are ' Maternal Morbidity in Obstetrics', Maternal Mortality and the Safety of Caesarean Section and Cardiovascular Adoption to Pregnant changes.

Dr Assia Brandrup – Lukanow

Dr Assia Brandrup – Lukanow is the Regional Adviser, Gender Mainstreaming, WHO Regional Office for Europe. Dr Brandrup-Lukanow has fifteen years progressive experience in public health in developing countries and in countries with economies of transition (CCEE/NIS), clinical medicine, clinical psychology and research, training of students, nurses and midwives. Of these, the past 7 years were spent working for international health/bilateral organisations: WHO, GTZ, IPPF.

Piroska Ostlin

Piroska Östlin is a senior researcher at the Karolinska Institute, Department of Social Medicine in Stockholm, Sweden and a Research Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies in Cambridge, USA. She is a founding member and one of the coordinators of the Gender and Health Equity international network of researchers, which aims to support research and public debate on issues pertaining to the concept of fairness in health from the perspective of gender equity.

Mary Anne Burke

Currently the Coordinator of Health Canada's Gender-based Analysis Initiative at the Women's Health Bureau, her career as a sociologist and demographer began at Statistics Canada in 1984. She was a founding member, author and Editor of Statistic Canada’s Canadian Social Trends (CST) project and quarterly publication, initiated to study and provide information on emerging issues of policy concern. In 1992 she joined Unicef's International Child Development Centre in Florence, Italy as a founding member of the MONEE project, established to monitor public policies and social conditions in Eastern and Central European countries during their transition to the market economy, and as a consultant on a continuing basis has co-authored many Unicef MONEE reports, including: Women in Transition, Vol. 6, 1999. In 1995, she was seconded to Status of Women Canada, to develop and co-author The Federal Plan for Gender Equality: Setting the Stage for the Next Century tabled by the Canadian Government at the Fourth United Nations World Conference on Women in Beijing, and Gender-based Analysis: A Guide for Policy-making (1996).