Dr Fiona ADSHEAD

Director General on secondment, Department of Health, UK

Before joining PwC on secondment Fiona was Director of Chronic Disease and Health Promotion at the World Health Organization with five years experience as Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Director General in the UK Government responsible for Health Improvement and Health Inequalities. She was responsible for public health strategy including nutrition, exercise, obesity, teenage pregnancy, sexual health, young people's health and the health aspects of sustainability.

She is a high profile public health leader with a track record of reframing thinking and developing innovative policy at the heart of government. Her experience includes linking health to sustainable development in a cross-government policy, developing policy to link action on sustainable development to chronic disease management, policy development on nutritional profiling, restricting advertising of foods to children, reducing salt in the diet and leading engagement with the food industry. At WHOs she led the global strategy on diet and physical activity and health promotion linking sustainable development to each. She has extensive experience of working with the World Bank, European Commission and other international agencies. She has worked with business leaders, BiTC , WEF , WBCSD on health issues. She is an internationally published author on public health and on sustainability and health, co-editing the "Health Practitioner's Guide to Climate Change". Fiona is currently an international advisor to the Royal College of Physicians, a Scientific Advisor to WHO on climate change, and is a visiting Professor at University College London, Brunel and the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a Senior Associate to Cambridge University's Sustainability Leadership Programme.

Prof Fran BAUM

Professor of Public Health and Director of Southgate Institute for Health, Flinders University, Australia

Fran Baum is Professor of Public Health and an Australia Research Council Federation Fellow at Flinders University, Adelaide. She is also Foundation Director of the Southgate Institute for Health, Society and Equity & the South Australian Community Health Research Unit . She is Co-Chair of the Global Steering Council of the People's Health Movement - a global network of health activist (www.phmovement.org). She also served as a Commissioner on the World Health Organization's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health from 2005-08. She is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and of the Australian Health Promotion Association. She is a past National President and Life Member of the Public Health Association of Australia.

Fran Baum is one of Australia's leading researchers on the social and economic determinants of health. She holds grants from the National Health & Medical Research Council and the Australia Research Council which are considering aspects of health inequities and social determinants of health, evaluating the South Australian Health in All Policies initiative, comprehensive primary health care, social capital, and neighbourhood effects on health. Her book, The New Public Health (3rd edition 2008 Oxford University Press), is widely used as a public health text.

Prof Mitch BLAIR

Consultant and Reader in Paediatrics and Child Public Health, Department of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK

Mitch is a general and developmental paediatrician with specific expertise in the under fives. He qualified in medicine MBBS from UCH, London in 1983. Paediatric training posts were at Stoke Mandeville, Charing Cross Hospital, Great Ormond Street, Northwick Park, and Nottingham. After obtaining an MSc in Community Paediatrics from the Institute of Child Health in London, he moved to Nottingham as Consultant Senior Lecturer in Community Paediatrics 1990-98. He worked in inner city community practice in health centres, schools, day nurseries and specialist out-reach to single handed and group practices. He carried out teaching and research into the national child health screening programme and community paediatric out reach to primary care. He returned to London in 1998 and established the River Island Academic Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health at Northwick Park Hospital, Harrow, Imperial College London. He is the Course Director for Paediatrics for undergraduates and codirects an MSc at Imperial College. His research interests include international child health indicators, child public health monitoring, and health service evaluation. He coauthored the Manual of Community Paediatrics and the first textbook on Child Public Health now in its 2nd Edition. He worked at DH (Dec08- Mar10) to advise on the Healthy Child Programme (HCP) and lead on the Two Year Review, he led the production of HCP e learning launched by Ann Milton Minister for Public Health in March 2011, and is currently Officer for Health Promotion for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.

Prof Mark HANSON

Director, Institute of Developmental Sciences & Director, Division of Developmental Origins of Health & Disease, University of Southampton, UK

Professor Mark Hanson is the founding Director of the Institute of Developmental Sciences at the University of Southampton, Director of the Academic Unit of Human Development and Health in the University's Faculty of Medicine and British Heart Foundation Professor of Cardiovascular Science.

Mark's research concerns several aspects of development and health, ranging from how the environment during our development (before and after birth) can affect the risk of chronic diseases -- such as heart disease, diabetes and obesity -- to population studies aimed at the early identification of risk, so that timely preventative interventions can be made. The group are exploring the epigenetic processes which relate to such risks, and which may serve as valuable early life biomarkers. His Unit works on these problems in both developed and developing countries in many parts of the world.

Mark is much involved in the public understanding of science and how evolutionary thinking applies to human biology and medicine. His recent books include Mismatch - the lifestyle diseases timebomb (2006), Principles of Evolutionary Medicine (2009) and Fat, Fate and Disease (2012) all published by OUP.

Dr Gillian HARRIS

Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham & Consultant Paediatric Clinical Psychologist, The Children's Hospital, Birmingham, UK

Dr Gillian Harris has carried out research into infant and child feeding behaviour and appetite regulation at the University of Birmingham, School of Psychology for the past 26 years. She is also a Consultant Paediatric Clinical Psychologist, and runs a feeding clinic at The Children's Hospital, Birmingham, where she works with infants and children who are food averse. Her specific research and clinical interests are: selective eating behaviour, the development of food acceptance and rejection in early infancy and the toddler period, and the consequence to later food preference of early experience.

Prof Berthold V. KOLETZKO

Professor of Paediatrics, Consultant Paediatrician, Head, Div. Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine , Dr von Hauner Children's Hospital, University of Munich Medical Centre, Germany

Berthold Koletzko, MD PhD, is Professor of Paediatrics at Univ. of Munich, Germany and Head of the Div. Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine at Dr. von Hauner Children's Hospital, Univ. of Munich Medical Centre.

Bert was trained in paediatrics in Germany, South Africa, Tanzania and Canada. He published 632 journal articles (9021 times cited, h-index 49), 172 book chapters and 25 books. He serves as Editor in Chief, Annals Nutrition and Metabolism and Associate Editor, Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care and Monatsschrift Kinder- und Jugendmedizin. Among his scientific leadership roles are Chair, Committee on Nutrition, German Society Paediatrics; Chair, Child Health Foundation; President Elect, European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology & Nutrition (ESPGHAN); Managing Director, Early Nutrition Academy, and Scientific Coordinator of the EU EarlyNutrition Project (2012-2017, budget 11.5 million Euro). Bert Koletzko received numerous awards and honours, including Hans Adolf Krebs Award, German Society for Nutrition 1989; Petenyi Geza Award, Hungarian Society for Paediatrics 1996; Copenhagen Research Award 1997; Corresponding Membership, Swiss Society for Paediatrics 2000; Honorary Chair, Medical Faculty, Free Univ. of Brussel 2001; Konstantin-Horemis-Award, Pan-Hellenic Society for Paediatrics 2001; Honorary Membership, Polish Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition 2002; Jean Rey Prize, European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition 2004; Dr Sreemanta Banjerjee Memorial Award, The Bengal Obstetric and Gynaecological Society 2004; Freedom to Discover Award, Bristol-Myers-Squibb-Foundation, New York 2006; Honorary Medal of the Children's Memorial Institute, Warsaw, Poland 2006; Infant and Toddler Nutrition Research Award, European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition 2006; Dr. Werner-Fekl-Award for Clinical Nutrition Research 2008; Comprix Gold Award for Innovative Health Communication 2009; Rank Lecture Award, The Nutrition Society 2012; Arved Wretlind Lecture Award, European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism 2012.

Prof Frank OBERKLAID

Director, Centre for Community Child Health, The Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Australia

Professor Frank Oberklaid is the Foundation Director of the Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children's Hospital, and a Professor within the University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics. He has authored two books, numerous book chapters and over one hundred and fifty scientific papers on various aspects of paediatrics. He recently stepped down as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, and is on the editorial boards of several international paediatric journals. Professor Oberklaid was the founding editor of a series of national publications including Policy Briefs, Community Paediatric Review, Child Care and Children's Health, and the Australian Paediatric Review, as well as being the National Programme Director of the Australian Paediatric Review Training Programme. He has received numerous research grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council and other agencies, has been a consultant for WHO and UNICEF, and has been invited to lecture and consult in many countries.

Professor Oberklaid has served on a number of important Australian national and expert committees, including the Minister's Mental Health Expert Advisory Group. He is currently Chair of the Victorian Children's Council, which provides expert advice to the Premier and the Minister for Children and Early Childhood Development on policies and services for children.

Professor Oberklaid has received numerous awards for his work, including the AOM in 1998, the Centenary Medal in 2003, The John Sands medal from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians in 2003, the Chairman's medal from the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne in 2003, and The Medal of Distinction from Children's Hospitals Australasia in 2007.

His current interests focus on 'translational research' - translating research so that it informs public policy, service delivery and professional practice. His research and policy interests include early childhood development, prevention and early detection/early intervention, and especially how existing services to young children and families can be refocused and better co-ordinated to improve outcomes.

Prof Salman RAWAF

Professor of Public Health & Director, WHO Collaborating Centre, Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK

Salman Rawaf qualified in medicine with subsequent training in paediatrics and public health. Professor Rawaf until January 2009 was the Director of Public Health in NHS Wandsworth, London: a post which he held since 1988 in South West London. He is currently Professor of Public Health and Director of WHO Centre at Imperial College London, Hon. Professor of Public Health at the Middlesex University, Hon Professor of Primary care at Ghent University Belgium, and Senior Lecturer at St George's University of London. He serves on many national and international committees and groups. He has published more than 150 scientific papers, 2 books (Assessing Health Needs RCP Publishing Group, and Health Improvement Programmes RSM Publishers) and many international reports. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Public Health Medicine and a member of other editorial boards. He is well known for his international work and his contribution to global health. He is an advisor to the WHO on primary care, public health, health system and medical education. He has been invited to undertake many international assignments in many countries around the world.

Professor Rawaf is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians London and the UK Faculty of Public Health and Member of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine Ireland. He is the Global Adviser and member of the International Committee, Faculty of Public Health UK, Executive Member of the International Committee of the Academy of the Royal Medical Colleges, previously Council Member of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital Foundation Trust, Member of WHO Advisory Committee for Health research, and Programme Leader of the Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Family Medicine Middlesex University. His contributions to public health and primary care in research and service delivery are well documented. Among the many innovative approaches are young people and addictive behaviour and Staying Healthy: a programme to assess risk factors for chronic diseases in community settings and enable individuals to engage in their own health. Since started his work in 1988 in South West London as a Director of Public Health, he and his team received many awards and recognitions for the works to improve health. At International level is well recognised in his work supporting countries in strengthening their health system including primary and public health. He runs well renowned training programme of health system development both in and outside the UK.

Prof Mary RUDOLF

Professor of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine in the Galil Bar Ilan University, Israel

Mary Rudolf is a consultant paediatrician whose area of expertise lies in the epidemiology, treatment and prevention of child obesity.

She is paediatric lead and principal investigator on three interventions:

• HENRY - Health, Exercise, Nutrition for the Really Young - a programme to skill health and community professionals to work more effectively with parents of babies and toddlers to prevent obesity (UK Department of Health and Department for Children, Schools and Families)
• EMPOWER, an intensive home visiting programme for babies at risk (UK Department of Health)
• WATCH IT, a community based intervention for school aged children (Wellcome Trust)

She is also author of the Framework for Action to Tackle Obesity in the Preschool Years published on the UK National Obesity Observatory site.

Following medical school in London Mary trained as a paediatrician at the University of Connecticut and Yale University, and completed postdoctoral fellowships in Pediatric Endocrinology and Ambulatory Paediatrics at Yale and Brown Universities. She is Board certified in the United States and is on the specialist paediatric register in the UK and Israel.

Mary has a major interest in medical education. She is author of two paediatric textbooks now into their 3rd editions and community paediatric editor of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health Mastercourse. She developed the RCPCH medical education course for Iraqi paediatricians which ran annually in Amman; and is the academic lead for the RCPCH Diploma in Palestinian Child Health course. The HENRY face to face and e- learning courses are well established across the UK and an evaluation of their impact on Sure Start Children¡¦s Centres has recently been published. In view of her research into child obesity she was a co-opted member on two Department of Health Expert Advisory Groups - the Healthy Child Programme and Healthy Weight Healthy Lives.

Mary is currently working in Israel where she is Professor of Public Health at the new Bar Ilan Medical School in the Galilee.

Prof Matthew SANDERS

Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Queensland, Australia

Matthew Sanders is a Professor of Clinical Psychology and Director of the Parenting and Family Support Centre at the University of Queensland. He is also a consulting Professor at The University of Manchester, a visiting Professor at the University of South Carolina, and holds adjunct Professorships at Glasgow Caledonian University and The University of Auckland where he heads up the Triple P Research Programme and Triple P Research Group respectively. As the founder of the Triple P - Positive Parenting Programme, Professor Sanders is considered a world leader in the development, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of population based approaches to parenting and family interventions. Triple P is currently in use across 22 countries worldwide, translated into 18 languages, with over 62,000 practitioners having delivered the intervention to over 7 million children.

Prof David STONE

Professor of Paediatric Epidemiology, Paediatric Epidemiology and Community Health Unit, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK

David Stone is a public health physician currently based at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK, where he has worked since 1985. He has had a longstanding commitment to improving child health in general and to the prevention of congenital anomalies and injuries in particular. He has held academic appointments at St Thomas' Hospital, London, and Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, as well as the University of Glasgow. He was elected Secretary General of the EUROCAT Association of European congenital anomaly registers in 1994. He founded the Paediatric Epidemiology and Community Health (PEACH) Unit of the University of Glasgow in 1995 where he has held a Personal Chair of Paediatric Epidemiology since 2000. He established several international research networks designed to collect and analyse data for public health purposes. He chaired the child injury group of the Accidental Injury Task Force of the UK Department of Health and was Chair of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention (2000-2003). He was a Trustee of the Child Accident Prevention Trust (2001-2006) to whom he remains an Honorary Adviser, and was a senior medical adviser on child public health to the Scottish Government (2005-2008). He has been Injury Prevention Adviser to the UK Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health since 2003 and has represented Scotland's Children's Commissioner on the Scottish Government's Road Safety Board since 2010. He has advised the Scottish and UK Governments, the European Union and the World Health Organization on various aspects of public health. In recent years, he has devoted increasing attention to promoting early intervention such as parenting support, to the expansion of the public health component of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education and training, to translational child public health research, and to the myriad challenges of global public health.

Prof Charlotte WRIGHT

Professor of Community Child Health, School of Medicine, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK

Charlotte Wright is a paediatrician and epidemiologist whose research into growth, nutrition and screening in early childhood has provided important evidence to underpin child health practice worldwide. Her interest in nutrition began with the study failure to thrive, but now extends to all aspects of growth and feeding in preschool children and obesity in older children.

She holds a personal professorship in Community Child Health at Glasgow University and is based at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow where she works half time as a Paediatrician specialising in nutritional problems. The rest of her time is spent working in nutrition and public health related research and teaching.

She heads the UK Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) growth chart working group who designed new pre-school growth charts for the UK incorporating the WHO growth standards. These were published in Spring 2009 and now in use throughout the UK, as well as New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland. Further charts for school age children have just been published.

Local Speakers

Dr CHOW Chun-bong

Honorary Consultant of the Hospital Authority Infectious Disease Centre (HAIDC) at Princess Margaret Hospital, Honorary Clinical Professor of the Department of Paediatrics, The University of Hong Kong

Dr CB Chow is Honorary Consultant of the Hospital Authority Infectious Disease Centre (HAIDC) at Princess Margaret Hospital and Honorary Consultant Paediatrician at Princess Margaret Hospital. He is also Honorary Clinical Professor of the Department of Paediatrics, The University of Hong Kong, Adjunct Associate Professor of the Department of Paediatrics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the Chairman of Hong Kong Childhood Injury Prevention Association and Director, Kwai Tsing Safe Community and Healthy City Association. He serves on various boards in the community including Chairman of the Scientific Committee on Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Working Group on Injury Prevention, Department of Health. Dr Chow was Medical Director of HAIDC at its opening in April 2007 to March 2010 and continues to support the centre as current co-chairman of the Education and Training Subcommittee of HAIDC.

Dr Chow has authored over 150 original articles, abstracts and chapters in books on paediatrics and infectious diseases. He has actively promoted various research works including childhood injury surveillance and intervention in Hong Kong, infection control in hospital, intra-uterine growth in Chinese infants, physical health status of new immigrant children from mainland China, growth parameters in Down syndrome children, sudden infant death syndrome in Hong Kong, safe community and healthy city, child policy and play.

Prof Cynthia LEUNG

Professor, Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Professor Cynthia Leung is currently Professor at the Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and is the programme director of the Master of Educational and Child Psychology. Professor Leung's research includes parenting education, test development, programme evaluation, cross-cultural psychology, migrant adjustment, child and adolescent well-being, and she has published extensively in these areas.

Prof Ronald MA

Professor, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Ronald Ching Wan Ma is Professor at the Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Honorary Consultant at the Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong. He is a Past President of Diabetes Hongkong (2010-2012), a charitable voluntary organisation dedicated to the promotion of diabetes social awareness.

Dr Ma completed his medical training at the University of Cambridge, UK, and trained in internal medicine in London. He subsequently moved to Hong Kong, where he completed his endocrinology fellowship training under Professor Clive Cockram, Professor Juliana Chan and Dr CC Chow. Following this training, he conducted research on diabetic complications at the Joslin Diabetes Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, under the mentorship of Professor George King.

Dr Ma's research interests include the epidemiology and genetics of diabetes and its complications, gestational diabetes, polycystic ovary syndrome, and cardiovascular complications caused by endocrine disorders. He has published over 150 research articles in international peer-reviewed journals including the Lancet, JAMA, Nature Genetics, Diabetes and The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and has authored 7 book chapters.

Dr Ma has received several awards for his research and contribution to community, including the Young Investigator Award from the Hong Kong College of Physicians (2008), Young Investigator Award from the International Diabetes Epidemiology Group (2009), the 'Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award' from Junior Chamber International Hong Kong (2009), the Albert Renold Fellowship for Young Scientists from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (2010), and the Research Excellence Award from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2011).

Prof Nirmala RAO

Professor & Developmental Psychologist, Division of Learning, Development and Diversity, Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong

Nirmala Rao is a Professor in the Faculty of Education and Executive Associate Dean, Graduate School, at The University of Hong Kong. She is a Developmental and Chartered (Educational) Psychologist, recognized internationally for her work on early childhood development and child development and education. Her research programme concerns the influences of home and preschool experiences on early child development and the policies which affect them. Her Work is underpinned by the belief that systematically conducted empirical research should inform educational and social policy relevant to children and their families, and by a commitment to equity, particularly in relation to access to education for children who are disadvantaged. She has conducted longitudinal programme evaluation research in low resource environments in Cambodia, China and India which has had considerable impact on policy. Professor Rao has also studied parenting practices and preschool quality in Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland and is currently developing a population-level measure of early child development for countries in Asia and the Pacific. Recognition of her research is reflected in her publications and requests to provide technical expertise and consultancy for the UN and its associated agencies, as well as other invitations to serve on high-level committees concerned with child development in the developing world. She also plays leadership roles in international professional organisations which aim to promote the well-being of young children through research and advocacy efforts.

Dr Mary SCHOOLING

Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong

Dr Schooling's research interests lie in the effects of social and historical forces over the life course on disease risk. Thus, southern China with its unique history is a fascinating research location. Her doctoral thesis was on how the interplay between social context and self-concept in adolescence affects adult health behaviour. Before undertaking research in Hong Kong, Dr Schooling's career included health planning in the UK.

Prof TAM Wing-hung

Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Professor Tam Wing Hung is currently the Associate Professor of Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Professor Tam graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1989 and obtained specialist in Obstetrics and Gynaecologist in 1998. He is a subspecialist in maternal fetal medicine. His research interest is on gestational diabetes and long term effect of mothers and children. He has 69 publications in the international journals. He is currently the collaborator with Northwestern University on a multicenter "HAPO follow up study" supported by National Institute of Health.