Dr Alex Wodak AM is a retired physician who was President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation for many years. He has worked full time on drug law reform and then tobacco harm reduction as a volunteer in his retirement. Together with colleagues, he started the first needle syringe programme (1986) and the first medically supervised injecting centre (1999) in Australia when both were pre-legal. Dr Wodak was President of the International Harm Reduction Association (1996-2004). He has been interested in tobacco harm reduction since 1992 but only active in THR in recent years. Dr Wodak helped to start the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (1987).

Colin Mendelsohn has worked as a medical practitioner, academic and researcher in smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction for 40 years. He is the Founding Chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association and was a Conjoint Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales. He is a member of the expert advisory group that develops the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ national smoking cessation guidelines. He is actively involved in teaching, writing, researching and advocating for tobacco harm reduction.

Pieter Vorster is Managing Director of Idwala Research, a provider of research and advisory services aimed at accelerating tobacco transformation and harm reduction. Before starting Idwala, he spent 30 years as an investment analyst with global investment banks and fund managers, including Credit Suisse and UBS, with coverage of the tobacco sector spanning more than 20 years. Pieter specialises in tobacco harm reduction and transformation and served on the Technical Committee of the 2022 Tobacco Transformation Index. He recently published a series of in-depth reports and analysis tools to help investors and companies easily interrogate and digest the underlying data of the Index.

Martin Steinbauer is the co-founder and Chief Engineer of SMOOD, where he focuses on youth access restriction technologies and sustainability solutions for ENDS. SMOOD has grown into a global business built on sustainability, advanced chemistry, IoT-enabled devices, and consumer centricity. Prior to SMOOD, Martin was an investment analyst at BlackRock in New York City. Martin graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Applied Mathematics.

David Burns is director of Bay Pharma, an Australian manufacturer of prescription NVP products provided through the medical access framework. Bay Pharma initiated one of Australia’s first NVP recycling programs in conjunction with one of Australia’s pre-eminent drug and other alcohol treatment centres. David graduated from ATU in medical science and has 12 years’ experience in the medical device and in-vitro diagnostic industry.

Peter Paul Dator is a lawyer who graduated with a BSE Social Studies degree from the University of the Philippines and completed his J.D program at the University of Santo Tomas. He has been serving as the President of Vapers PH for almost a decade, a non-profit consumer advocacy group aimed at promoting the responsible use of alternative nicotine delivery devices such as e-cigarettes. Dator is a strong advocate for harm reduction and vaping and has gained worldwide recognition for his work. His efforts to lobby for the passage of the Vape Bill in the Philippines have further cemented his status as one of the pillars of harm reduction in the country.

Alfredo Garbin, Jr. is the recently elected Mayor of Legazpi City in the Philippines. He is a lawyer by training, graduating from the University of Santo Tomas-Legazpi College of Law in 2001. Mayor Garbin also completed various management and leaders programmes at the Asian Institute of Management and the Harvard Kennedy School. He was a Congressman in the Philippine House of Representatives from 2010-2013 and from 2016 to 2022 where he served as Deputy Minority Leader, chaired the Committee on Constitutional Amendments, and worked as the Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on Justice. It was during his term as a member of the House of Representatives that he authored a bill that sought to regulate vaporized nicotine products. He successfully defended the bill in the House plenary debates which led to its passage into law as the Philippine Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Act of 2022.

Prior to overseeing the Department of Energy’s Financial and Legal Services, and as the Department Legislative Liaison Officer – Undersecretary Sharon S. Garin, a CPA-Lawyer by profession, started her career with the public service from the 15th to 19th Congress as Representative of AAMVBIS-OWA Partylist and was the 1st female Deputy Speaker from the province of Iloilo. Usec. Sharon graduated in Accounting at the University of the Philippines-Iloilo; Law at the Ateneo de Manila School of Law; and International Masters in Business Administration at Escuela Superior de Administracion y Direccion de Empresas, in Spain.

As a member of the House of Representatives, she chaired the House Committee on Economic Affairs and served as the Vice-Chair for the Committee on Ways and Means, Transportation, Banks and Financial Intermediaries; and Globalization and WTO. She is an author of the Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Act of 2022, defending it during Second Reading in the House of Representatives and also serving as a member of the Bicameral Conference Committee on the Vape Bill that reconciled the conflicting provisions from the House and the Senate.

Dr Lorenzo Mato is President of Quit For Good, a non-profit, non-stock organization promoting harm reduction as a compassionate strategy to mitigate the damage and loss tobacco cigarettes have brought to society. Dr Mata is a recognized Harm Reduction expert in the Philippines, serving as a resource speaker in local and international Harm Reduction forums and in the Philippine Senate and House of Representatives. Dr. Mata has significantly contributed to the crafting of a national bill that, if passed into law, will be known as the “Non-combustible Nicotine Delivery System Regulation Act of 2020”.

Dr Mata has been an Occupational Medical Specialist for three and a half decades, with many years working in both hospital and industrial setting. His commitment to harm reduction has always been integral in his practice. He is now a Concierge Medical Practitioner, providing personalized home care in his city with a population of 90,000 including nearly a thousand cases of COVID-19 seen and treated.

Dr. Rafael R. Castillo, a noted cardiologist, earned his Medicine degree from the University of Santo Tomas in 1977, graduating with cum laude and Meritissimus distinctions. From 1993-1994, he was President of the Philippine Heart Association and the Philippine College of Cardiology. He is a regular columnist of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. He is a Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine, College of Medicine, Adventist University of the Philippines, Senior Consultant in Adult Cardiology, Manila Doctors’ Hospital, Dean Emeritus, and Head of Cardio-Metabolic Research Unit (CaMeRU), FAME Leaders Academy, Fellow of the Philippine College of Physicians, Philippine College of Cardiology, European Society of Cardiology, and Elected Trustee/Council Member of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH).

President of Asovape Costa Rica, President of ARDT Iberoamerica, Social Media Director and Audiovisual Producer for INNCO, recipient of the Enhanced Scholarship of KAC THRSP with a project on a documentary series called #Safer, and Project Leader for the Veritas Study of ECLAT (Spin-off of the University of Catania, Italy). Jeffrey Zamora has worked in Social Media and Marketing with NGOs, Governmental Entities, and Commercial Brands.

Presidente de Asovape Costa Rica (organización de consumidores adultos Pro Reducción de Daños para personas que no quieren o pueden dejar de fumar), Presidente de ARDT Iberoamérica, Director de Redes Sociales y Productor Audiovisual para INNCO, recipiente de la Enhanced Scholarship de KAC THRSP con un proyecto sobre una serie documental llamada #Safer, y Líder de Proyecto para el estudio Veritas de ECLAT (Spin off de la Universidad de Catania, Italia). Jeffrey Zamora ha estado trabajando en Redes Sociales y Marketing con ONGs, Entidades Gubernamentales y Marcas Comerciales.

Law degree from the Universidad Intercontinental. Master in Law from UNAM. Doctoral candidate at UNAM. Professor of Philosophy of Law at the UNAM. Professor of Legal Argumentation for the Universidad La Salle and the Postgraduate Studies Division of UNAM. Postulant Lawyer, president of the Association Mexico and the World Vaping A.C. He has currently promoted amparos against bans on the use of vaporisers in Mexico, obtaining amparo for himself and his clients and associates for their commercialisation and for declaring unconstitutional the presidential decree that aims to ban their importation. He has also been legal advisor for public events such as expos, forums and promotional activities in the commercialisation of vaporisers. Invited speaker at forums in the Federal Chamber of Deputies and local legislatures in defence of fundamental rights for the consumption of nicotine supply alternatives. He has also advised local deputies on such issues to justify law initiatives that seek to regulate nicotine consumption alternatives. Legal advisor to different companies in the vape market, he has insisted on strategies and policies in Mexico and Latin America to seek the correct regulation of these products. One of the leading voices in the press to address human rights and the right to consume reduced-risk alternatives. He has personally enjoyed the benefits of using alternatives to conventional tobacco since 2013.

Licenciado en Derecho por la Universidad Intercontinental. Maestro en derecho por la UNAM. Doctorante por la UNAM. Profesor por oposición de Filosofía del Derecho en la Licenciatura en la UNAM. Profesor de Argumentación Jurídica para la Universidad La Salle y la división de estudios de Posgrado de la UNAM. Abogado Postulante, presidente de la Asociación México y el Mundo Vapeando A.C. En la actualidad ha promovido amparos en contra de las prohibiciones en México del uso de vaporizadores, obteniendo amparo para sí y para sus clientes y asociados para su comercialización y para declarar inconstitucional el decreto presidencial que pretende prohibir la importación. Asimismo ha sido asesor jurídicos de eventos públicos como expos, foros y actividades de promoción, en la comercialización de vaporizadores. Orador invitado en foros en la Cámara de Diputados Federal y legislaturas Locales en defensa de los derechos fundamentales para el consumo de alternativas de suministro de nicotina. Asimismo ha asesorado en dichos temas a diputados locales para justificar las iniciativas de ley que buscan regular las alternativas de consumo de nicotina. Asesor jurídico de diferentes empresas del mercado del vapeo, ha insidido en estrategias y políticas en México y Latinoamérica para buscar la correcta regulación de dichos productos. Una de las voces principales en la prensa para abordar los derechos humanos y el derecho al consumo de alternativas de riesgo reducido. Ha disfrutado personalmente de las ventajas de consumir alternativas al tabaco convencional desde 2013.

Ignacio es un periodista y especialista en plataformas informáticas y multimedia. En el 2010 fue el creador y promotor de una campaña de información para evitar la prohibición del vapeo en Chile. En años subsecuentes ha enfocado sus esfuerzos en fortalecer la comunidad de usuarios de cigarrillos electrónicos, haciéndolos más informados y conscientes.

Es el fundador y actual presidente de la Asociación Chilena de Vapeadores ASOVAPE, además es secretario de ARDT Iberoamérica. Organizó la primera demostración pública provapeo en América Latina y es un permanente promotor de campañas de información sobre la reducción de daños por tabaquismo en Chile y alrededor del mundo. Actualmente es director editorial de la Campaña «Vapear No Es Fumar, Iberoamérica» y Productor General del evento Vapefest Online.

Degree in Social Sciences from the Universidad Pedagógica de Colombia with a Master's degree in Political Studies from the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Social Sciences teacher for more than 20 years and a consummate activist for Harm Reduction of smoking. UX/UI designer and lover of music, cinema, and technology. He was a founding member of ASOVAPE Colombia, the first Latin American association of consumers of low-risk nicotine delivery products. He has been the promoter of the creation of other associations in Latin America, such as Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil, Panama, and Costa Rica. He is a founding member of ARDT Iberoamerica and president of this organisation. In 2021, he won the Best Advocate of the Year award from the INNCO organisation.

Licenciado en Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Pedagógica de Colombia con Maestría en Estudios Políticos de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Docente de Ciencias sociales por más de 20 años y consumado activista de la Reducción de Daños del tabaquismo. Diseñador UX/UI y amante de la música, el cine y la tecnología. Fue miembro fundador de ASOVAPE Colombia, la primera asociación Latinoamérica de consumidores de productos de administración de nicotina de bajo riesgo. Ha sido el promotor de la creación de otras asociaciones en América Latina como es el caso de Venezuela, Ecuador, Perú, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Brasil, Panamá y Costa Rica. Es miembro fundador de ARDT Iberoamérica y presidente de esta organización. En el año 2021 ganó el premio Mejor defensor del año otorgado por la organización INNCO.

Julio Ruades is the spokesperson for ANESVAP (Spanish Association of Personal Vaporizer Users), a non-profit user organisation created to defend the right of all adults to use personal vaporizers to quit smoking. In addition to being a spokesperson for Anesvap, Julio has been a pro-vape activist for more than 12 years, well known on social networks for his YouTube channel "El Mono Vapeador" which has more than half a million subscribers. He is dedicated to promoting vaping and the science behind harm reduction methods among Spanish-speaking users around the world through interviews with Doctors, covering annual events such as the Global Forum on Nicotine, and helping vaping user organisations in Spain and throughout Latin America. He has received several awards over the years in different countries such as Mexico, Colombia, and Spain, including the INNCO Roll of Honour for activist of the year (Warsaw 2019) and the Vlogger award in 2016.

Julio Ruades es portavoz de ANESVAP (Asociación Española de usuarios de Vaporizadores Personales), una organización de usuarios sin ánimo de lucro creada para defender el derecho que tiene toda persona mayor de edad a utilizar vaporizadores personales para abandonar el tabaco. Además de Portavoz de Anesvap, Julio ha sido activista provapeo desde hace más de 12 años, muy conocido en redes sociales por su canal de YouTube “el mono vapeador” que cuenta con más de medio millón de suscriptores. Se dedica a promover el vapeo y la ciencia tras los métodos de reducción de daños entre usuarios hispanohablantes de todo el mundo, mediante entrevistas a Doctores, cubriendo eventos anuales como el Global Forum on Nicotine y ayudando en las organizaciones de usuarios del vapeo tanto en España como en toda Latinoamérica. Ha recibido varios premios a lo largo de estos años en diferentes países como México, Colombia o España, entre los que destacan el INNCO Roll of Honour al activista del año (Varsovia 2019), o el premio Vlogger en 2016.

Ian Fearon is an independent consultant with expertise in regulatory and scientific aspects of nicotine and tobacco products. His consulting work encompasses clinical and behavioural studies of tobacco and nicotine products for regulatory submissions in the US and Europe, and he has a wealth of experience of both consumer goods and medicinal licensing submissions.  His 15 years working in the Tobacco Harm Reduction arena has included roles as Senior Director of Clinical and Regulatory Affairs EMEA with JUUL Labs, Director of Tobacco Research with Celerion, and Principal Scientist and Head of Clinical Research at British American Tobacco. 

Scott J. Leischow, Ph.D. joined the Mayo Clinic in 2012, where he leads the Research on Health Equity and Community Health (REACH) Program at Mayo Clinic Arizona, and co-leads Cancer Prevention and Control within the Mayo Clinic Cancer Center. He was formerly University of Arizona and also served as Senior Advisor for Tobacco Policy in the US Department of Health and Human Services and Chief of the Tobacco Control Research Branch at the National Cancer Institute of NIH. Dr. Leischow completed his doctorate in Health Education from the University of Maryland, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Behavioral Pharmacology from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Leischow has received several awards, including the NIH Director’s Award. Most of Dr. Leischow’s research and publications focus on pharmacologic and behavioral treatments for tobacco dependence, along with systems and network approaches to public health. Dr. Leischow is past President of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT).

Martin Cullip is a former company director and International Fellow of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, who has written and blogged on free market and lifestyle consumer issues for over a decade. As a user of e-cigarettes and other safer nicotine products, he is a particularly passionate consumer advocate for all forms of tobacco harm reduction and has a keen interest in the rapidly-evolving nicotine market and the politics surrounding it. Martin is a former Chair of UK educational charity, The New Nicotine Alliance, and has taken part in parliamentary evidence sessions and consumer, industry, and political events on the subject domestically and internationally.

Jasjit S. Ahluwalia is a physician and public health scientist at Brown University’s Schools of Public Health and Medicine. He has been in academic medicine since 1992. His primary research areas are smoking cessation and nicotine addiction in African American smokers for which he has secured more than $120 million as a PI, Co-PI and Co-Investigator. He has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for 28 years and has published more than 375 manuscripts. Ahluwalia has served on the U.S. government’s National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities, on the SRNT board of directors and recently completed a 3-year term on the federal government’s Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health chaired by the U.S. Surgeon General.

Brian Quigley has over twenty-five years of Marketing, Regulatory, Operations and Business Leadership experience for public companies, private equity backed businesses and venture backed businesses.

Brian is currently Chief Executive Officer for Qnovia, Inc. a U.S. based venture backed pharmaceutical company, focused on inhaled drug delivery across a host of indication areas. Qnovia's is currently engaged with the FDA CEDR to pursue a combination product application for its lead asset (QN-01) to be the first inhalable prescription smoking cessation therapy. Brian joined Qnovia in July 2020 as Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Qnovia, Brian spent 16 years at Altria Group, with his last 7 years as President & CEO for Altria’s Smokeless and Innovative Products/Vapor Businesses.

Brian has also been an active venture investor, and is on the Board of Mustgrow Biologics, Belle Isle Craft Spirits and the Virginia Foundation of Independent Colleges.

Brian lives in Richmond,VA with his wife Amy and three sons.

Mark Dickinson owns Clarityse Ltd, an independent strategic marketing consultancy with extensive experience across the OTC Medicines and Vaping sectors. Mark spent 17 years at GSK in various Global, EMEA and UK senior marketing roles, including 8 years directing their smoking control brands - through the period in which NRT products were made reimbursable in the UK and the prescription segment developed. He has worked extensively at the interface of marketing, regulatory affairs and public policy. He owned a vape shop and more recently has been helping companies with the commercial aspects of bringing a medicinal vape product to market.

Colin Mendelsohn has worked as a medical practitioner, academic and researcher in smoking cessation and tobacco harm reduction for 40 years. He is the Founding Chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association and was a Conjoint Associate Professor in the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales. He is a member of the expert advisory group that develops the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners’ national smoking cessation guidelines. He is actively involved in teaching, writing, researching and advocating for tobacco harm reduction.

Dr Alex Wodak AM is a retired physician who was President of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation for many years. He has worked full time on drug law reform and then tobacco harm reduction as a volunteer in his retirement. Together with colleagues, he started the first needle syringe programme (1986) and the first medically supervised injecting centre (1999) in Australia when both were pre-legal. Dr Wodak was President of the International Harm Reduction Association (1996-2004). He has been interested in tobacco harm reduction since 1992 but only active in THR in recent years. Dr Wodak helped to start the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (1987).

Dr Carolyn Beaumont is an Australian general practitioner and educator, and Tobacco Harm
Reduction Scholarship Programme 2023 recipient. She is a staunch advocate for the rights of adult ex-smokers to have easy legal access to good quality vaping products.
She has helped thousands of Australian ex-smokers remain smoke free through her online
business MedicalNicotine, which allows her to provide adult vapers with their nicotine
prescription that is required by law in Australia. This service began in 2020, as she
developed more awareness and understanding of the plight of chronic smokers – those who
desperately want to stop smoking and have tried many traditional options without success.
Carolyn has been published in national newspapers, interviewed on national radio, co-
authored medical journal articles and is a regular contributor to national and international tobacco harm reduction webinars and forums. She aims to educate people about nicotine
addiction, and to view this condition with compassion and understanding.
At the same time, Carolyn recognizes that the best option is for youth to never use tobacco
or nicotine in the first place. She presents to secondary school students and parents, in
which the dangers of blackmarket vaping and tobacco addiction in the young are discussed.
Carolyn has GP fellowship, and holds a Doctor of Medicine, a postgraduate Diploma of Child
Health, a postgraduate Diploma of Education, a Bachelor of Medical Science (top graduate)
and a Bachelor of Music (first class honours). She had a previous ‘second life’ as a pianist
and teacher for over a decade before embarking on medical studies in her late 30s.
She has recently been recognized by her local council, having been nominated for the 2023
local council ‘Woman of the year award’ for her work in tobacco harm advocacy, support for
ex-smokers and school education.
Carolyn is proud to be a THRSP 2023 recipient, and she is using this opportunity to create a
tobacco harm reduction educational presentation for Australian medical students.

Heneage Mitchell, commonly known as ‘H’, has been resident in Asia for over 40 years. He spent most of those decades working in regional media, including as managing editor and co-publisher of Tobacco Asia, a trade publication reporting on the regional tobacco industry,

In 2012, he established factasia, an independent, not-for-profit, consumer-oriented regional advocacy for rational debate about – and sensible regulation of – the rights of adult citizens throughout the Asia-Pacific region to choose to use tobacco or other nicotine-related products.

Heneage smoked for over 45 years before switching to vaping in 2016, since when he has never touched a cigarette.

Nancy Loucas is passionate about supporting and amplifying the consumers of safer nicotine products to assist having their voices heard in the narrative of THR and public health policy. Her THR advocacy began in 2015 as one of the founders/co directors of Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA) in New Zealand, doing battle for the rights of vapers to be able to access what they need to become/remain smoke free. The work of AVCA was significant, as New Zealand now has a legal and regulated consumer market for nicotine vapes and heated tobacco products. Nancy is the founder and Executive Coordinator for CAPHRA - the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates. CAPHRA supports consumer THR advocacy organisations and activities throughout the Asia Pacific region and beyond. CAPHRA has developed and presented various programmes for consumers. These include the Voices4Vape online seminar series, sCOPe consumer livestream that runs during the annual World Vape Day/World No Tobacco Day, and the recurring stream that runs during the weeklong FCTC COP. Nancy also writes and produces the Advocates Voice online newscast and the Advocates Voice Live sessions that support education and guidance to consumer advocates globally for CAPHRA. CAPHRA, under Nancy’s leadership, established the collaborative “Right2Vape” testimonial database with CASAA in the USA, and the “Right to Switch” change.org petition. Both of these assets contain thousands of consumer testimonials from across the world and continues to grow.

Will Godfrey is the founding editor-in-chief of Filter (https://filtermag.org), an online magazine that launched in 2018 to cover drug use, drug policy and human rights through a harm reduction lens. He's also the executive director of The Influence Foundation, the nonprofit behind Filter. He previously founded The Influence, an award-winning drug policy news site, and ran Substance.com and the addiction-focused site The Fix. Before that, he co-founded an award-winning print publication for incarcerated people in London. He has consulted for numerous organisations in the drug policy and harm reduction space. He lives in New York.

Agnieszka Wyszyńka-Szulc is the Global Head of Regulatory Policy in the External Affairs team at Philip Morris International (PMI), an international tobacco company working to deliver a smoke-free future and evolving its portfolio for the long term to include products outside of the tobacco and nicotine sector. Agnieszka joined the Corporate Affairs Team in the Polish affiliate of PMI in 2004, and since then she has held various roles in the organisation, including as Director of Regulatory Strategy in the EU Region External Affairs Team. Agnieszka holds a Masters degree in Management and Administration and a postgraduate degree in Public Affairs, both from Warsaw University, Poland, as well as an Executive MBA from the Warsaw University of Technology Business School, Poland.

Barnaby Page is editorial director of Tamarind Intelligence, the publisher of ECigIntelligence, TobaccoIntelligence and CannIntelligence. As a journalist he has been covering the worldwide reduced-risk nicotine sector since 2014, with a particular focus on public health and regulatory issues; in his current role he manages Tamarind’s editorial and reporting teams, producing a wide range of nicotine-related content. He has been participating in the Global Forum on Nicotine since its inception.
Before coming into this field, Barnaby spent 30 years as a reporter and editor for newspapers, magazines and online services, specialising in technology and business. He is based near London.

PhD. in Cell Biology and Genetics from the Autonomous University of Madrid, she is the founder, coordinator, and/or scientific advisor of different organisations related to Smoking Harm Reduction, such as the Spanish Medical Platform for Smoking Harm Reduction, composed of about 30 doctors, professors, and health professionals, as well as the Spanish Association of Personal Vapourisers Users (ANESVAP). She is the organiser of THR SUMMIT SPAIN, the first scientific congress on Smoking Harm Reduction in Spain, now in its second edition. She has attended or participated as a speaker in several congresses related to THR. He also collaborates actively with users and scientific organisations in Latin America.

Doctorada en Biología Celular y Genética por la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, es fundadora, coordinadora y/o asesora científica de distintas organizaciones relacionadas con la Reducción de Daños por Tabaquismo, como la Plataforma Médica Española por la Reducción de Daños por Tabaquismo, compuesta por cerca de 30 médicos, catedráticos y profesionales sanitarios, así como de la Asociación Española de Usuarios de Vaporizadores Personales (ANESVAP). Esorganizadora del THR SUMMIT SPAIN, primer congreso científico sobre Reducción de Daños por Tabaquismo en España que ya va por su segunda edición. Ha asistido o participado como ponente en varios congresos relacionados con la THR. También colabora activamente con organizaciones de usuarios y científicos hermanas en Latinoamérica.

Dr. Diego Joaquín Verrastro - Medical specialist in general surgery - Emergentology - Spokesperson for Reldat

Dr. Diego Joaquín Verrastro - Medico especialista en cirugía general - Emergentologia - Portavoz de Reldat

Enrique Teran holds a medical degree from the Universidad Central del Ecuador, a master's degree in international development cooperation from the Universidad Internacional de La Rioja in Spain, and a doctorate in pharmacology from the University of London in England. Dr. Teran has been a professor at the College of Health Sciences of the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador for twenty years. He has published over 100 articles in peer-reviewed indexed journals and has an h-index of 26. Since 2016 he has been a member of the Academy of Sciences of Ecuador and is currently its president; and also belongs since 2017 to the Academy of Medicine of Ecuador. Since 2020 Dr. Terán has spoken out publicly in favour of tobacco harm reduction on multiple occasions in different national and international forums, both in Spanish and English and is a founding member of the Latin American Network on Tobacco Harm Reduction (RELDAT).

Enrique Teran es médico por la Universidad Central del Ecuador, master en cooperación internacional para el desarrollo por la Universidad Internacional de La Rioja en España y doctor en farmacología por la Universidad de Londres en Inglaterra. El Doctor Terán es desde hace veinte años profesor en el Colegio de Ciencias de la Salud de la Universidad San Francisco de Quito en Ecuador. Ha publicado más de 100 artículos en revistas indexadas con revisión de pares y tiene un índice h de 26. Desde el año 2016 es miembro de la Academia de Ciencias del Ecuador y actualmente su presidente, y también pertenece desde el 2017 a la Academia de Medicina del Ecuador. Desde el año 2020 el Doctor Terán ha opinado públicamente en favor de la reducción del daño por tabaco en múltiples oportunidades en diferentes foros nacionales e internacionales, tanto en español como en inglés y es miembro fundador de la Red Latinoamericana de Reducción de Daño por Tabaco (RELDAT).

Dr Roberto A Sussman (PhD University of London) is a full time senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Nuclear Sciences of the National University of Mexico. His main research areas are General Relativity and Cosmology, but he has conducted research in other areas of Physics, including peer reviewed publications on e-cigarette aerosols. He is also the founder and Director of Pro-Vapeo Mexico, an association representing Mexican consumers of noncombustible nicotine products and is a member of INNCO. He is actively advocating for an appropriate regulation of Tobacco Harm Reduction products in Mexico. He directs and supervises the effort to spread scientific information on these products, as well as advising consumers on how to counter the gubernmental misinformation and prejudice about them that is rampant throughout Latin America.

Dr. Randall Rodríguez es doctor en medicina y cirugía de la Universidad de Costa Rica, Máster en infección por VIH de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de España, conferencista en temas de Reducción de daños y VIH en Costa Rica, conferencista internacional en temas de Reducción de daño en tabaco, expositor del 1er Foro Centroamericano y del Caribe de Prevención y Reducción del daño Costa Rica, expositor del I Roadshow Latinoamericano – Reducción De Daños Del Tabaco, Regulación y Cop10: Desafíos y Perspectivas Colombia, expositor en Reducción de Daños del Instituto Salvadoreño del Seguro Social, miembro de Red Latinoamericana por la Reducción de Daños Asociados al Tabaquismo (RELDAT) y coordinador del Comité Directivo de la Red Centroamericana y del Caribe para la Reducción de Daños y Riesgos Sanitarios (REDACCA).

Dr. Randall Rodríguez is a doctor in medicine and surgery from the University of Costa Rica, Master in HIV infection from the Rey Juan Carlos University of Spain, lecturer on Harm Reduction and HIV in Costa Rica, international lecturer on Harm Reduction in tobacco, speaker at the 1st Central American and Caribbean Forum on Prevention and Harm Reduction Costa Rica, speaker at the 1st Latin American Roadshow - Tobacco Harm Reduction, Regulation and Cop10: Challenges and Perspectives Colombia, speaker on Harm Reduction at the Salvadoran Social Security Institute, member of the Latin American Network for the Reduction of Tobacco-Related Harm (RELDAT) and coordinator of the Steering Committee of the Central American and Caribbean Network for Harm Reduction and Health Risks (REDACCA).

Medical Lieutenant-Colonel of the Military Health Corps. General Surgeon of the Surgery Service of the Hospital Central de la Defensa "Gómez Ulla" in Madrid. Specialist in Oncological Surgery. Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Alcalá de Henares. Doctor of Medicine, Rey Juan Carlos University, Madrid. Spokesperson for the Platform for Smoking Harm Reduction. Pioneering platform in Spain to eradicate smoking. Presenter and content director of the medicine channel on Youtube MedicinaClara, with more than 1.5M subscribers and more than 200M videos viewed. Medical director and content director of the medical portal www.medicosespecialistasen.com. Evaluator of the access to the Military Health Corps of the Ministry of Defence.

Teniente Coronel Médico del Cuerpo Militar de Sanidad. Cirujano General del Servicio de Cirugía del Hospital Central de la Defensa "Gómez Ulla" en Madrid. Especialista en Cirugía Oncológica. Profesor asociado al Departamento de Cirugía en la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. Doctor en Medicina por la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid. Portavoz de la Plataforma para la Reducción del Daño por Tabaquismo. Plataforma pionera en España para erradicar el tabaquismo. Presentador y director de contenidos del canal de medicina en Youtube MedicinaClara, canal con más de 1,5M de suscriptores y más de 200M de vídeos vistos. Director médico y director de contenidos del portal médico www.medicosespecialistasen.com. Evaluador del acceso al Cuerpo Militar de Sanidad del Ministerio de Defensa.

Silvia Cazenave holds a PhD in Toxicology and Master in Toxicological Analysis from the

Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of São Paulo (USP). She was an Expert

Criminal Toxicologist at the Institute of Criminalistics of Campinas from 1987 to 2018, a

Professor of Toxicology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas from 1989 to 2022

and a Toxicology Superintendent of the National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA)

management from 2014 to2016. Silvia also holds a post-doctorate in food toxicology FEAUNICAMP.

She is a specialist in drugs of abuse with a degree awarded by the UN (United

Nations - Narcotics Division) and in 2018 was Director of the Drug Use Prevention

Coordinator of the municipality of Campinas. Currently, Silvia is Coordinator of the

Technical Group of Toxicology of the Regional Council of Pharmacy of the State of São

Paulo. Her work focuses mainly on the following topics: drugs, toxicology, addiction,

toxicological analysis, prevention, harm reduction, tobacco, pesticides and regulation.

Clive Bates has had a diverse career in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Starting out with IBM, he then switched career to work in the environment movement. From 1997-2003 he was Director of Action on Smoking and Health (UK), campaigning to reduce the harms caused by tobacco. In 2003 he joined Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit as a civil servant and worked in senior roles in the public sector and for the United Nations in Sudan. He is now Director of The Counterfactual, a consulting and advocacy practice focussed on a pragmatic approach to sustainability and public health.  

Kasia runs the Global Public Health Foundation, which aims to share research and experience in public health across all relevant sectors. She is also a lecturer at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Kasia's area of experience includes harm reduction, public health and event management.

Arkadi Sharkov is a macroeconomist with experience in the public and private sectors. His expertise lies in the field of health economics, sustainable development, and tax policy. He has worked on projects related to drug policy and optimization of public spending in the field of healthcare, as well as on those related to the sustainable development of industry in Bulgaria. He is a member of the Advisory board of the Bulgarian Medical Association and also a participant and member of the Pubilc council of the “Hospital index”.

Honoured Physician of the Kyrgyz Republic, Doctor of Medicine, Professor, Rector of the Bishkek International Medical Institute.

Amb. Zurab Tchiaberashvili holds a professor position at Ilia State University. He was the Minister of Labour, Health and Social Affairs (2012), a deputy Chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee of Healthcare and Social Affairs (2016-2020), Governor of the Kakheti region (2013), and Mayor of Tbilisi (2004-2005). Amb. Tchiaberashvili served as Permanent Representative of Georgia to the Council of Europe (2005-2010) and to the UN office and other organizations in Geneva (2011- 2012). He has the rank of Ambassador of Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Georgia (since 2007). Amb. Tchiaberashvili has MBA (2009) from a Joint program with Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, USA, and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Vallendar, Germany, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy (1999) from Tbilisi State University, Georgia.

Cardiologist, Deputy Chairman of the Council and member of the Expert Council of the Densaulyk ULL.

Professor Marewa Glover has worked on reducing smoking-related harm for over 25 years. She has worked as a policy analyst, a co-ordinator of a national tobacco control programme, cessation trainer and, for over 17 years, as a researcher. She has chaired numerous committees and organisations including End Smoking NZ, an independent NGO that lobbied for a harm reduction approach even before electronic cigarettes were introduced. Marewa has over 100 publications reflecting her leadership and support of numerous studies. Her primary focus has been reducing smoking during pregnancy and reducing smoking among Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. She has also been a co-investigator on a number of innovative cessation projects and a longitudinal online survey of New Zealand vapers. Dr Glover is the most prominent public commentator on vaping in NZ. She is regularly called by the media and has appeared on NZ’s 60 Minutes in addition to participating in live online and conference debates about vaping. Despite an initial ban on the import and sale of nicotine for vaping imposed by the Ministry of Health, vaping has become established as a common and successful way to reduce or stop smoking in NZ. Marewa, along with a small number of other researchers who early on foresaw the potential of ecigs, have helped make this happen.

Tomás is a Mexican lawyer and teaches Corporation Law and Successions Law at Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City. An ex-smoker and vaper since 2016, he is co-founder of "Pro-Vapeo Mexico", a Mexican consumer association (registered in 2017), that advocates for tobacco harm reduction and non- combustible alternatives. He is a member of INNCO’s Board.

Judy Gibson is currently INNCOs Membership Director having led a Steering Group to establish the organisation in 2016 and acted as its first Secretary General following its registration in Geneva in 2016.

Her diverse career includes: WRAF Aircraft Mechanic, MOD Detective and over 30yrs in Artiste management and Theatrical PR & Marketing. Suffering early iterations of e-cigarettes since 2012, she became an ex-smoker in 2014 with the advent of sub-ohm tanks and became a vociferous supporter of safer nicotine products.

Sudhanshu Patwardhan is a British-Indian, U.K.-licensed medical doctor, passionate about Healthtech innovation in cancer prevention. For the past two decades, he has lived and worked in three continents, doing senior roles in research, strategy and policy in the pharmaceutical and tobacco industries. 

In his early years in tobacco harm reduction, his team of clinical researchers and lab scientists set the foundations for the assessment of reduced-risk products, now accepted by regulators and the industry as the definitive approach for duty of care and regulatory compliance. At Nicoventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of BAT, he was instrumental in enabling the first e-cigarette company acquisition by a global tobacco business leading to a successful application for a medical license with the MHRA for an e-cigarette. In his policy role there, Patwardhan shaped the creation of a global key opinion leader network in consumer advocacy and public health champions. With the British Standards Institution (BSI), Patwardhan led the creation of the world’s first vaping product standards for safety and quality in 2015 and the BSI Online Age Checking specifications in collaboration with the Westminster-based Digital Policy Alliance in 2018. 

Patwardhan splits time between the U.K. and South Asia on projects that address the needs of the most disadvantaged tobacco users. In 2018, he co-founded the Centre for Health Research and Education that now has a team of over 100 medical and public health experts globally working in cancer prevention. Since 2021, Patwardhan is working with digital tech partners for innovating in oral cancer screening.

David Janazzo leads the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World’s efforts to transform the global tobacco industry and nicotine ecosystem to end smoking in this generation. The Foundation’s first action in this area has been the creation of the Tobacco Transformation Index®. David oversees the internal operations and the financial functions of the Foundation, including accounting and auditing, as well as financial planning, analysis, and reporting. In addition, he directs independent research and data analysis associated with relevant industry issues. David’s extensive work experience includes positions with the Fortune 100 companies Merrill Lynch, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and AT&T. 

Flora Okereke is Head of Global Regulatory Insights and Foresights at BAT, responsible for the analysis and forecasting of international regulatory developments on behalf of BAT’s 180-plus global markets. Flora also coordinates BAT’s policy responses to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and other global institutions. She has previously held several senior country, regional and global roles at BAT, including legal, corporate and regulatory affairs director for West Africa; head of regulatory affairs for Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe; global head of regulatory strategy and engagement; and senior director of government affairs and international policy at Reynolds American Incorporated Services, a subsidiary of RJR Tobacco based in Washington, D.C. Flora was called to the Bar of England and Wales (Middle Temple) and later admitted as a solicitor by the Law Society. Flora is a renowned speaker at the global policy conferences.

Charles Hamshaw-Thomas worked with the two founding shareholders of E-Lites, the pioneering brand at the forefront of the UK vaping industry’s explosive early growth (2011-2015). Charlie led E-Lites’ external engagement – in London, Brussels and Washington DC – at the time when governments & regulators were first turning their attention to the nascent ‘new nicotine’ category. He also led E-Lites’ business development initiatives, which culminated in the sale of E-Lites to Japan Tobacco International in 2014. Since 2015, he has undertaken some consultancy roles to, and remained a close and enthusiastic observer of, the new industry. Charlie’s fervent wish is to see the industry truly realise its disruptive potential.

Grzegorz Król, Ph.D. is a Director at Knowledge•Action•Change, the sister company to KAC Communications which runs GFN. Social psychologist & IT specialist, author of publications on psychology, data analysis and harm reduction. Since 2003 Grzegorz manages international projects in the area of public health, drugs and tobacco harm reduction. Between 2012 and 2018, he was lecturer at the Faculty of Management and MBA School, University of Warsaw. Since 2016, member of the European Network for Research Evaluation in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (ENRESSH), part of the COST Action: European Cooperation in Science and Technology. Co-founder of a harm reduction knowledge hub at harmreduction.eu

Dr Roberto A Sussman (PhD University of London) is a full time senior researcher and lecturer at the Institute for Nuclear Sciences of the National University of Mexico. His main research areas are General Relativity and Cosmology, but he has conducted research in other areas of Physics, including peer reviewed publications on e-cigarette aerosols. He is also the founder and Director of Pro-Vapeo Mexico, an association representing Mexican consumers of noncombustible nicotine products and is a member of INNCO. He is actively advocating for an appropriate regulation of Tobacco Harm Reduction products in Mexico. He directs and supervises the effort to spread scientific information on these products, as well as advising consumers on how to counter the gubernmental misinformation and prejudice about them that is rampant throughout Latin America.

Grzegorz Król, Ph.D. is a Director at Knowledge•Action•Change, the sister company to KAC Communications which runs GFN. Social psychologist & IT specialist, author of publications on psychology, data analysis and harm reduction. Since 2003 Grzegorz manages international projects in the area of public health, drugs and tobacco harm reduction. Between 2012 and 2018, he was lecturer at the Faculty of Management and MBA School, University of Warsaw. Since 2016, member of the European Network for Research Evaluation in the Social Sciences and the Humanities (ENRESSH), part of the COST Action: European Cooperation in Science and Technology. Co-founder of a harm reduction knowledge hub at harmreduction.eu

Anne Molloy is the wife and life long partner of the late Kevin Molloy, who worked with Knowledge Action Change as Head of the Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship Programme, until he sadly passed away in 2021. Anne met Kevin in London through their work as actors. They eventually moved to Canterbury, where they raised their two children, Lottie & Jake. As well as Anne’s career in acting, she has worked as a lecturer in Performing Arts, is an advanced practitioner and mentor in the field of teaching and learning and is currently training to be a Humanist wedding celebrant.

Sarah Cooney is a science engagement specialist focusing on harm reduction and science communication, now running her own consultancy. Prior to this, she spent nearly 12 years at British American Tobacco, establishing the science engagement and communication capability at BAT R&D, to better communicate the science behind less-risky nicotine products to regulatory and general audiences. She drove a real change in BAT’s publishing strategy and created the visitor engagement programme, science exhibition and a series of award-winning science reports – which showcased the company’s reduced risk product research in an accessible way. Prior to BAT, she held various editorial and publishing roles at Nature, Elsevier and BioMedCentral. She holds a BSc in genetics and an MSc in plant genetics both from the University of Toronto, and her research has been published in Science. She is also dedicated to choral singing!

Harry Shapiro is Director of DrugWise – an online drug information service - and Managing Editor of DS Daily - the daily online drug, alcohol and tobacco news service. He has worked in the drugs field for over 40 years, first with the Institute for the Study of Drug Dependence and then from 2000 with DrugScope where he was Director of Communications until the charity folded in 2015.

Since 2015, he has been working with Knowledge-Action-Change promoting public health through harm reduction. He is the author and Executive Editor of the Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction report, contributes a blog to Nicotine Science and Policy and is one of KAC’s media spokespeople.

Marina Murphy PhD is a scientific communications and engagement professional with more than 25 years of experience including 14 years in the tobacco and nicotine sector. With a background in chemistry, she also has broad outreach, engagement and advocacy experience. Marina is Senior Director of Scientific and Medical Affairs at ANDS. She has previously worked for JUUL Labs as Head of Public Health Advocacy and spent nearly ten years working for British American Tobacco where she was a driving force behind a communications strategy designed to reflect BAT’s transparent approach to scientific communication. The strategy was designed to provide clear communication and engender debate on the company’s ambitious tobacco harm-reduction research program. Over these ten years, Marina held various roles, including Head of Scientific Media Relations, International Scientific Engagement Manager and Scientific Communications Manager. Marina has also worked as a journalist, editor and in PR and has published in several high-profile publications including New Scientist, The Irish Times and science|business.

Bernd Mayer was appointed at the University of Graz as a full Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology in 1999. His main research area is cardiovascular pharmacology, focusing on vascular endothelial cells and oxidative stress. In 2006 he was presented with an e-cigarette made by RuyanTM in China. Since then, he has advocated e-cigarettes as much less harmful alternatives to conventional cigarettes for smokers. In 2013 he studied documented historical cases of nicotine poisoning. As a result, he raised the then generally accepted lethal oral dose from 60 mg to 500-1,000 mg, indicating that regular use of nicotine products won't lead to considerable poisoning.

Jasjit S. Ahluwalia is a physician and public health scientist at Brown University’s Schools of Public Health and Medicine. He has been in academic medicine since 1992. His primary research areas are smoking cessation and nicotine addiction in African American smokers for which he has secured more than $120 million as a PI, Co-PI and Co-Investigator. He has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for 28 years and has published more than 375 manuscripts. Ahluwalia has served on the U.S. government’s National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities, on the SRNT board of directors and recently completed a 3-year term on the federal government’s Interagency Committee on Smoking and Health chaired by the U.S. Surgeon General.

Amaliya, DDS. MSc. PhD. is a lecturer and researcher from Dental Faculty, Department of

Periodontology, Universitas Padjadjaran, Bandung, Indonesia. From 2017 until now, she is

involved in an NGO called KABAR (Tar-Free Indonesian Coalition) and become their leading

researcher. She is active in educating and promoting Tobacco Harm Reduction, particularly in

helping smokers who are unwilling to quit. Recently she is the principal researcher for SMILE

study, an international research collaboration to evaluate the effect of switching from a

combustible-cigarette to a non-combustible product on oral health.

Summer Hanna, PhD serves as Head of Scientific Regulatory Engagement on behalf of BAT. She is responsible for Group-wide scientific engagement to drive the awareness and acceptance of Tobacco Harm Reduction and the development of science-based regulatory approaches for reduced risk products globally.

Dr. Hanna has held a variety of US and Global roles across Scientific Research & Development and Regulatory Affairs. She most recently led the development of the cannabinoid discovery science programme as part of BAT’s Beyond Nicotine strategy. Previously, Summer led teams within Reynolds’ FDA Submissions & Engagement team focused on their smokeless tobacco portfolio, along with previous roles in Analytical Research.

Before joining Reynolds American in 2011, Hanna received her PhD in Analytical Chemistry from Wake Forest University. She currently serves as treasurer to the US Technical Advisory Group for ISO/ TC 126.

David MacKintosh has over 25 years’ experience of working on alcohol and drug policy, which has included working within the UK Cabinet Office (UKADCU), heading up the London Drug and Alcohol Policy Forum (LDAPF) and providing specialist advice to the Greater London Authority. He also spent six years as Head of Community Safety for the City of London and has served as a trustee of a number of charities addressing substance use problems. He has helped deliver a range of innovative campaigns and national best practice guidance, which have all had one common purpose, to reduce harm to individuals and communities. In 2020 he began working as an independent consultant and is now helping Knowledge•Action•Change support and develop evidence based harm reduction programmes.

Cheryl K. Olson, MPH, Sc.D. is a behavioral scientist internationally recognized for her work on health risk behaviors (including tobacco harm reduction) and the influence of media on youth. She earned a doctorate in health and social behavior from the Harvard School of Public Health. She spent 15 years on the psychiatry faculty of Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, where she co-directed the Center for Mental Health and Media. She has authored dozens of academic papers, and writes a monthly column on public health for Tobacco Reporter. Dr. Olson consults on nicotine product behavior research through McKinney Regulatory Science Advisors.

Michael Kariuki is a Consultant Paediatrician, Public Health specialist and an Epidemiologist with interest in Harm Reduction in Tobacco, Alcohol, Cannabis, Pesticide and Opioids. He a founder member and secretary of Harm Reduction Society in Kenya. He has over 15 years experience in clinical work, public health and leadership. Over the past two years he has conducted extensive work on THR including research on Toxicants of STPs in Kenya and being a host in media and writing of op-eds. He is self-driven desirous to see positive impact and change in society.He is a children’s advocate in safety and health.

Dr. Le Dinh Phuong has spent more than 30 years working in Intensive Care and Internal Medicine. In these fields, he has seen all the extents of smoking harms, from new smokers to end-stage lung disease patients. He is an experienced clinician, a medical educator as well as speaker and/or CME lecturer for different organizations related to Smoking Harm Reduction, such as Medical Universities, Vietnam Medical Association, Vietnam Young Physician Association. By these educational activities, he shares about tobacco harm reduction approaches with patients and local medical community. He is author of many op-eds in public newspapers and high-profile media to encourage smokers who otherwise continue smoking to switch to better alternatives. He has much attentiveness on harm reduction innovation as an important part of preventive medicine in many cardio-metabolic disorders as well.”

Kasia runs the Global Public Health Foundation, which aims to share research and experience in public health across all relevant sectors. She is also a lecturer at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. Kasia's area of experience includes harm reduction, public health and event management.

Lindsey Stroud is Director of TPA’s Consumer Center, which provides data and analysis to inform and assist policymakers when addressing consumer products. Stroud’s main focus is on providing up-to-date information on adult access to goods including alcohol, tobacco and vapor products, as well as regulatory policies that affect adult access to other consumer products, including harm reduction, technology, innovation, antitrust and privacy. Prior, Stroud was a state government relations manager at The Heartland Institute, and authored Tobacco Harm Reduction 101: A Guidebook for Policymakers in 2019, as well as Vaping, E-Cigarettes and Public Policy Towards Alternatives to Smoking in 2017, as well as hosting the podcast series Voices of Vapers. Prior to Heartland, Stroud worked as a staffer for state lawmakers in Minnesota and Virginia. In addition to her role at TPA, Stroud is the creator and manager of Tobacco Harm Reduction 101 (thr101.org) and a board director for the American Vapor Manufacturers Association and a Visiting Fellow at the Independent Womens Forum. Stroud received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Government from the College of William and Mary.

Professor Marewa Glover has worked on reducing smoking-related harm for over 25 years. She has worked as a policy analyst, a co-ordinator of a national tobacco control programme, cessation trainer and, for over 17 years, as a researcher. She has chaired numerous committees and organisations including End Smoking NZ, an independent NGO that lobbied for a harm reduction approach even before electronic cigarettes were introduced. Marewa has over 100 publications reflecting her leadership and support of numerous studies. Her primary focus has been reducing smoking during pregnancy and reducing smoking among Māori, the indigenous people of New Zealand. She has also been a co-investigator on a number of innovative cessation projects and a longitudinal online survey of New Zealand vapers. Dr Glover is the most prominent public commentator on vaping in NZ. She is regularly called by the media and has appeared on NZ’s 60 Minutes in addition to participating in live online and conference debates about vaping. Despite an initial ban on the import and sale of nicotine for vaping imposed by the Ministry of Health, vaping has become established as a common and successful way to reduce or stop smoking in NZ. Marewa, along with a small number of other researchers who early on foresaw the potential of ecigs, have helped make this happen.

Dr. Oyston graduated in 1980 from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK, with two degrees: a medical degree and a degree in medical research. He trained as an anesthesiologist from 1983 to 1990, qualifying as a specialist in both the UK and Canada. He has also worked as an anesthesiologist in New Zealand, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. He was appointed Chief of Anesthesiology four times. He was also an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, and a peer assessor for the College of Physicians Surgeons of Ontario.

In November 2019, Dr. Oyston retired from clinical practice to work on smoking cessation advocacy and knowledge translation related to safer nicotine products for people who smoke.

He has published editorials on tobacco control topics in the Canadian Journal of Anesthesia and the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Dr. Arielle Selya is a Scientist at Pinney Associates whose primary expertise is tobacco use behavior among youth and adults. Prior to joining Pinney Associates, she spent a decade in academia studying adolescent substance use and addiction. She previously held a faculty position at Sanford Research, where she led initiatives to translate population-health research projects into clinical implementation, and to make electronic medical records available on demand. She also served as an Assistant Professor at the University of North Dakota in the Master of Public Health program. Arielle has over 50 publications to her credit in behavioral science and methodology.

Kevin Garcia is a graduate student at Colorado State University studying public health and social work with a concentration in global health and health disparities. He is also a harm reduction content strategist for NEXT Distro, a tobacco harm reduction fellow for Filter, and graduate research assistant for the Parent-Child Relationships and Well-Being Lab. Prior, Garcia was a health educator providing street-based syringe access services and a bilingual medical case manager for people living with HIV. He initially became involved in harm reduction through Students for Sensible Drug Policy as a chapter leader for the Florida International University chapter and later as a member of the board of directors for the national organization. Garcia received his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Florida International University and a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Michelle Minton is a senior policy analyst at the Reason Foundation. Minton specializes in consumer policy, covering regulatory issues that include gambling, tobacco harm reduction, cannabis legalization, alcohol, and nutrition.

Minton has authored numerous studies, including topics like the effectiveness and unintended consequences of sin taxes and history of gambling regulation. Her analyses have been published and cited by nationally respected news outlets such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and USA Today as well as peer-reviewed journals. She regularly appears in news media to discuss the unintended effects of laws and rules designed to save adults from their own choices which, not only conflicts with the principle of individual liberty, but often the goals of public health.

Ms. Minton holds a Bachelor of Arts from the Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Science from the University of new England.

When not working, Minton engages in hands-on “research” in her areas of expertise by spending many hours playing poker, enjoying salty foods, and drinking delicious craft beers.

Paul Newhouse, M.D. holds the Jim Turner Chair in Cognitive Disorders at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and is Professor of Psychiatry, Pharmacology, and Medicine. He is Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Cognitive Medicine (VCCM) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He directs the Clinical Core for the Vanderbilt Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and is also a physician-scientist at the Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Health Systems Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC). He is an Army veteran and served in Operation Desert Storm.

Dr. Newhouse received his undergraduate education at Kansas State University, attended medical school at Loyola University, Stritch School of Medicine, and completed his residency training in psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center followed by a fellowship in Geriatric Psychopharmacology Research at the National Institute of Mental Health. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both General Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry and was awarded the American Psychiatric Association Profiles in Courage award in 2002 and the Loyola University Alumnus of the Year Award for Research in 2017.

Dr. Newhouse's research has focused on brain cholinergic mechanisms in cognitive aging and the role of nicotinic cholinergic receptor systems in normal and impaired cognitive functioning in humans. His work established the importance of brain nicotinic cholinergic receptor systems in normal cognitive processes and established these receptors as a therapeutic target in Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions. He has pioneered the development of human models for new cognitive drug development including early first-in-human studies to the design and implementation of national multicenter trials. He has emphasized the development of novel cholinergic agents for clinical use in cognitive disorders and has established novel brain imaging and biomarker-based measures of brain drug effects through the use of novel pharmacologic‐imaging methodologies. His research has been continuously funded by NIH since 1989 and he is funded currently by the National Institute on Aging, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, and other private companies and foundations.

Dr McGovern qualified in Medicine in 1995 from Trinity College Dublin
and has worked as a GP specialising in addiction medicine since 1998. He
provides care for opioid dependent patients in several HSE clinics
throughout South Dublin and inner city. In January 2022 he was appointed
Clinical Lead for the HSE Addiction Services in Louth Meath & The
Midlands. Dr McGovern holds a Master’s degree in Clinical and Public
Health Aspects of Addiction from The National Addiction Centre, King’s
College London (2006) and is a Diplomate of the International Society of
Addiction Medicine (ISAM). He has a keen interest in tobacco harm
reduction and is a huge advocate for all interventions that can help
smokers quit.

Dr Carolyn Beaumont is an Australian general practitioner and educator, and Tobacco Harm
Reduction Scholarship Programme 2023 recipient. She is a staunch advocate for the rights of adult ex-smokers to have easy legal access to good quality vaping products.
She has helped thousands of Australian ex-smokers remain smoke free through her online
business MedicalNicotine, which allows her to provide adult vapers with their nicotine
prescription that is required by law in Australia. This service began in 2020, as she
developed more awareness and understanding of the plight of chronic smokers – those who
desperately want to stop smoking and have tried many traditional options without success.
Carolyn has been published in national newspapers, interviewed on national radio, co-
authored medical journal articles and is a regular contributor to national and international tobacco harm reduction webinars and forums. She aims to educate people about nicotine
addiction, and to view this condition with compassion and understanding.
At the same time, Carolyn recognizes that the best option is for youth to never use tobacco
or nicotine in the first place. She presents to secondary school students and parents, in
which the dangers of blackmarket vaping and tobacco addiction in the young are discussed.
Carolyn has GP fellowship, and holds a Doctor of Medicine, a postgraduate Diploma of Child
Health, a postgraduate Diploma of Education, a Bachelor of Medical Science (top graduate)
and a Bachelor of Music (first class honours). She had a previous ‘second life’ as a pianist
and teacher for over a decade before embarking on medical studies in her late 30s.
She has recently been recognized by her local council, having been nominated for the 2023
local council ‘Woman of the year award’ for her work in tobacco harm advocacy, support for
ex-smokers and school education.
Carolyn is proud to be a THRSP 2023 recipient, and she is using this opportunity to create a
tobacco harm reduction educational presentation for Australian medical students.

Mark Oates is the Director of We Vape and the Snus Users Association, which are both consumer groups standing up for the right of individuals to use safer nicotine products. He advocates for evidence-based harm reduction in a range of areas from tobacco to drug policy, a subject he has written on for the Institute of Economic Affairs and the Adam Smith Institute, where he is a Fellow. He also provided consumer evidence in the 2018 ECJ case to overturn the ban of snus across the European Union and worked on the successful 2018 campaign to legalise medical cannabis in the UK.

Christopher Russell, Ph.D. is a psychologist and Director of Russell Burnett Research &

Consultancy Ltd (RBRC), a contract research organization that specializes in the design,

conduct, and reporting of perception and behavioral studies of the potential population health

risks and benefits of candidate tobacco harm reduction (THR) products, such as ENDS,

heated tobacco products, and modern oral tobacco products. RBRC designs studies to

characterize adults’ use and perceptions of new tobacco products, longitudinal tobacco

product use transitions, and understanding of product labels, labelling, and marketing

materials. Results of these studies help to inform PMTA, MRTPA, and other applicable

regulatory assessments of the potential impact of candidate THR products on future tobacco

use behavior and population health.

Dr. Moira Gilchrist leads the global strategic and scientific communications for Philip Morris International (PMI). From bringing to life PMI’s fast-pace progress as it evolves into a smoke-free business and expands in areas outside the tobacco and nicotine space, to translating the science behind PMI’s smoke-free alternatives into information that policymakers and the public can easily understand, Moira and her team are at the heart of the company’s historic evolution. She regularly engages with public health authorities, media, and decision-makers around the world, demonstrating the benefits of scientifically substantiated, smoke-free products for those adults who would otherwise continue smoking and calling for risk-proportionate regulation that affords these people accurate information about and access to these better alternatives. In short, she plays a vital role in PMI’s transition away from cigarettes and its journey toward a better, smoke-free future.

Prior to her current role, Moira held several positions within PMI, including leading the
Reduced-Risk Products Corporate Affairs team, serving as director of Scientific
Engagement within the R&D function, and working in both product development and
commercialization.
Before joining PMI in 2006, Moira worked in the pharmaceutical sector for more than a
decade. She was a principal consultant within PwC’s and IBM’s pharmaceutical industry
consulting groups and held positions within both industry and nonprofit organizations as
a developer of drug formulations.
Moira holds a degree in Pharmacy and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences, both from the
University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.

David Janazzo leads the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World’s efforts to transform the global tobacco industry and nicotine ecosystem to end smoking in this generation. The Foundation’s first action in this area has been the creation of the Tobacco Transformation Index®. David oversees the internal operations and the financial functions of the Foundation, including accounting and auditing, as well as financial planning, analysis, and reporting. In addition, he directs independent research and data analysis associated with relevant industry issues. David’s extensive work experience includes positions with the Fortune 100 companies Merrill Lynch, Time Warner Cable, Verizon, and AT&T. 

Samrat Chowdhery is a journalist and consumer advocate who has steered global and national movements for adult access to safer nicotine alternatives. He is the director of Association of Vapers India, among the oldest tobacco harm reduction-focused consumer nonprofits. He is a past president of International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations, an umbrella body of over 30 national groups. He was a recipient of Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarships to investigate the efficacy and affordability of vaping and smokeless alternatives among bidi and khaini users in India and offers mentorship on advocacy and research in advancing safer nicotine availability in low- and middle-income countries. He authors articles in the harm reduction magazine, Filter.

Fiona Patten was a member of the Victorian parliament in Australia from 2014 to 2022. She campaigned on harm reduction policies for 30 years and ran the adult industry association (Eros) for 20 years. She initiated and delivered reforms including voluntary assisted dying, abortion law reform, the decriminalisation of sex work and drug law reform.

Since leaving parliament she has continued to work on social reform issues including medicinal cannabis, drug harm reduction including for tobacco, criminal justice reform and greater separation of church and state.

In 2018 she published her autobiography -‘Sex, Drugs and the Electoral Roll’. She is also the owner of a registered wildlife sanctuary.

Paul Newhouse, M.D. holds the Jim Turner Chair in Cognitive Disorders at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and is Professor of Psychiatry, Pharmacology, and Medicine. He is Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Cognitive Medicine (VCCM) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He directs the Clinical Core for the Vanderbilt Alzheimer's Disease Research Center and is also a physician-scientist at the Veterans Affairs Tennessee Valley Health Systems Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC). He is an Army veteran and served in Operation Desert Storm.

Dr. Newhouse received his undergraduate education at Kansas State University, attended medical school at Loyola University, Stritch School of Medicine, and completed his residency training in psychiatry at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center followed by a fellowship in Geriatric Psychopharmacology Research at the National Institute of Mental Health. He is a diplomat of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both General Psychiatry and Geriatric Psychiatry and was awarded the American Psychiatric Association Profiles in Courage award in 2002 and the Loyola University Alumnus of the Year Award for Research in 2017.

Dr. Newhouse's research has focused on brain cholinergic mechanisms in cognitive aging and the role of nicotinic cholinergic receptor systems in normal and impaired cognitive functioning in humans. His work established the importance of brain nicotinic cholinergic receptor systems in normal cognitive processes and established these receptors as a therapeutic target in Alzheimer’s disease and related conditions. He has pioneered the development of human models for new cognitive drug development including early first-in-human studies to the design and implementation of national multicenter trials. He has emphasized the development of novel cholinergic agents for clinical use in cognitive disorders and has established novel brain imaging and biomarker-based measures of brain drug effects through the use of novel pharmacologic‐imaging methodologies. His research has been continuously funded by NIH since 1989 and he is funded currently by the National Institute on Aging, the Alzheimer’s Association, the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, and other private companies and foundations.

Sudhanshu Patwardhan is a British-Indian, U.K.-licensed medical doctor, passionate about Healthtech innovation in cancer prevention. For the past two decades, he has lived and worked in three continents, doing senior roles in research, strategy and policy in the pharmaceutical and tobacco industries. 

In his early years in tobacco harm reduction, his team of clinical researchers and lab scientists set the foundations for the assessment of reduced-risk products, now accepted by regulators and the industry as the definitive approach for duty of care and regulatory compliance. At Nicoventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of BAT, he was instrumental in enabling the first e-cigarette company acquisition by a global tobacco business leading to a successful application for a medical license with the MHRA for an e-cigarette. In his policy role there, Patwardhan shaped the creation of a global key opinion leader network in consumer advocacy and public health champions. With the British Standards Institution (BSI), Patwardhan led the creation of the world’s first vaping product standards for safety and quality in 2015 and the BSI Online Age Checking specifications in collaboration with the Westminster-based Digital Policy Alliance in 2018. 

Patwardhan splits time between the U.K. and South Asia on projects that address the needs of the most disadvantaged tobacco users. In 2018, he co-founded the Centre for Health Research and Education that now has a team of over 100 medical and public health experts globally working in cancer prevention. Since 2021, Patwardhan is working with digital tech partners for innovating in oral cancer screening.

Konstantinos Farsalinos, MD, MPH is a physician and senior researcher at the University of Patras and the School of Public Health-University of West Attica in Greece. His field of expertise is Public Health. He has been conducting laboratory, clinical and epidemiological research on smoking, tobacco harm reduction and e-cigarettes as principal investigator since 2011. He authored the first systematic review on e-cigarette safety/risk profile, published in 2014. Additionally, he has performed research and published studies on heated tobacco products. His findings have been presented in major international scientific congresses and his studies were used in preparing the regulatory framework on e-cigarettes by the European Union. As of mid-2020, he has published more than 90 studies and articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals about smoking, tobacco harm reduction and alternative-to-smoking nicotine products. He was the handling editor and author of a book titled "Analytical assessment of e-cigarettes", published by Elsevier in 2017. In November 2020, he was declared a Highly Cited Researcher 2019 by the Web of Science, a list of researchers (6200 scientists out of 9 million examined) with the highest impact in global science in 21 scientific fields in the past decade. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has published 6 peer-reviewed studies and several pre-prints about the COVID-19, including the association between smoking, nicotine and COVID-19.

Martin Cullip is a former company director and International Fellow of the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, who has written and blogged on free market and lifestyle consumer issues for over a decade. As a user of e-cigarettes and other safer nicotine products, he is a particularly passionate consumer advocate for all forms of tobacco harm reduction and has a keen interest in the rapidly-evolving nicotine market and the politics surrounding it. Martin is a former Chair of UK educational charity, The New Nicotine Alliance, and has taken part in parliamentary evidence sessions and consumer, industry, and political events on the subject domestically and internationally.

Professor Gerry Stimson is a leading advocate for tobacco harm reduction and an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. A public health social scientist, with over 50 years’ experience of research and advocacy, he was one of the founders of drugs harm reduction in the 1990s, helping to develop and evaluate harm reduction in the UK as a response to HIV/AIDS. Gerry has advised the UK Government, WHO, UNAIDS, UNODC, the World Bank and numerous governments around the world on issues relating to drugs, HIV infection and AIDS, and alcohol. He has also published over 220 scientific publications and several books. 

Currently, Gerry is Director of Research and Policy at Knowledge•Action•Change, and is involved in the FSFW-funded Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction and Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship programmes. He is also a co-founder of the Global Forum on Nicotine, which has been delivered by KAC Communications since 2014. 

Education – High School from England; Bachelor from Assumption University, Thailand; Master from Avila University, USA

Social – Past President of Rotary club, committee of the Federation of the Thai Industries, etc.

Works –Intertrade Manager at Probiotic and Herbal manufacturing company.

Present – Director / founding member of ENDs Cigarette Smoke Thailand (ECST).

Asa was a former smoker who smoked for over 37 years and had tried almost all quit methods until he found vaping over 10 years ago which he switched and successfully quit smoking ever since.  Asa is an avid advocate for Tobacco Harm Reduction who resides in Thailand, the country that prohibits importation, distribution and manufacturing of vape products.

ECST is a consumer group that was founded about 7 years ago when vaping became illegal. We have sent petition letters to various government and related entities asking for the right to choose. Our aim is to legalize THR as an alternative for those who want to quit smoking.

Nancy Loucas is passionate about supporting and amplifying the consumers of safer nicotine products to assist having their voices heard in the narrative of THR and public health policy. Her THR advocacy began in 2015 as one of the founders/co directors of Aotearoa Vapers Community Advocacy (AVCA) in New Zealand, doing battle for the rights of vapers to be able to access what they need to become/remain smoke free. The work of AVCA was significant, as New Zealand now has a legal and regulated consumer market for nicotine vapes and heated tobacco products. Nancy is the founder and Executive Coordinator for CAPHRA - the Coalition of Asia Pacific Tobacco Harm Reduction Advocates. CAPHRA supports consumer THR advocacy organisations and activities throughout the Asia Pacific region and beyond. CAPHRA has developed and presented various programmes for consumers. These include the Voices4Vape online seminar series, sCOPe consumer livestream that runs during the annual World Vape Day/World No Tobacco Day, and the recurring stream that runs during the weeklong FCTC COP. Nancy also writes and produces the Advocates Voice online newscast and the Advocates Voice Live sessions that support education and guidance to consumer advocates globally for CAPHRA. CAPHRA, under Nancy’s leadership, established the collaborative “Right2Vape” testimonial database with CASAA in the USA, and the “Right to Switch” change.org petition. Both of these assets contain thousands of consumer testimonials from across the world and continues to grow.

Konstantinos Farsalinos, MD, MPH is a physician and senior researcher at the University of Patras and the School of Public Health-University of West Attica in Greece. His field of expertise is Public Health. He has been conducting laboratory, clinical and epidemiological research on smoking, tobacco harm reduction and e-cigarettes as principal investigator since 2011. He authored the first systematic review on e-cigarette safety/risk profile, published in 2014. Additionally, he has performed research and published studies on heated tobacco products. His findings have been presented in major international scientific congresses and his studies were used in preparing the regulatory framework on e-cigarettes by the European Union. As of mid-2020, he has published more than 90 studies and articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals about smoking, tobacco harm reduction and alternative-to-smoking nicotine products. He was the handling editor and author of a book titled "Analytical assessment of e-cigarettes", published by Elsevier in 2017. In November 2020, he was declared a Highly Cited Researcher 2019 by the Web of Science, a list of researchers (6200 scientists out of 9 million examined) with the highest impact in global science in 21 scientific fields in the past decade. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he has published 6 peer-reviewed studies and several pre-prints about the COVID-19, including the association between smoking, nicotine and COVID-19.

Fiona Patten was a member of the Victorian parliament in Australia from 2014 to 2022. She campaigned on harm reduction policies for 30 years and ran the adult industry association (Eros) for 20 years. She initiated and delivered reforms including voluntary assisted dying, abortion law reform, the decriminalisation of sex work and drug law reform.

Since leaving parliament she has continued to work on social reform issues including medicinal cannabis, drug harm reduction including for tobacco, criminal justice reform and greater separation of church and state.

In 2018 she published her autobiography -‘Sex, Drugs and the Electoral Roll’. She is also the owner of a registered wildlife sanctuary.

Jonathan Fell has followed developments in the tobacco and nicotine industries for 30 years. He began his career as an equity research analyst covering tobacco and other consumer industries at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank, and from 2013 to 2022 he was a founder and portfolio manager at Ash Park, an investment manager focused on investments in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. Jon now spends his time as a consultant in the tobacco and nicotine spheres (currently including a project for the Foundation for a Smoke-Free World) and as a director / trustee in the not-for-profit sector, including Article 36, a UK-based organisation working to promote public scrutiny over the development and use of weapons.

Joe Thompson is Group Science & Regulatory Affairs Director at Imperial Brands. He is responsible for the science that substantiates Imperial Brands' next generation products as potentially reduced harm relative to continued smoking and the stewardship of Imperials products. He leads a large multi-disciplined team of 200 people, and a laboratory network spread over several countries. Joe has 23 years experience in the science of nicotine containing products.

Joe is also the President of CORESTA (Cooperation Centre for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco), a global organisation with over 170 company, institute, and laboratory members. CORESTA is an authoritative source of publicly available, credible science and best practices related to tobacco products. He also serves on the Safety Board of Auxly, a cannabis derivatives leader focused on providing branded cannabis products underpinned by science and innovation.

Joe is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a European Registered Toxicologist (ERT) with degrees in Toxicology and Physiology.

Since graduating with a degree in Politics and Government in 1978, Paddy has worked in a number of aspects of public health and social care, including alcohol and drug services, the probation service and public health advocacy. In addition to these he has worked in event management, including directing five editions of the International Harm Reduction conference. Since 2012 he has been mainly involved in the development and promotion of Tobacco Harm Reduction, including directing the Global Forum on Nicotine.