Zoe Belshaw, MA Vet MB PhD Cert SAM Dip ECVIM-CA AFHEA MRCVS is a veterinary surgeon with a clinical specialism in small animal internal medicine. She received a PhD from the University of Nottingham in 2017 for investigating welfare assessment in canine osteoarthritis and was awarded the British Small Animal Veterinary Association’s Petsavers Award in 2020. She has worked in general practice, referral clinics, university teaching hospitals and charity practice. She is currently combining looking after a toddler with collaborative research on how veterinary professionals and owners make decisions about pets that need veterinary care; how the quality of life of those pets and owners can best be assessed; and characterising the Pandemic Puppy phenomenon.

Sarah Cleaveland, OBE VetMB PhD MRCVS FRSE FMedSci FRS is a veterinary epidemiologist based at the University of Glasgow, U.K, who leads an inter-disciplinary One Health research programme in East Africa. After training as a veterinarian at the University of Cambridge, she carried out her PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine focusing on rabies, which continues to be an area of interest. Her research in Tanzania now also addresses a wide range of other zoonotic and livestock disease problems affecting human and animal health, rural livelihoods and wildlife conservation. Prof. Cleaveland is involved in several graduate training programmes and One Health capacity-strengthening initiatives with partner institutions across East and West Africa. Prof. Cleaveland was a founding director of the Alliance for Rabies Control and contributes to the United Against Rabies Forum that is coordinating international efforts towards the global elimination of canine rabies. She is a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences and the Royal Society and is a member of the US Academy of Medicine.

Ingrid Deuzeman, BScH MBA is a Marketing and Sales leader with over three decades of experience in Animal Health. She has looked after strategic marketing both at the global as well as the local market level. She has a specific passion for biologicals, and is currently the Global Marketing Director for Companion Animal Biologicals at Merck Animal Health. Most recently, Ingrid and the Global Nobivac team have had extensive focus and experience with product launches and global brand building. Prior to leading the Global Nobivac team, Ingrid drove the US and Canadian commercial organizations forward as a sales leader, a brand leader and an individual contributor. The science of healthier animals has always been important to Ingrid. She grew up in her family’s business - managing and working in veterinary practices. Specifically, the elimination of rabies is a cause she is passionate about, and in addition to participating in the Rabies Free Ranchi initiative in Ranchi India, she has volunteered with Mission Rabies in the Bosumtwi region of Ghana. Ingrid holds a Bachelor of Science Honours in Life Sciences from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Her MBA concentration was in Marketing with a minor in Finance. While in her MBA program, she had the opportunity to study in Marseille France at the Kedge Business School. When not at work, Ingrid enjoys art and design, dancing, golfing, downhill skiing, hiking, and travelling.

Regina Hofmann-Lehmann, Dr. med. vet. FVH is professor of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Zurich and Head of the Department of Clinical Diagnostics and Services at the University Animal Hospital of the Vetsuisse Faculty. She had a research appointment at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, was instructor at the Harvard Medical School and received a professorship of the Swiss National Science Foundation. She directs the Center for Clinical Studies in Zurich, a core research facility dedicated to laboratory-based clinical research. She is head of the multivalent diagnostic Clinical Laboratory (www.vetlabor.ch) that receives samples from all patients of the University Teaching Hospital as well as from other clinics and various zoos. The laboratory is the only one in Switzerland accredited by the European College of Veterinary Clinical Pathology (ECVCP) and is specialised in cytology, flow cytometry and infection diagnostics. She served many years as president of the Swiss Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians, is a member of the Swiss veterinary Vaccination Commission, and a board member of the European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (ABCDcatsvets.org), an independent panel of veterinary experts of feline infectious diseases. Her main research interests are clinical infectiology with a focus on retroviruses, coronaviruses and other infection diseases particularly in domestic and wild felids. She is the author of several book chapters and guidelines as well as more than 300 scientific publications and her research involves collaborations with researcher and clinicians worldwide.

Rhonda LaFleur, Ph.D.
has worked as a research scientist in Merck Animal Health’s Research and Development Department in Elkhorn, Nebraska for the past 24 years. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln and her Ph.D. in Molecular Veterinary Biosciences from the University of Minnesota. She has served as the Project Leader in the development of several US companion animal vaccines including, Nobivac® Lyme, Nobivac® DAPPv + Lepto4, Nobivac® Canine Flu H3N2, Nobivac® Canine Flu Bivalent, Nobivac® Intra-Trac® Oral Bb, and recently Nobivac® Intra-Trac® Oral BbPi. She currently manages several projects and leads a team of scientists that continue to look for innovative ways to keep dogs and cats protected from disease while helping veterinarians and clinical staff members provide a customer experience that is safe, efficient, and convenient.

Mary Marcondes, DVM, M.Sc., PhD qualified as a veterinary surgeon from the University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil in 1986. She then completed a Residency in Small Animal Internal Medicine and Surgery at the same University from 1987 to 1988. Mary completed her M.Sc. in Clinical Veterinary Science at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in 1992 and her PhD in Clinical Veterinary Science at USP in 1998. She held postdoctoral positions in infectious diseases at the Department of Pathology at the University of São Paulo Medical School from 2007 to 2008 and at Dr. Janet Foley’s Laboratory in Infectious Disease, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis in 2011. Mary worked at São Paulo State University for 26 years, from where she retired as an Associate Professor of small animal internal medicine and infectious diseases in 2018. Her research focus is on companion-animal infectious diseases. Currently, she is a member of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) Vaccination Guidelines Group (VGG), The African Small Companion Animal Network (AFSCAN) board, and the Companion Vector-Borne Diseases (CVBD) World Forum. Mary has published over 95 scientific papers, is the author of 18 book chapters, and has presented more than 350 lectures at continuing education courses and national and international veterinary events. She continues an active program of delivering continuing education in vaccinology and the management of infectious and vector-borne diseases in Latin America.

Natalie Marks, DVM, CVJ obtained her bachelor's degree with High Honors in Animal Science from the University of Illinois in 1998, and then proceeded to obtain a Masters in Veterinary Medicine and Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine degree with High Honors from the University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine. She became a Certified Veterinary Journalist in 2018. She has been a veterinarian at Blum Animal Hospital since 2006, co-owner until 2018 and current associate. Prior to 2006, Dr. Marks worked at Allatoona Animal Hospital just north of Atlanta, GA. Her media experience began in print when she created several monthly veterinary columns in multiple community magazines and was a frequent guest speaker for the German Shepherd and Bernese Mountain Dog clubs of Atlanta. Upon her return to Chicago, Dr. Marks became very active in the Chicago Veterinary Medical Association, serving on the executive board. She was also a past board member of the Illinois State Veterinary Medical Association and an active volunteer to the American Veterinary Medical Association and American Animal Hospital Association. Dr. Marks has received many prestigious awards in her career. She was awarded the Dr. Erwin Small First Decade Award, presented to a veterinarian that has contributed the most to organized veterinary medicine in his or her first decade of practice. In 2012, Dr. Marks was awarded Petplan's nationally-recognized Veterinarian of the Year. In 2015, she was awarded America’s Favorite Veterinarian by the American Veterinary Medical Foundation. And, most recently in 2017, she was awarded Nobivac’s Veterinarian of the Year for her work on canine Influenza. Dr. Marks is also very passionate about educating in all aspects of media, both locally and nationally. She has appeared on Good Day Chicago, WGN-Pet Central, NBC Morning News, ABC, CBS, NPR, WBBM, Northwestern University media channel and many local websites. Dr. Marks was featured nationally on the Today Show and CBS Nightly News during the canine influenza epidemic of 2015 and in multiple issues of JAVMA. She is a guest contributor in multiple media campaigns for Merck, Zoetis (formerly Pfizer), Boerhinger-Ingelheim, Ceva, Trupanion, Aratana, ScopioVet, and Royal Canin. Dr. Marks is a regular columnist in Today’s Veterinary Business, Healthy Pet magazine, and Pet Vet, and has been published in Veterinary Medicine magazine, DVM magazine, Dogster, and Vetted. She is on the Advisory Board for Health Magazine and also was the host of numerous veterinary broadcasts for the Viticus Group (formerly WVC).

Senani Ratnayake, BSc RVT
has been educating veterinary professionals since 2004 and has received multiple awards for her contributions to veterinary medicine, including the 2021 RVTTC Canadian RVT of the Year and the Founders Award from Dr. Andy Roark’s Uncharted Veterinary Community. She is noted as a thought-provoking story-teller, providing practical tools, and applicable solutions for the everyday realities of the veterinary profession. Senani began her career as a Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT) in small animal practice, discovering her niche after recognizing that many of her colleagues chose veterinary medicine because they felt more connected to animals, than people. She used her experiences and knowledge as an RVT, combined with her natural way with words, to become a catalyst for change within the industry by founding Motivatum Consulting. Working in practice, Industry and with a corporate group, she has gained a unique perspective and utilizes these insights to relate to, and engage, her audience. She is currently the Director of Learning and Engagement at Vet Alliance/Globalvet, building out a best-in-class platform of support for Canadian hospitals and their teams. Senani is best known for her sessions on management, leadership, team building, communication, customer service and compliance. She is also a popular coach and mentor for technicians and veterinarians, who appreciate her authentic, and honest approach to their personal success. Senani is a Past President of the Ontario Association of Veterinary Technicians and was the first non-veterinarian President of the Toronto Academy of Veterinary Medicine. In Senani’s world, feeling valued builds connection, connection motivates learning, learning leads to change, and change creates measurable results.

Susie Samuel, MA VetMB MRCVS is the Founder of VetsDigital, a veterinary specialist digital marketing agency, and Founder and CEO of VetHelpDirect. A practicing veterinarian for over a decade, Susie believes that easy access to veterinary advice means better welfare for animals. She has spoken at conferences all over the world on veterinary digital communications and how they can revolutionise veterinary care.

Richard A. Squires, BVSc (Hons), PhD, DVR, DACVIM, DECVIM-CA, GCertEd graduated from Bristol veterinary school in 1982. After a spell in general practice he obtained clinical training at the Universities of Cambridge and Pennsylvania and research training at Glasgow University. He is a Diplomate of both the American and European Colleges of Veterinary Internal Medicine and holds the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ Diploma of Radiology. His PhD involved a hunt for endogenous retroviral sequences in canine genomic DNA. Richard held faculty positions at the Universities of Liverpool, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and at Massey University in New Zealand prior to taking up his most recent position at James Cook University in 2007. Throughout much of his career, Richard has taught and assessed veterinary students in the broad field of small animal internal medicine. Most of his research has been on canine and feline infectious diseases. In New Zealand, he taught and carried out research in veterinary virology for 5 years. Richard has been a member of the World Small Animal Veterinary Association’s (WSAVA) Vaccination Guidelines Group since 2010 and became chair of that committee in 2020. He was involved in both the Asian and Latin American phases of work of that committee and is currently working to revise and update the WSAVA Vaccination Guidelines. He was also a member of the WSAVA’s Scientific Advisory Committee from 2008 – 2019. Richard retired from James Cook University in August 2022 but continues to work actively as a volunteer for WSAVA. He also teaches part time for other universities.

Jane Sykes, BVSc(Hons), PhD, MBA, DipACVIM (SAIM) is a Professor of Small Animal Medicine at the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine with interest in small animal infectious diseases. She obtained her veterinary degree and PhD in veterinary microbiology at the University of Melbourne, Australia; residency in small animal internal medicine, University of Minnesota; MBA, University of Georgia. She is Board-Certified in the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. She has coauthored > 100 scientific publications and is the editor of the textbooks “Canine and Feline Infectious Diseases”, “Greene’s Infectious Diseases of the Dog and Cat (5e)”. She was the founder and first President of the International Society of Companion Animal Infectious Diseases (ISCAID) and is current President of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine. Her clinical and research interests currently include infectious diseases of dogs and cats with public health implications, including leptospirosis, coccidioidomycosis, and antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections.

Roeland Wessels, DVM studied veterinary medicine at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands. Besides his general Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree, he gained an extra master’s degree in tropical veterinary medicine. Roeland produced educational veterinary films, had his own radio show on animals and animal health, and worked for five years as a general practice veterinarian at different practices in the Netherlands. In 2000 he switched to the business community and worked for seven years as a senior consultant at innovative communication agencies. He worked mainly on subjects and themes related to human and animal health. In early 2008, Roeland started his own consultancy St. Anna Advice (named after the office’s street in Nijmegen, the Netherlands). Nowadays the consultancy employs thirteen consultants, all well-known and respected professionals in the veterinary field. St. Anna Advice supports veterinary practices and customers in communication training, strategy development, and in customer service policies. St. Anna Advies was chosen by the Dutch Financial Times as one of the most promising and fast-growing companies of the Netherlands for four years in a row (2019-2022) and was awarded with the prestigious ‘Gazellen Awards’. St. Anna Advice combines strategic communication with a professional and practical approach that is realistic, creative and result-oriented. Since 2010, Roeland is also a lecturer on the faculties of Veterinary Medicine at the Utrecht University (Netherlands), Ghent University (Belgium), and Tartu University (Estonia) where he teaches communication and practice-management. Roeland is married to Astrid Elsinghorst, who is also his partner at the successful companion animal clinic St Anna 404 in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. On a part time basis, Roeland is still the general manager of the clinic team. Astrid and Roeland have two children Willemijn (2001) and Pepijn (2003), and a dog Bente (2013). In May 2013, Roeland published the world’s first veterinary communication handbook titled “Communication in Practice, the Vet’s Manual on Clienthusiasm.” In November 2018 his second book “Cookbook for Clienthousiasm” was published, full of “recipes” to create happy clients.