Trustees

Vinod Menon

Chair of Trustees, Immediate Past President
Lead Consultant Bariatric & Metabolic Surgeon
University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire

Biography

Mr Vinod Menon is a Consultant Bariatric & Metabolic Surgeon at the University Hospitals Coventry & Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust, UK. He also specialises in Upper Gastrointestinal cancer and benign laparoscopic surgery as well as robotic surgery. He is Honorary Associate Clinical Professor at the University of Warwick. Mr Menon served as Clinical Director of surgical services for 11 years and currently leads bariatric & metabolic surgical services at UHCW.

Mr Menon is the current Chair of Trustees and is the past President (2021-2023) of British Obesity & Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS), having been an elected member of Council since 2012, previously served as Treasurer and Honorary Secretary. He is the section editor (Bariatrics) of the Oxford Textbook of General Surgery and Section Editor Springer Textbook of Bariatric Surgery. Mr Menon is also Clinical Chair at BMI Meriden Hospital & Director of West Midlands Surgical Training Centre, one of the best cadaveric training facilities in the UK.

He is very passionate about India – UK collaboration in the health sector and played a key role in setting up the Apex Trauma & Emergency learning Centre (AT & ELC) in Kerala, India in addition to being actively involved in establishing Kerala Institute of Minimal Access Training (KIMAT).

Mr Menon is committed to giving patients access to the best possible care in the safest environment. He offers safe and effective bariatric/metabolic surgery and is dedicated to empowering people affected by severe and complex obesity. He is engaged in improving access to surgical treatment for such patients, expanding training to professionals involved in their care and forging collaborations with similar societies around the world.

James Byrne

BOMSS President, Trustee, Council member
Consultant Surgeon
University Hospital Southampton

Biography

Professor James Byrne is a consultant Surgeon at University Hospital Southampton since 2003 and Honorary Principal Research Fellow at the university of Southampton. After qualifying at Manchester he trained in the North West of England and Brisbane, Australia.

Jim served as BOMSS treasurer and member of the National bariatric surgery Registry committee from 2017-2020 and was elected BOMSS Secretary in 2021, then becoming President in 2023.

Jim is a bariatric and oesophagogastric cancer surgeon, and is committed to developing the evidence base for surgical treatment of patients with severe and complex obesity. He is a member of the trial management group for BYBAND Sleeve, a £4.2M multicentre randomised clinical trial comparing the outcomes of gastric banding, sleeve and bypass across 12 UK centres in over 1300 UK patients, that is due to report in 2022. He has also helped lead a £2.4M randomised trial of the Endobarrier. He is Surgery lead for Wessex NIHR clinical research network.

Jim is honoured to serve as BOMSS President and Trustee and is passionate about supporting the vision, mission and values of BOMSS as the newly independent professional body serving the needs of patients suffering with severe and complex obesity across the UK.

Ahmed Ahmed

BOMSS Secretary, Trustee, Council member, NBSR Committee, Endoscopy Committee
Consultant in upper gastrointestinal surgery and Lead Bariatric Surgeon
Imperial College London / Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Biography

Mr Ahmed Ahmed is a consultant in upper gastrointestinal surgery and lead bariatric surgeon at Imperial Weight Centre. He has performed over 10,000 laparoscopic bariatric procedures, including over 7,000 gastric bypasses. He has trained in general and upper GI surgery in the UK and also at Stanford University and the University of Rochester in the US. He trains other surgeons in the field of bariatric surgery and is on the faculty of numerous courses on bariatric surgery. He is also actively involved in bariatric surgery research and has numerous publications in peer reviewed journals. He is a member of the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery (ASMBS), International Federation of Surgery for Obesity (IFSO), Society of American Gastroenterological and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES), Association of Upper GI Surgeons (AUGIS) and the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS). In 2007, he was awarded the International Federation of Surgery for Obesity (IFSO) scholarship. Mr Ahmed is often consulted by other professionals and medicolegal experts for his opinions on complex bariatric surgery cases. His Imperial Weight Centre bariatric surgery unit in London has been designated as an international centre of excellence for bariatric surgery and he now sits on the prestigious International Bariatric Surgery Review Committee (IBSRC).

Mr Ahmed was elected to council of the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS) in 2017 and took over as Treasurer in 2021. Ahmed was then elected as BOMSS Secretary in 2023. He was also elected to the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2020.

Sherif Awad

Trustee

Biography

Sherif Awad is Consultant Obesity, Upper GI & Laparoscopic Surgeon at East-Midlands Bariatric & Metabolic Institute (EMBMI), Royal Derby Hospital, Derby. He is Council Member and Educational Lead for BOMSS, has developed and delivers monthly BOMSS journal clubs and educational webinars. He is involved in organising the Annual BOMSS training day and Society Meeting. Sherif developed the post-CCT Royal College of Surgeons of England Bariatric Fellowship at EMBMI. His expertise is recognised Internationally and is regularly invited to deliver International and National lectures on, amongst other topics, improving safety, outcomes and surgical pathways for patients undergoing Obesity Surgery. He has co-authored international guidelines on Enhanced Recovery After Bariatric Surgery.

Professor Rachel Batterham OBE

Trustee ,
Clinical Director and Centre for Obesity Research Lead/Bariatric Centre for Weight Management & Metabolic Surgery Lead and Director

Biography

Professor Rachel Batterham is Professor of Obesity, Diabetes and Endocrinology at University College London (UCL). She leads the University College London Hospital (UCLH) Bariatric Centre for Weight Management & Metabolic Surgery and the UCL Centre for Obesity Research within the Department of Medicine. She is the Clinical Director for the Division of Medicine at UCL and the Director for the UCLH/UCL NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Obesity Research Theme. She is the Royal College of Physicians’ Special Advisor on Obesity.

She has received several national and international awards for her obesity including the Royal Society of Medicine’s Steven’s Lecture (2018), the Andre Mayer award from the World Obesity Federation (2016), and the Diabetes UK Rank Fund Nutrition Prize (2015).

Professor Batterham has made significant clinical contributions to defining the management of obese patients through her membership of the NICE Obesity Guideline Development Group. She is Scientific Chair for the International Federation for Surgery for Obesity and Metabolic Diseases (IFSO) European Chapter (since 2015), a Trustee for the Association for the Study of Obesity (since 2016) and Council Member for British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society (since 2016). She is passionate about reducing the stigma that people with obesity experience and ensuring that the patient voice is heard and has established a charity for people affected by obesity, Obesity Empowerment Network UK.

Cynthia Borg

Trustee ,
Bariatric & Upper GI Surgeon

Biography

I qualified as a Doctor of Medicine and Surgery from the University of Malta in 1997. After training at St Luke’s Hospital, I moved to the United Kingdom for specialist training. I completed a research degree (MD University of London) at King’s College Hospital and at the Department of Metabolic Medicine at the Hammersmith Hospital.

I completed my surgical training in London and North-East Thames region with a surgical fellowship at University College Hospital, London. I was appointed as a consultant surgeon at University Hospital Lewisham, London in 2012 and entrusted to establish and lead a new bariatric unit in South-East London. The unit now comprises of 3 consultant surgeons, along with an obesity physician, bariatric CNS, bariatric dietician and a psychologist.

I have been appointed as the Chair of Multinational Advisory Group at IFSO-European Chapter in May 2024 and am also a Regional Surgical Advisor (London) for the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. I have served on BOMSS and AUGIS councils as an elected member.

I am on the editorial boards of Obesity Surgery and Surgery for Obesity and Diseases and a Section Editor of Current Obesity Reports. I have published numerous papers in peer reviewed journals and have written several book chapters. I have also been a section editor for the textbook Obesity, Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery.

I am currently an MBA student at Hult International Business School at Ashridge.

Kamal Mahawar

Council member, Trustee
Consultant General/ Bariatric Surgeon & NatSSIP Lead
South Tyneside and Sunderland NHSFT

Biography

Kamal Mahawar is a Consultant General/ Bariatric Surgeon & NatSSIP Lead at South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, and Visiting Professor at the University of Sunderland. Mr. Mahawar is BOMSS Treasurer and past Chair of the National Bariatric Surgery Registry (NBSR) committee. He also sits on the scientific committee of IFSO. He was one of the editors of the second and the third NBSR reports.

Kamal has authored over 175 peer-reviewed publications, multiple book chapters in prestigious titles, and two books widely appreciated in media ("The Ethical Doctor" published by Harper Collins and "Fight with Fat") He is the Co-Editor of “Journal of Bariatric Surgery” published by Wolters Kluwer and Associate Editor of “Obesity Surgery”, “Annals of Royal College of Surgeons England”, and “Clinical Obesity”. In addition, Kamal is on the editorial board of SOARD and other journals. The journal “Obesity Surgery” published his biography in 2018.

Kamal sits on the council of the ASGBI (and is its Associate Director for conferences). He is the Northern England representative on the council of the British Benign Upper Gastrointestinal Surgical Society (BBUGSS) and is the chief co-ordinator of The Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons (TUGS).

Richard Welbourn

NBSR Committee, Trustee ,
Bariatric and upper GI Surgeon
Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton

Biography

Richard Welbourne is part of a 5-surgeon bariatric and upper GI team in Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton, after setting up the unit in the early 2000s. Musgrove became the SW Level 1 Commissioned bariatric surgery centre and the first International Center of Excellence for Bariatric Surgery of the US Surgical Review Corporation (2009). The unit was awarded an RCS Fellowship in upper GI and bariatric surgery and has trained fellows continuously as part of the National Surgical Fellowship Training Scheme (2009-).

He is lead surgeon on the NIHR-funded By-Band-Sleeve RCT, the largest RCT of different procedures, which is fully recruited (1,341patients) and expects to report in 2023. Previous roles include Past-President of the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society (2013-15), member NICE GDG for Obesity (CG189) 2014, NICE Obesity QSAC (2015-16), member CRG for Specialized and Complex Obesity (2012-16). He led multi-collegiate RCS commissioning guidance for bariatric MDT clinics (2104, 2017). He founded the UK National Bariatric Surgery Registry (2009), Chair (2013-18), member IFSO Global Registry Committee (multiple reports 2014-2021). IFSO World Congress President (London, 2017). Recipient of IFSO Presidential Medal (2017) and Award of Appreciation (2018). Associate Editor Obes Surg (2019-), Section Editor Curr Obes Rep (2016-). TSC Chair SCOTS study (2011-).