Trustees

David Kerrigan

BOMSS Chair of Trustees

Biography

Professor Kerrigan is the immediate Past President of the British Obesity and Metabolic Surgery Society and current chair of trustees, an internationally renowned bariatric surgeon and an acknowledged expert in his field. His views on obesity and bariatric surgery have been sought by the national press, and broadcast by the BBC News, ITV and Sky News, ITV’s This Morning, Radio 4 (Woman’s Hour and Today) and in many TV documentaries about obesity surgery shown on ITV and C4. He has acted as an expert advisor in bariatrics for the General Medical Council, the Royal College of Surgeons and the Irish Medical Council.

David was awarded the title of Visiting Professor by the University of Chester in 2011 in recognition of his contribution to the field of bariatric surgery and was also awarded a Syme Professorship by the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

The founder of Phoenix Health, David is still very active in clinical practice.
In addition to his hands-on managerial role leading the Phoenix team, he performs a wide range of both basic and very complex weight loss operations using advanced keyhole surgery.

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. He was also elected to the council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2020.

Sherif Awad

BOMSS Educational Lead, Trustee, Council member,

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.

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.

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 a member of the BOMSS council and chairs its patient safety committee. He also sits on the scientific committee of IFSO and the National Bariatric Surgery Registry (NBSR) committee. 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).

Vinod Menon

Trustee, 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 currently President (2021-2023) of British Obesity & Metabolic Surgery Society (BOMSS), having been en 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.

Peter Small

BOMSS Trustee, NBSR Adviser
Senior Consultant Surgeon
Sunderland Royal Hospital

Biography

Mr Peter Small is a senior consultant surgeon at Sunderland Royal Hospital with a specialist interest in bariatric and upper GI laparoscopic surgery. He was appointed in 1998 and established a North of England NHS Bariatric Surgery service which is one of the largest NHS units in the UK with 7 consultant Surgeons.

He has been an executive member of BOMSS Council since 2013 and is a founding Trustee of the new BOMSS Charity. The National Bariatric Surgery Registry has been an integral part of BOMSS since its inception in 2009. Peter Small has been a member of the Registry Committee since 2010, taking over as Chairman in 2017.

He is a keen promoter of data collection and analysis to identify good practice, helping to produce the 2^nd and 3^rd NBSR Reports in 2014 and 2020 respectively.

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-).