Marion Walker is Emeritus Professor of Stroke Rehabilitation at the University of Nottingham and a fully accredited Executive Coach. She has a strong research portfolio covering a wide area of local, national and international research projects. She has particular expertise in the development and evaluation of complex interventions and has published widely on moving evidence from randomised controlled trials into routine clinical care. She is a strong advocate of patient partnership and has co-chaired the Nottingham Stroke Research Partnership Group for 10 years. Marion was a Trustee of the Stroke Association (2009-2019) and is passionate about supporting women in STEM subjects. She is an Emeritus NIHR Senior Investigator and was awarded an MBE in the Queens New Year Honours list 2012 for her service to stroke rehabilitation and stroke survivors. In 2020 she was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from UK Stroke Forum.

Professor Silke Walter is a consultant neurologist with additional training in pre-hospital emergency and neurological intensive care medicine at the Department of Neurology, Saarland University, Germany. She has a broad research portfolio with experience in clinical and basic science research. Her principal research interests are around stroke management and prehospital stroke treatment. She was involved in the implementation of the first Mobile Stroke Unit ambulance for pre-hospital stroke care in 2008 and has been actively working in this field since then. She is passionate about improving acute stroke care involving the different health care professionals participating in a patient’s journey and has worked as principle investigator in various clinical research projects. Silke Walter has published on topics relating to acute stroke management and treatment, treatment of Multiple Sclerosis and lymphocyte immunology. She holds editorial board positions with various journals, is involved in guideline writing groups for the European Stroke Organisation (ESO), works as vice-chair of the Women Initiative for Stroke in Europe (WISE) and the ESO clinical trial network committee and is a member of the International Advisory Council of the Australian Stroke Alliance Programme.

Wan Asyraf Wan Zaidi, the Vice Chairman of Malaysia Stroke Council and World Stroke Organisation future leader programme member, currently works as a clinical lecturer and stroke neurologist at the Department of Medicine, Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz, National University of Malaysia (UKM). Wan Asyraf does research in stroke and neurology. He is interested in stroke prevention (Stroke Riskometer), hyperacute stroke services optimization, stroke imaging, telestroke and education related to vascular neurology. He is currently the national lead investigator for Malaysia, TRIDENT and AVERT DOSE clinical trial. HCTM stroke team is leading the telestroke network establishment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Together with World Stroke Organisation leaders and Malaysia Stroke Council committees , his vision is to improve the stroke awareness among public and healthcare professionals in his country and around the world, and also to provide access for the best evidence-based stroke treatment. Other than he enjoys teaching students and doing research, he loves to spend quality time with his family.

Nick Ward is a Professor of Clinical Neurology & Neurorehabilitation at UCL Institute of Neurology and The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square. He is lead of the first dedicated upper limb neurorehabilitation programme in the UK. He also runs a research programme using structural and functional brain imaging to understand the mechanisms of recovery of movement after stroke so that we might predict both optimal treatments of upper limb impairment and long term outcomes after stroke. He is Co-editor of the Oxford Textbook of Neurorehabilitation and is Associate Editor of both the Journal for Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry and Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair.

Professor Joanna Wardlaw, CBE, MD, FRSE, FMedSci, is Professor of Applied Neuroimaging at the University of Edinburgh, Foundation Chair in the UK Dementia Research Institute, and Consultant Neuroradiologist for NHS Lothian. Her work focuses on understanding the brain and its blood supply, and on treatments to improve blood flow to the brain, including thrombolytic drugs that are now in routine use to treat stroke, and more recently on treatments for small vessel disease and dementia. Working with many colleagues, she has been instrumental in advancing understanding of the causes of small vessel disease and is now testing possible treatments in clinical trials. She has published over 700 papers, set up national research imaging facilities, co-ordinated international research networks, and advanced stroke care worldwide. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and of the UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences, she was the first woman to be awarded the American Heart Association’s Feinberg Award for Clinical Advances in Stroke in 2018, received the European Stroke Organisation President’s Award (2017), the Karolinska Stroke Award (2018), and received a CBE for services to Medicine and Neuroscience in 2016, a high honor in the UK.

Dr Wasay is currently a Professor (Alicharan endowed professor) of Neurology at Aga Khan University, Past President - Pakistan Society of Neurology and Pakistan stroke Society, President, Neurology Awareness and Research Foundation, Chairman -advocacy and awareness task force of World federation of Neurology, Editor- Pakistan Journal of Neurological sciences, Chief Editor- Jahan e Aasab (Neurology public awareness magazine), Chair- seed grants research committee at Aga Khan University and Co-chair, NCD Think tank. Dr Wasay received several national and international awards for educational, research and advocacy activities, including Teachers Recognition Award (American Academy of Neurology), Distinguished Teacher Award (Pakistan Society of Neurology), Outstanding Teacher Award (Aga Khan University), Gold medal for research(Pakistan Academy of Medical Sciences), Advocacy Leader of the Year Award (American Academy of Neurology), Victor Rivera Award (UT Southwestern Medical Center) and Lester R. Bryant Founders Award (Marshall University, Huntington, WV, USA). He was awarded fellowship of Pakistan Academy of Medical science and Gold Medal in Health Sciences by Pakistan Academy of Sciences. Recently he was elected as fellow and Secretary, Karachi Chapter by Pakistan Academy of Sciences. He has held a number of leadership positions at prestigious forums. At the international level, these include World Federation of Neurology Advocacy Task Force (Chair); International Subcommittee, American academy of Neurology (Member); Board of Directors, World Stroke Organization (Director); and Public Relations Committee, World Federation of Neurology (Chair) and Executive committee member Asia Pacific Stroke Organization. He is also serving as member, Technical advisory committee for Pakistan Health and Research Council (PMRC), member, global policy committee, World stroke organization and Prime ministers task force for science and technology. He has trained 46 neurologists (Fellows College of Physicians and Surgeons) under his supervision (as CPSP supervisor) and two neurologists from Afghanistan (funded by AAN and FMIC). He has received 30 grants from various national and international agencies as Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator. His publication bibliography includes 195 papers in peer-reviewed medical journals. The combined impact factor of his scientific publications is more than 535 and the collective citations exceed 5148. He has been an invited speaker and presenter at more than 95 international conferences, with more than 100 presentations and lectures. He is an active reviewer of research grants and scientific papers for more than 25 journals and granting agencies. His book “Fasting and health” is translated into Sindhi and English. He has travelled to 71 countries in all six continents. He has more than 80 media interviews at TV channels, newspapers and web channels.

Prof Alastair Webb research group is focussed on the physiological relationship between blood pressure, cerebrovascular physiology and stroke risk. He is an associate professor and Wellcome Trust CRCD Fellow at the Wolfson Centre for Prevention of Stroke and Dementia, University of Oxford. He completed his DPhil under the guidance of Professor Peter Rothwell in 2013. His early work used meta-analyses of randomised controlled clinical trials to demonstrate that different antihypertensive medications have parallel effects on blood pressure variability and stroke risk. He subsequently established ongoing physiological assessments within the flagship ‘OXVASC’ study to identify novel physiological indices that predict the future risk of stroke, chronic cerebrovascular injury and cognitive impairment. His current work continues to use multi-modal methods of assessing cardiovascular and cerebrovascular physiology (systemic human physiology, transcranial ultrasound, MRI imaging) to identify novel cardiovascular and cerebrovascular indices that predict cerebrovascular injury and cognitive decline within OXVASC and the UK Biobank study, and the effects of potential treatments in randomised controlled trials (TREAT@SVDs, OxHARP). He is an active member of ESO, as the Co-Chair of the Secondary Guidelines Committee and as the Chair of the ESO Education Committee.

William Whiteley is a Reader in the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences, University of Edinburgh. He is also Senior Clinical Fellow in the Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford; and a consultant neurologist in NHS Lothian, working with patients with TIA, stroke and dementia. His work seeks to elucidate the mechanisms for prevention of disability due to stroke and dementia through the design, delivery and analysis of epidemiological studies and clinical trials. Of particular interest are: the contribution of vascular risk factors to dementia; the very long term follow-up of randomized trials; clinical diagnosis; and the better use of large electronic health record datasets for more efficient clinical trials and cohort studies.