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Office Bearers

Office Bearers

The Council is the governing body of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and represents the professional interests of the College's membership. Decisions made by Council formulate policy and direct the College in its mission to promote the highest standards of surgical practice. As a charitable organisation, the Members of Council are also Trustees of the College. Council comprises five Office-Bearers, 15 elected members, one Trainee member and the Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery. The Chief Executive is in attendance at Council meetings. The Council meets approximately seven times per year.

The President, two Vice-Presidents, the Honorary Secretary and the Honorary Treasurer are the Office-Bearers. The President and Vice-Presidents are elected by Council and have a three-year term of office. The Honorary Secretary and Honorary Treasurer are appointed by Council from within the Fellowship of the College. Their term of office is normally three years, but extendable to five years. The Council Office-Bearers, together with the Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery and the Chief Executive meet on a regular basis to conduct Council-related business.

President
Professor Rowan Parks is a Consultant HPB Surgeon and Professor of Surgical Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Serving on the Council since 2009, he has been on numerous College committees and short life working groups. He organised the RCSEd Triennial Meeting in 2018, the annual President's Meetings held from 2013-2015, and the Lister Centenary Meeting in 2012. He has a significant interest in medical education and training. Professor Parks is the past Deputy Medical Director of NHS Education for Scotland and also past-President of both the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI) and the Great Britain and Ireland Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (GBIHPBA).

Vice-President
Ms Clare McNaught is a Consultant General and Colorectal Surgeon. She was elected to Council in 2014 and was Regional Advisor for Yorkshire for three years. Clare is a College examiner, is on a number of College committees and was Chair of the Younger Fellows' Committee. She is also the past Editor of Surgeons' News.
Vice-President
Professor Timothy Graham is a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon and Senior Lecturer in Clinical Surgery at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham, University of Birmingham and Royal Centre for Defence Medicine UK and a Civilian Consultant Cardiac Surgeon to the British Army. He’s a joint founder of the National Birmingham Review course in Cardiothoracic surgery and the National Birmingham Professional Development Course. He’s also a joint founder and convenor of the Asian Cardiothoracic Surgery Specialty Update Course (ACSSUC). Received Honorary Fellowship of Indian Association of Cardiothoracic and Vascular surgeons in 2011 and Distinguished Surgeon Award from Academy of Medicine Singapore in 2013.
Honorary Treasurer
Mr Siong Liau is a Consultant Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgeon based at the Cambridge Regional HPB Surgical Unit, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge. He was the Chair of the Surgical Specialty Board in General Surgery at the College from 2020-22. He recently served a 4-year term as the Finance Director of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland (ASGBI) and is a current Board Trustee of the ASGBI Foundation Charity. He received surgical training in Cambridge, Toronto, Hong Kong, Paris and Edinburgh. He was fellowship-trained in HPB Surgical Oncology and Abdominal Multiorgan Transplantation at the Toronto General Hospital, Canada and in Advanced Laparoscopic HPB Surgery at L'Institut Mutualiste Montsouris, Paris, France. His main clinical interest is in minimally-invasive HPB surgery.
Honorary Secretary
Professor Robin Paton is a Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon (with a special interest in Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgery) and was 1st. elected to the council in 2016. He holds an Honorary Chair at the Medical School at UCLAN and was awarded the King James IV Professorship from the college in 2016. A keen interest in surgical training has resulted in him being voted the 'North West Orthopaedic Trainer of the Year' on two occasions. A Fellow of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers, he has a continuing interest in undergraduate/postgraduate education and surgical research. In addition to being an examiner, he has helped to develop the Intercollegiate and International FRCS (T & O) examinations over the past 20 years.
Immediate Past President
Professor Michael Griffin OBE became President in 2018 when he was a Consultant Oesophagogastric surgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary. He developed the Northern Oesophagogastric Cancer Unit which is now the largest in Europe and North America. A Council Member since 2009, he was Chair of the Joint Committee for Intercollegiate Examinations (JCIE) and Professor of Gastrointestinal Surgery at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. His clinical and research interests have been focused on early diagnosis and radical treatment of oesophagogastric cancers. He was awarded an OBE for services to cancer health care in 2013.
Dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery
Professor Philip Taylor is Emeritus Professor of Prosthodontics at QMUL where he was an Honorary Consultant in Restorative Dentistry and former Clinical Director at Barts Health NHS Trust. He was a specialist in Restorative Dentistry and Prosthodontics. Philip qualified in 1981 from Newcastle Dental School and spent 12 years in NHS general practice in the North East of England where he gained his MGDS. In 1993 he moved to London to begin his specialty training gaining his MSc at the Eastman alongside the MRD and FDS examinations. After spending seven years in a combination of private referral practice in the West End of London and as lecturer at QMUL he was promoted to consultant level in 2003 and Professor in 2016. He has been president of the British Society of Prosthodontics and the British Association of Teachers in Conservative Dentistry along with several examinerships and roles on national committees.