Mike Trepicchio was promoted to President of PHCG North America Advertising effective October 2, 2006 responsible for all PHCG advertising agencies in North America. Prior to that Mike, as President/CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare Communications Group, lead its transformation and ascension to the very top of the healthcare communications industry.

Mike has over thirty years of experience in the healthcare industry. He joined Klemtner Advertising (the original name of Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare Advertising) in 1984 and has been involved in virtually every facet of the business including professional advertising, consumer advertising, direct marketing, and medical education. Prior to being named President & Chief Operating Officer in 1995, Mike was Executive Vice President, Director of Client Services. Mike spent 11 years on the client side prior to joining Klemtner, serving as the Director of Marketing at the healthcare unit of Sterling Drug. He currently is a member of the Board of Directors of the Epilepsy Foundation of America and the Surgeons of Hope.

Dr. Lacour-Gayet is the Chairman of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Children’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado.  He is also the co-chairman of the Denver Children’s Heart Institute. Dr. Lacour-Gayet performs up to 250 pediatric heart operations a year.  He has particular interests in complex neonatal cardiac surgery, complex biventricular repair, and Fontan circulation.

Dr. Lacour-Gayet holds the academic rank of Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado.  He is recognized as an educator in the field of pediatric cardiac surgery and has an active interest in fostering the educations of congenital heart surgeons in underserved parts of the world.  He has performed cardiac surgeries in 21 countries, throughout Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

Dr. Lacour-Gayet has authored or co-authored more than 150 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals, and book chapters on topics in pediatric cardiothoracic surgery.  He is a frequent lecturer at yearly international professional meetings on congenital surgery. He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Annals of Thoracic Surgery and of The European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery.

Dr. Lacour-Gayet is involved in evaluation of Quality of Care in Congenital Heart Surgery and has created the Aristotle Score currently used in many databases over the world. He is a member of the STS National Database Committee. He has initiated a research project on an Artificial Right Ventricle to be used in patient with Failing Fontan.

Dr. Jonathan M. Chen is an Assistant Professor of Cardiothoracic Surgery in the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the New York-Presbyterian-Weill Cornell Medical Center and is jointly appointed at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. He is the Director of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the Weill Cornell Campus.

Dr. Chen completed his undergraduate studies at Yale University in 1990, where he obtained a degree in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry. He pursued his medical education at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and completed his residency in both General Surgery and Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Columbia-Presbyterian campus of the New York Presbyterian Hospital. After completion of a fellowship in heart transplantation and
ventricular assist devices, Dr. Chen pursued an additional fellowship in pediatric cardiac surgery at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian.

He is currently a co-investigator on several national ventricular assist device (VAD) trials, as well as a co-investigator on a multi-disciplinary National Heart-Lung Blood Institute (NHLBI)
Specialized Centers of Clinically Oriented Research (SCCOR) grant evaluating long-term mechanical ventricular assistance. His particular interest is in the development and design of a
ventricular assist device for infants and small children.

Dr. Chen is the author of over 60 peer-review journal articles and more than a dozen book chapters. He is an editor of the textbook Cardiac Transplantation: The Columbia University Medical Center/New York-Presbyterian Hospital Manual published by the Humana Press in
2004. He is a member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, The American Society of Transplant Surgeons, The International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation, and The World Society of Congenital and Pediatric Heart Surgery.

Dr. Chen has participated in humanitarian efforts to extend pediatric cardiac surgery to developing nations internationally in Guatemala, China, Cambodia and Africa. He has led trips for SOH to the Phnom Penh Heart Center, and most recently to the Fann Cardiovascular Center in Dakar.

Founding Projects

Before we develop any specific medical center we first obtain the support and cooperation of local grassroots organizations sharing common humanitarian values with us. We work to share their energy and knowledge of the community in order that we may better meet the needs of people in their area. We attempt to be particularly sensitive to regional attitudes and customs, in order to find ways of working with people from within their culture rather than imposing values from outside the community. We also work closely with local authorities and institutions, and in turn these local authorities often donate land on which the medical centers are to be built or even provide installations to be restructured and equipped to become the new training hospitals. Once strong local partners have been identified, SoH helps them create the legal structure which will become the local organization. We then provide durable and concrete financial help until solvency can be obtained. Humanitarian action deeply rooted in uncompromising human values forms the basis of our platform. We set high standards, and we lay a strong foundation from the very beginning. This is the philosophy behind our initial strategy, because we are profoundly aware of the long list of children awaiting life-sustaining or life-enhancing surgery.

Developing the Program

Once the medical centers are to be constructed or restructured, Surgeons of Hope act as coordinator for the funding, construction, and equipping of each project. We also begin to project the eventual staffing requirements. Local surgeons and medical support staff will need to be trained locally as well as to be sent to learning facilities in the US and Europe. SoH also trains supporting technical staff, such as managers, accountants, and medical technicians. Exchanges between the local medical staff and the American-European medical teams will continue to be encouraged for the ongoing exchange of skills and for a better understanding of the unique challenges each faces. This teaching and training exchange is crucial to continue the transfer of skills and expertise in the use of high-level technology, so that the hospital projects may ultimately be entirely run by local teams. This approach of sustainable humanitarian action is encapsulated by our motto: “Curing and Training-Training to Cure.” This is the bedrock founding principle of medical centers. SoH and our training hospital form a partnership where both the best technology and the top skills are successfully transferred. This empowers emergent countries to catch up.

Operating Assistance

A crucial element in the SoH “Training to Cure” approach is that the hospital centers receive fee-paying patients from the area–patients who would otherwise have sought medical treatment outside their own country, but who will now be able to find treatment at high tech centers locally. There is ample incentive for this, as visas do not have to be obtained for foreign travel, travel expenses are eliminated, and the individuals requiring treatment do not need to be separated from friends and loved ones at a crucial time in their lives. An innovative fee-paying program helps to finance the surgical operations of disadvantaged children who otherwise would have no means or access to obtain life-saving or life-altering surgery. The Surgeons of Hope goal is that 50% of the surgical procedures will be made available to indigent children. The other 50% of patients will pay a fee for these services, but even this fee will be considerably less than the cost of going abroad for an equivalent surgical procedure. Those with means will gradually and indirectly pay for those with lesser means, guaranteeing that after a few years the hospital is financially self-sufficient. In the meantime, SoH, in cooperation with its American and European partners, will ensure the outside indispensable medical and technical assistance for the curing, training, and managing of hospitals, and will support the cost of it as well as the local post-operation expenses for the indigent children, over the first three years.This represents up to 50% of the total running cost of a training hospital and corresponds to the total amount of the expenses necessary to operate on the indigent children. In this way, the given center’s operation will reach financial solvency and will achieve the ultimate goal of autonomy after three years. Thus humanitarian relief becomes a genuine partnership between SoH and the medical facility, which are encouraged to run independently of the parent organization as soon as practically possible.

Partnership Support

Surgeons of Hope is able to reach its objectives through the generous support and contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations, pharmaceutical and medical equipment laboratories, American and European hospital units, and others who share our vision and our humanitarian outlook. We are people working together for the better good of mankind, and we have collectively contributed everything, from cash and supplies to expertise and equipment. Modern surgery is a miracle of science, which must be shared with human beings of limited means and in remote locations. And most especially, we have an urgent quest to bring the most advanced techniques to the children of the world who desperately need them.

Bernard Vasseur, was appointed President of SoH during the Board meeting June 30, 2005 in New York.

He succeeds Dr. Alain Deloche former president of SoH since 2001, co-founder of the Nobel Prize winning organization Doctors Without Borders, chairman of the Cardiovascular Department of Hospital George Pompidou in Paris and current president of La Chaine de l’Espoir.

Dr. Vasseur is currently a cardiac surgeon at The Reading Hospital Heart Center in Reading, PA. Dr. Vasseur was a former Assistant Professor of Surgery at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick, New Jersey and cardiothoracic surgeon at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Dr. Vasseur is board certified in Thoracic Surgery by the American Board of Thoracic Surgery. After receiving his medical degree from Paris Medical School in Paris, France, Dr. Vasseur completed his internship in general surgery at New York University Hospital in New York, New York. He went on to complete his general surgery residency at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. He completed a fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation in Cleveland, Ohio.

Dr. Vasseur is Fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He is also chairman of the Surgeons of Hope’s Medical Committee and leads with experience and knowledge, as he has frequently operated and taught at the Phnom Penh Heart Center.

Professor Daniel Sidi is the head of Pediatric Cardiology at l’Hopital Necker-Enfants Malades in Paris, Vice President of La Chaine de l’Espoir, and a fellow of the University of California.

While he is a renowned pediatric cardiovascular practitioner, Sidi is also both a researcher and teacher. As a professor, his teaching activities are dedicated to both direct training of interns and residents. As a researcher he established many bodies of research in France and abroad, including the most prestigious American scientific review. Professor Sidi has advanced many medical techniques in the domain of pediatric cardiology, particularly for newborns.

Vice President of La Chaine de l’Espoir, Sidi has actively contributed to the creation of pediatric cardiac units in developing countries and trained at Necker a number of physicians from these regions. He was deeply involved in the advancement of The Heart Institute of Ho Chi Min City, next the Phnom Penh Heart Center, and finally the Maputo Heart Institute. He extended his experience with responding to the range of local needs in various countries by participating in many missions around the world (from Morocco to Uruguay).

A member of the board of the Cambodian Medical Association, and president of the Maputo Heart Institute, Sidi participates directly in the workings of medical projects to which he is affiliated.

His experience and qualifications in pediatric cardiology, as a teacher, researcher, and surgeon make him an indispensable member of SoH’s board.

As a member of the New York and Paris Bars, Marc Sage, a French citizen, has practiced law in the U.S., France, and internationally, including in developing countries, for twenty years. Mr. Sage has extensive experience in commercial contracts, cross-border transactions, foreign investments, legal assistance to governments, privatizations, international trade and arbitration.

Marc Sage has used his general practice in business law in domestic and cross-border transactions for domestic and foreign companies including the negotiation and drafting of various legal arrangements covering commercial contracts and financing agreements, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, distributorship and agency agreements, licensing, franchising and technical assistance agreements; telecommunications, foreign investments in the EC, Eastern Europe (Russia, Poland, Hungary, ex-Yugoslavia and Czech Republic), Africa (Ivory Coast, the Comoro and Congo) and South East Asia (Vietnam and Laos) for French and US.

Marc Sage has done government-related work in developing countries including drafting of laws and regulations, structural adjustment programs in collaboration with the World Bank, procurement contracts, privatizations, review of the regulatory framework for the public sector and the promotion of private investments, debt rescheduling. Mr. Sage, based on his experience in France and his practice in Africa, actively participated in the World Bank assignments awarded to Thelen Reid & Priest LLP in Madagascar and Nigeria. Marc Sage’s litigation experience now working with Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP includes international arbitration, judicial proceedings in Paris and New York in matters pertaining to attachment of sovereign assets and debt rescheduling.

Marc Sage’s perfect knowledge of both the European and American legal environment, without forgetting extensive experience of emerging and developing countries and a perfect command of both French and American were the ideal profile for the Secretary General of SoH. But his human commitment to the Foundation’s projects is the real key to his determining action in the establishment of the Foundation and his daily highly qualified support a token of success for future actions.

Ed Rady, currently the CEO of the Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, has over 30 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. He began his career at Abbott Laboratories, spending 15 years at Abbott in a variety of sales, marketing, and business development positions, involving cardiovascular, CNS, and infectious disease therapeutic areas. He held the position of Senior Business Unit Director responsible for all new products, including all pre and post launch marketing programs.

In 1987, Ed founded Discovery International, a business focusing on Medical Education. During the next four years, Discovery grew to one of the largest MedEd businesses in the United States. Since founding the company, Ed has focused on developing strategic education and communication plans for many new products, and building the company infrastructure to effectively deliver these programs.

In 1991, The Medicus Group purchased Discovery International, with Ed continuing as President. In 1997, Ed was appointed President, Medicus Global Medical Education, working to expand the US education business globally. Through a series of acquisitions and startups using the Medicus global network, the education business has grown to seven offices in 5 countries, including a cutting-edge technology firm that specializes in the use of technology for the delivery of medical education.

In October 2001, Ed assumed the position of President, Chief Strategic Officer at the Medicus Group. His responsibilities include strategic acquisitions, major new business initiatives, and building two new strategic companies within Medicus; Insight Strategy Advisors and the Therapeutic Practice Initiatives.

After the purchase of B|com 3 (Medicus holding company) by the Publicis Groupe in September 2002, Ed was appointed Executive Vice President of the newly formed Publicis Healthcare Communications Group. His responsibilities included the restructuring of the healthcare businesses, acquisitions, and network assignments. After completion of the restructuring process, Ed was promoted in 2003 to Chairman, CEO of the Publicis Healthcare Specialty Group and President of the Publicis Healthcare Group Board of Directors. The Specialty Group consisted of fourteen companies specializing in Healthcare Consulting, Sales, Marketing, and Technology.

In August of 2004, upon the retirement of Roger Haupt, Ed was appointed CEO of the Publicis Healthcare Communication Group (PHCG) Worldwide. PHCG operates in 15 countries and has over 2,500 employees. Ed has a BA in Biochemistry from the University of Connecticut and earned his MBA from Kellogg at Northwestern University.

Jan Quaegebeur, M.D., was elected President of SoH during the Board meeting of June 8, 2007 in New York.

Dr. Jan Quaegebeur is of the generation that helped create modern pediatric cardiac surgery. He was born in Belgium and trained in the Netherlands, Boston, and Houston. From the start, he had good hands.

Currently a Professor of Surgery at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, the Attending Cardiac Surgeon at the Columbia University Medical Center, and the Director of Pediatric Cardiac Surgery at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s Congenital Heart Center, Quaegebeur’s reputation has blossomed as one of the top pediatric cardiac surgeons in the nation. He is well-known in the medical world for having developed the arterial switch, a procedure performed on newborns so that they may undergo open-heart surgery.

Before Quaegebeur got involved in the field, heart surgeons hesitated to operate on very young kids. Newborns, it was thought, were too fragile to undergo open-heart surgery.

But for Quaegebeur, the imperative to operate early crystallized in the mid-seventies with a specific defect. In some instances, the arteries that should go to a child’s lungs connected instead to his aorta, the big vessel that feeds blood to the body. Basically, the kid’s system was backward. The solution was obvious. You had to switch the arteries — and you had to do it immediately.

The operation was considered extremely difficult, if not impossible. But Quaegebeur pressed on, studying some 7,500 hearts. By the early eighties, Quaegebeur had brought down the mortality rate of the procedure dramatically — to close to 5 percent (today, it’s closer to 2 percent). He does 60 percent of his operations in the first three months of life, and the arterial switch is his signature operation.

Read Article

Judith O’Neill is chair of the New York Telecommunications department of the firm of Greenberg Traurig. She has practiced law in the United States and internationally for 26 years, spending most of her time in the developing world, starting with Latin America, and, in the past decade, adding an equal concentration in Africa. She concentrates her practice in telecommunications privatizations, very often on the sell-side, representing governments, investment banks or large accounting firms managing the sale; and telecommunications mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, transactions, and services or equipment contracts globally. She lectures all over the world on the legal aspects of privatization, transactional needs and considerations in the developing world, and telecommunications finance.

Named by Euro Money Magazine as leading Privatization lawyer of the United States in 1997, she also speaks Spanish, French and Romanian.

She has carried out major missions in many developing countries especially in Africa (Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe), Latin America (Argentina, Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile) but also in Eastern Europe (Czechoslovakia, Romania, Poland) not to mention Kazakhstan, Thailand. During these missions she regularly led teams from the World Bank, OECD or regional international organizations. Her telecommunications interests obviously include the web and all its technologies.

Her involvement with the Surgeons of Hope Foundation Inc. as Board member will prove most useful: a personal commitment coupled with in-depth knowledge of emerging or developing countries where hospital projects are being run by the Foundation, the ability to advise on time and money-saving new telecom technologies in Africa, Asia or Latin America as well as very good introduction to international organizations circles and projects, Judith O’Neill can contribute a lot to the foundation and her board membership is evidence she is prepared to do just that.