International Guest Speakers

Professor Neil Sharma Consultant ENT/Head and Neck Surgeon and Honorary Clinical Professor

Professor Neil Sharma

Neil is a Consultant Head and Neck/Thyroid/Parathyroid Surgeon at University Hospital Birmingham (UHB) and Honorary Clinical Professor of Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Birmingham.

Neil has a strong interest in all aspects of head and neck surgery. His main focus is on surgical oncology, and in particular surgery of the thyroid and parathyroid glands. He has a high volume thyroid surgery practice, carrying out over 150 thyroid operations per year. He specialises in complex and revision thyroid surgery for benign and malignant disease, including advanced differentiated thyroid cancer, medullary thyroid cancer, thyrotoxicosis, retrosternal disease and surgery for those with a genetic predisposition to thyroid cancer. He leads the thyroid cancer service at UHB and runs the regional genetic thyroid oncology clinic, receiving referrals from around the country. He also works at Birmingham Children’s Hospital, operating on children affected by thyroid and parathyroid disease, and is then able to continue their care and follow up at UHB once they reach 18 years old. He is an active member of the British Association of Endocrine and Thyroid Surgeons, for which he also sits on the Executive Committee, the British Association of Head and Neck Oncologists, ENTUK, British Thyroid Association, Society for Endocrinology, American Thyroid Association, European Thyroid Association, European Society of Endocrine Surgeons and the International Association of Endocrine Surgeons. He is the Chief Investigator for the NIHR funded multi-centre RABBIT trial, investigating the role of radiofrequency ablation for benign thyroid nodules and co-investigator on a number of other trials at various stages of set up.

Neil graduated from the University of Birmingham in 2002, and completed his higher surgical training in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery in 2017. He was awarded his PhD in 2014, for work examining the role of a novel proto-oncogene in the aetiology of thyroid cancer, and continued post-doctoral research in Birmingham while completing his clinical training. He served as President for the Association of Otolaryngologists in Training between 2016 and 2017. Neil received further advanced Head and Neck, Endocrine and reconstructive surgery training under the internationally renowned surgeons Nick McIvor and John Chaplin in Auckland, New Zealand, before returning in 2018 to UHB.

Mr Richard Simo

Mr Ricard Simo, LMS, FRCS, FRCS (ORL-HNS) PhD

Ricard Simo is a Consultant Otorhinolaryngologist Head, Neck and Thyroid Surgeon at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital. and Honorary Senior Lecturer at KCL Medical School. He graduated from the University of Barcelona in 1988, trained in Nottingham, Manchester and Philadelphia.

He provides a dedicated tertiary head and neck oncological and thyroid surgery service at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospital. He is the Surgical Thyroid Oncology Lead and the Surgical Head, Neck and Thyroid Oncology Research Co-Lead. He has published over 180 original articles, 28 chapters and UK national head, neck and thyroid cancer guidelines. He edited Springer Atlas in Head and Neck Surgery in 2024. He is the Vice-Chair of EBEOR-HNS, Board Member of the CEORL-HNS, Past President of the European Laryngological Society, Past Audit Lead of ENT H&N UK and a faculty member of several national and international courses.

He is married with 2 children and loves nature and triathlon.

Vincent Vander Poorten MD PhD MSc

Vincent Vander Poorten, MD PhD MSc

Consultant, Full Professor and Clinical Head of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University Hospitals Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Section head of the section Head and Neck Oncology of the Department of Oncology of the faculty of Medicine at KU Leuven.

Guest Professor in Head and Neck Oncology, University of Pisa, Italy. Adjunct Professor in Head and Neck Oncology and Salivary Gland Surgery, University of Southern Denmark at Odense, Denmark. Areas of clinical and research expertise are head and neck oncology and surgery, with a specific focus on salivary gland and thyroid surgery, endoscopic and external approaches to the anterior skull base, transoral laser microendoscopic surgery and, since 2010, robotic Head and Neck surgery.

President of the Multidisciplinary Salivary Gland Society (MSGS); Vice Chair, International Advisory Section, American Head and Neck Society (AHNS); Executive Board Member of the Asia-Pacific Society of Thyroid Surgery (APTS) and Member of the Executive Committee International Federation of Head and Neck Oncological Societies (IFHNOS).