Board members
ISBT Executive Committee
Pierre Tiberghien
President (2024-2026)
M.D., Ph.D., and clinical hematologist at the Besançon University Hospital until 2009, Pierre Tiberghien was previously director of the Bourgogne France-Comté Etablissement Français du Sang (EFS, the French transfusion public service) as well as of a University INSERM EFS research team on host-graft immune interactions. Professor of medicine, Immunology, at Franche-Comté University, Pierre Tiberghien was also EFS deputy CEO in charge of medicine and research from 2009 to 2017, and is presently senior advisor for European and international medical and scientific affairs at EFS, Paris. Pierre Tiberghien is President of the European Blood Alliance.
Lin Fung
ISBT President Elect (2024-2026)
Lin Fung is the Associate Professor in Medical Laboratory Science at the University of the Sunshine Coast. She has worked in tertiary hospital pathology laboratories, led research teams at the Australian Blood Service and University of Queensland, and was the Chair of the ISBT Granulocyte Immunobiology Working Party. She serves on two hospital blood management committees and has an active interest in translational transfusion research. This led her to set up the OptiBlood research team, which runs studies directed at optimising the patient’s blood and use of blood products. Lin enjoys public speaking, facilitating collaborations, mentoring young scientists and is an advocate for evidence based transfusion practice.
Jill Storry
Vice President (2022-2026)
Jill Storry is an adjunct Professor at the Division of Haematology & Transfusion Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University (LU), Sweden, and also responsible for the Immunohematology laboratories within the Department of Clinical Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Laboratory Medicine, Lund. She trained as Medical Laboratory Technologist in Bristol, England and has worked for the American Red Cross National Immunohematology Reference Laboratory and the New York Blood Center Immunohematology Reference Laboratory before moving to Sweden to pursue her post-doctoral career. Primary areas of interest are the study of human blood group systems, both from a clinical perspective in the provision of providing blood to alloimmunised patients and from the perspective of human polymorphism, and its role in health and disease. She is currently the Immunohematology Section Editor for Vox Sanguinis. She has served ISBT as a past chair and member of the Working Party on Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology as well as a member of the Working Party on Rare Donors.
Cynthia So-Osman
Cynthia So-Osman finalized her specialism in Internal Medicine, with a subspecialty training in Haematology (2000) and in Transfusion Medicine (2002). She obtained a Master of Science (MSc) degree in Clinical Epidemiology (2008) and obtained her PhD with a thesis titled: “Patient Blood Management in Elective Orthopaedic Surgery” in 2012. Since 2002 she is a Clinical Consultant in Transfusion Medicine at Sanquin Blood Bank at the Dept. of Transfusion Medicine, NL, and she actively participates in Patient Blood Management and COVID-19 related studies. As a Haematology Consultant, she works at Erasmus University Hospital, Rotterdam, NL. She is the past chair of the ISBT Clinical Transfusion Working Party, she is a member of the International Collaborative on Transfusion Medicine Guidelines (ICTMG) and a member of the BEST Collaborative.ISBT Vice President (2024-2028)
Michael Busch
Past President (2022-2024)
Michael Busch earned his MD and PhD degrees at the University of Southern California followed by residency training in Pathology, Laboratory Medicine and Transfusion Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He is currently Director of Vitalant Research Institute (VRI) and Senior Vice President for Research and Scientific Affairs at Vitalant, a national network of blood centers and donor testing laboratories. He is also a Professor of Laboratory Medicine at UCSF. Michael is one of the world’s leading transfusion medicine scientists, well-regarded for his ground-breaking work in such transfusion-transmitted diseases as HIV, HBV, HCV, HTLV and West Nile virus and protection of the nation’s blood supply from these and other emerging pathogens including ZIKV and SARS-CoV-2. He has published over 550 peer-reviewed scientific articles, editorials and book chapters. Michael is a member of the Transfusion Transmitted Diseases Committee of AABB, the Research and Development Advisory Committee of Canadian Blood Services and several World Health Organization panels.
Gwen Clarke
Secretary General (2018-2026)
ISBT Secretary General, Chair of the Vox SC; Clinical Professor, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
Gwen Clarke is a physician with training at the University of Alberta and at Emory University. She has clinical and research interests in perinatal immunohematology and experience as a hospital transfusion medicine physician and with the Canadian blood supplier. Her current role with Canadian Blood services includes medical leadership for perinatal and immunohematology reference laboratories, consultation in donor testing and for the Rare Blood Program. Gwen is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Alberta. She is a former program director for residency training in Hematopathology and an examiner for the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Gwen has recently completed a term as president of the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine.
Martin Smid
Martin Smid, MD Medicine, PhD, MBA, has more than 25 years’ experience in blood bank management, transfusion medicine and coagulation. He is managing director of Sanquin Consulting Services and director of the Academic Institute IDTM. He has been a member of the ISBT WP Global Blood Safety from the start in 2010 and was chair from 2018 till 2023. In essence, the WP develops solutions for the low resource environment with already available knowledge. The stepwise access to safe plasma products initiative is a good example. Martin’s main responsibilities include international cooperation and knowledge sharing in international projects and the Management of Transfusion Medicine programme at the Graduate School of Medical Science of the University of Groningen. He has over 60 publications, mainly in the area of blood products and transfusion medicine. In 2024 he was awarded the AATM excellence award.
ISBT Regional Directors
Marion Vermeulen
ISBT Regional Director Africa (2024-2028)
Marion Vermeulen is the Executive: Transfusion Medicine and Technical Services at the South African National Blood service (SANBS). She has worked for most of her 35 years in Transfusion Transmissible Infections. Her current role consists of the development of the SANBS strategy with direct responsibility for the donation screening, processing, crossmatching, issuing, transportation and logistics of 1 million donations per annum. She obtained her PhD from Stellenbosch University in advancements of transfusion safety with regards to Transfusion Transmissible Infections (TTI). She is an active member of the international society for blood transfusion (ISBT) TTID working party and is the chairperson of the I TRY IT program that provides mentorship to young early career researchers through the ISBT.
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Mickey Koh
Regional Director Europe (2024-2028)
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Katerina Pavenski
Regional Director North Americas (2022-2026)
Dr. Katerina Pavenski is the Head of Division of Transfusion Medicine, clinical hematologist, medical director of the Therapeutic Apheresis Service and Co-director of the Patient Blood Management Program at St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, Canada. She obtained Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Toronto and completed residency training in Internal Medicine and Adult Clinical Hematology (University of Toronto) and Transfusion Medicine (McMaster University). She is an associate professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology, University of Toronto. Her research interests include clinical transfusion medicine, patient blood management and therapeutic apheresis. She is the Vice-Chair of the International Collaboration for Transfusion Medicine Guidelines (ICTMG) and a member of the ISBT Clinical Transfusion Working Party. She was awarded the Ortho Award by the Canadian Society for Transfusion Medicine in 2021 for her contributions to the field of transfusion medicine in Canada.
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Jose Eduardo Levi
Regional Director Latin America (2022-2026)
José Eduardo Levi is a biologist. He obtained his Master and PhD degrees at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. He has worked for more than 20 years in blood banks in São Paulo city with a major focus on blood screening. In parallel, José Levi has developed academic activities in the Virology Lab from the Tropical Medicine Institute from the University of São Paulo since 1995, doing research in blood-borne viruses but also Human Papillomaviruses and Arboviruses, having published 200 peer-reviewed scientific articles and supervised 20 thesis on these subjects. He has been a member of the ISBT Working Party in Transfusion-Transmitted Infections for many years, also coordinating the Virology subgroup for some time. Currently he is the head of Research and Development at Dasa, the largest clinical pathology lab in South America.
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Maha Badawi
Regional Director Eastern Mediterranean (2022-2026)
Maha Badawi obtained her MBBS degree from King Abdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She then completed postgraduate training in internal medicine, hematology, and transfusion medicine at the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC). Maha returned to Jeddah in 2014 and currently works as an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine at King Abdulaziz University.
She is the director of Blood Transfusion Services in King Abdulaziz University Hospital. Maha completed Masters in Health Professions Education in 2020, and is currently the program director for the adult hematology fellowship program in her training center. She is a member of the Hematology Research Unit in King Fahd Medical Research Center at King Abdulaziz University, and is a member of multiple committees in the Ministry of Health and the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties. She also joined ISBT Academy Standing Committee in 2018. Maha’s research interests include hemoglobinopathies, donor motivation, and blood utilization.
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Christian Erikstrup
Regional Director Europe (2022-2026)
Christian Erikstrup is Chair Professor of Clinical Immunology at Aarhus University, Consultant and Head of Blood Production at the Department of Clinical Immunology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus Denmark.
Christian Erikstrup is a co-initiator of the The Danish Blood Donor Study - a nationwide open cohort study and biobank of blood donors. CE chairs the Danish Committee for Transfusion-Transmitted Infectious Diseases. CE is active in the SRAP subgroup of the TTID WP.
CE initiated his research career within HIV immunology with studies in Africa and Denmark and now focuses his research on susceptibility to infection and iron deficiency.
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Yanli Ji
Regional Director Western Pacific (2024-2028)
Yanli Ji start to work in the Institute of Clinical Blood Transfusion in Guangzhou Blood Center since she got the PhD degree in 2008 from Sun Yat-Sen University in China till now. From 2010 to 2011, she worked as a visiting scholar in Sanquin Research. Her interests are the research of RBC blood group genotyping and its application in the Chinese population, rare donor program, blood group reference testing, and clinical consults. The routine Asian-type DEL testing was firstly carried out in their lab to avoid anti-D prophylaxis in Asian-type DEL pregnant women in China. She was a member of the first ISBT young professional council. Now she is a member of ISBT working party of Red Cell Immunogenetics and Blood Group Terminology, and the vice director of immunohematology Committee of CSBT (Chinese Society of Blood Transfusion).
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Nelson Hirokazu Tsuno
Nelson H Tsuno currently holds the positions of Deputy Director General of the Japanese Red Cross Kanto-Koshinetsu Block Blood Center, Senior Director of the Laboratory of the same blood center, Visiting Associate Professor at Keio University School of Medicine, and Visiting Researcher at the University of Tokyo. He has more than 20 years working experience in the transfusion medicine field, in both the university hospital and the blood service. He has chaired the ISBT Platelet Immunobiology WP with Dr Sentot Santoso and Prof. Ulrich J Sachs until 2021, and started activities of the WP in Asia by organizing training courses and workshops. He is also an active member of the ISBT Granulocyte Immunobiology WP and the Global Blood Safety WP. His research interests include platelets & granulocytes immunobiology, blood donors/donation, blood safety and donor testing. Presently, he is a section editor of the Vox Sanguinis.
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Satyam Arora
ISBT Regional Director South East Asia (2024-2028), Additional Professor, Transfusion Medicine, Post Graduate Institute of Child Health (PGICH), Noida, India
Dr Satyam Arora, MBBS, MD (Transfusion Medicine), CABP (AABB) completed his MD in 2012 from the prestigious Post Graduate Institute Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, India. He established a pediatric transfusion-focused academic transfusion medicine department at a stand-alone children’s hospital (under the Government) in India and currently working there as an additional professor. He is presently working to establish a dedicated pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplant and cell therapy centre at the same institute.
He has done various international rotations (observerships) in hematopoietic stem cell transplants (Cleveland Clinic, USA) and Cell Therapy (Centre for Cell and Gene Therapy, Baylor Medical Center, USA). He is a member of the Technical Resource Group (TRG) on blood transfusion services (BTS) under the Directorate General Health Services under the Government of India and an expert member of India's National Donor Vigilance Program. He has been a member of ISBT since 2012 and was a founder member, past chairperson and South-East Asia representative with the Young Professional Council (YPC) of ISBT. Presently he is secretary of the Clinical Transfusion Working Party, co-chair of the Pediatric Transfusions subgroup of ISBT and member of the Hemovigilance Working Party. He is the recipient of many prestigious awards such as “Dr Harold Gunson” Fellowship (2012), the ISBT TTID Working Party Travel Award for Young Scientists (2014), “Young Scientist Award” by the Indian Society of Transfusion Medicine 2021and “Narendra S Bagaria Award” by the Indian Society of Blood Transfusion and Immunohematology (2022). His areas of interest are pediatric transfusions, hematopoietic stem cell transplants, apheresis science and hemovigilance.
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