Dr. Kim received his MD degree from Seoul National University and his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania. Following his medicine residency at Seoul National University and the University of Arkansas, he underwent gastroenterology and hepatology fellowship training at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota. Subsequently, Ray joined the faculty of the Mayo College of Medicine, where he established his research in prognostication in patients with chronic liver disease. He is best known for his work in developing, validating and refining the Model for End-stage Liver Disease (MELD) score. In 2013, he was recruited to Stanford University to lead the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Under his leadership, the Division prospered with a significant growth in the breadth and depth of faculty and their expertise, innovative educational programs for the GI, liver and other advanced fellowships, excellence in scientific scholarship and supportive community with emphasis on mentorship and individual growth. After serving as the GI Chief at Stanford for nearly 11 years, he is returning to Mayo to create the Center for Policy and Outcomes Research in Transplantation (CPORT) based in the Arizona campus.

Prof Jeffrey V Lazarus (PhD, MIH, MA) is the head of the Public Health Liver Group at ISGlobal and Associate Professor at the University of Barcelona as well as a full professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy. His decade-long career as a health systems, HIV and viral hepatitis expert at WHO’s Regional Office for Europe was followed by three years at the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. He is the past Vice-Chair of the EASL International Liver Foundation, Board Chair of AFEW International and he was the first director of Health Systems Global. He currently serves as the Chair of the Healthy Livers, Healthy Lives coalition, and directs MASH Cities and the Global Think-tank on Steatotic Liver Disease. He is the author of more than 400 publications, and is principal investigator of multiple global consensus statements including the SLD global research and action priorities as well as the MASLD/MASH Best Buys, MASH investment framework, Doubling the Diagnosed, VH-COMSAVAC, and a work package leader of LiverAIM. In 2017 he joined the Lancet GastroHep Commission on viral hepatitis and in 2018 became a working group chair of the EASL-Lancet European Liver Commission. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Hepatology and Liver International.