Mr Wolfgang Philipp is Head of the Intelligence gathering, analysis and innovation Unit of the new Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) in the European Commission. HERA's mission is to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to health emergencies. HERA works to ensure the development, production and distribution of medicines, vaccines, and other critical medical countermeasures in case of health emergencies. He holds a PhD in microbiology of the University of Paris, France, and has been working in tuberculosis research at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, at the Universities of Bern and Basel and was a Member of the Basel Institute of Immunology, Switzerland, before joining the European Commission in 2001.

Born in Coimbra in 1964 but he has always lived in Porto.

He has a medical degree.

He is doctor specialising in Internal Medicine at Centro Hospitalar Universitário São João and was Medical Director of the Hospital da Ordem da Trindade.

He was member of the Parliament (2005-2013) and member of the Parliament Committee for Health.

He was Secretary of State for Health (2008-2009) and Deputy Minister for Health (2009-2011).

He was Councillor for Porto Municipality (2013 to 2021).

He was member of the European Parliament (2019-2022) and chair of the Socialist delegation at the European Parliament since 2022.

He was High Commissioner of the National Health Convention.

Isabel Proaño Gómez is Member of the Board of the European Patients' Forum (EPF) since her election in 2022.

Ms Proaño is Director of Policy and Communications of the European Federation of Allergy and Airways Diseases Patients Associations (EFA), a founding member of EPF. In her daily work, Ms Proaño brings to the EU and WHO bodies the patient priorities in the field of food and health, digitalisation, and environmental exposure. She is EFA representative to the European Medicines Agency Patients and Consumers Working Party (EMA PCWP), to the EC Stakeholder Network on Health Technology Assessment (HTA), to the Health and Emergency Response Authority Civil Society Forum (HERA CSF) and to the DG Environment Zero Pollution Stakeholder Platform (ZPSP).

Prior to joining EFA in 2014, Ms Proaño worked on the humanitarian and health crisis in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), with the United Nations High Commissioner for the Refugees (UNHCR) and Save the Children International (SCI).

Ms Proaño holds a MA on Journalism and a MA on Political Sciences from the University Complutense in Madrid, as well as a MA on European Integration from the College of Europe in Natolin.