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Dr. Thierry Mesana is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute. A native of France, he is recognized as one of the leading heart valve surgeons in the world. He received his medical degree at the Université de la Méditerranée, Marseilles, where he trained in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery. He received his PhD in biophysics and biomechanics at the same university after extensive experimental work on artificial hearts and ventricular assist devices.

In 1991, Dr. Mesana was, at the time, the youngest cardiac surgeon in France to receive a full professorship. He then became the Chair of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery at La Timone University Hospital, the largest hospital in Marseilles, where he introduced a number of advanced techniques and greatly expanded the cardiac surgery program. He was Visiting Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from 1996 to 1997.

Dr. Mesana was appointed Division Head, Cardiac Surgery at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in 2001. In this role through 2012, he led significant changes in the Division of Cardiac Surgery. Under his leadership, the Institute’s valve repair program has become recognized as one of the best in the world. He has authored over 300 scientific publications and has been an invited lecturer in many national and international symposia.