BTS President and President-elect 2023

BTS is pleased to announce Professor Jon Bennett as the new BTS President.

Jon is a Consultant Respiratory and General Medicine Physician and Honorary Senior Lecturer at Glenfield Hospital UHL NHS Trust in Leicester. At Leicester, he has served as service lead for Lung Cancer, and also lead for Bronchoscopy and interventional procedures, facilitating many service improvements during those years. He was a Royal College Tutor for 9 years and undergraduate education co-Lead for Cardio-Respiratory Medicine for 8 years. Professor Bennett continues as Regional Speciality Adviser, RCP London PACES examiner, University of Leicester IPE and Finals examiner, and the Departmental Medical Education Clinical Tutor.

Jon has a long history of service to the Society – most notably he chaired the BTS Board of Trustees from 2019 – 202, steering the Society through the pandemic and providing leadership and support for BTS members during this challenging time. He has been a member of the Tobacco Committee, Interventional Procedures Advisory Group, BTS Council and served as the Chair of the Professional & Organisation Standards (now Quality Improvement) Committee between 2015-2018. 

BTS is pleased to announce Professor Nick Maskell as the new BTS President-elect.

BTS is pleased to announce Professor Nick Maskell as the new BTS President-elect. Professor Bennett will join the BTS Board and will take over as President at the BTS Annual General Meeting in November 2024.

Nick Maskell is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at The University of Bristol (UoB), and has been a  Consultant at North Bristol NHS Trust since 2004. He is the head of the UoB Academic Respiratory Unit and leads their Bristol NIHR-BRC Respiratory theme. He is recognised as a national and international leader in respiratory and pleural research and was recently made an NIHR Senior Investigator.

Over his academic career, he has gained over £40 million in research funding, and has led multiple NIHR-funded randomised trials which have substantially improved respiratory practice, policy, and patient care. He continues to collaborate with a large national research network, which now includes over 80 Trusts, and mentors a wide range of junior clinical academics.

In parallel to the above, Nick has had an enormous impact on training and guideline-based care. He has chaired multiple clinical guidelines which have impacted treatment worldwide and, as an adviser to the RCP and NPSA, he continues to lead developments in patient safety. He has had a central role in the development of national and international thoracic ultrasound (TUS) training standards, and has helped to drive its use in clinical practice becoming mandatory.

He has a strong track record of delivery for BTS and has enjoyed Chairing numerous guidelines (including the previous and current BTS pleural guidelines), setting up and running short BTS courses, acting as Associate Editor of Thorax, sitting on a number of BTS committees, and being a previous BTS Treasurer.

Professor Maskell commented:

‘I am delighted and honoured to have been elected to serve the BTS in this role. It comes at a critical time for the NHS, respiratory healthcare professionals and our patients, all of whom are facing huge challenges. I will do my best to make sure our voice is heard by policy makers.’