Simon Paterson-Brown MBBS, MPhil, MS, MCS(HK), FRCS (Edin), FRCS (Eng) qualified from St Mary's Hospital Medical School in 1982 before training in surgery around London, the Home Counties, Hong Kong and Edinburgh. He has been Consultant General and Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeon and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh since 1994. He has published widely both in textbooks and journals on emergency surgery, laparoscopic surgery and upper gastro-intestinal surgery. His other interests include surgical training and assessment. He was past Clinical Director Surgical Services Lothian and current President of the Association of Upper GI Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland.

Lucy Mitchell (MA, MRes Psychology) is a Research Assistant in the Industrial Psychology Research Centre at the University of Aberdeen, UK. She is currently developing a system for rating and training non-technical skills for scrub practitioners: SPLINTS - Scrub Practitioners' List of Intra-operative Non-Technical Skills (see www.abdn.ac.uk/iprc/splints. She has published in the Journal of Cognitive Engineering and Decision Making and the Journal of Advanced Nursing. Most recently she has edited a book, with Professor Rhona Flin, on research methods in the operating theatre - Safer Surgery: Analysing Behaviour in the Operating Theatre (2009)(published by Ashgate). Lucy previously studied police firearms officers decision making in a simulated environment and prior to becoming a psychologist was a police officer.

Professor of Paediatric Surgery and Consultant Paediatric Surgeon, Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital, University of Aberdeen, Scotland

Professor Youngson is a native Scot, educated and graduating from Aberdeen University Medical School in 1973. After a period of research within Aberdeen and Sweden and completing his basic surgical training within the North of Scotland, he graduated FRCS from the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1977 and PhD from Aberdeen University in 1979. Following completion of certification in general and vascular surgery, during which time he worked in Scotland and London Ontario Canada, he completed his paediatric surgical training in Aberdeen and Hospital for Sick Children Toronto. He was appointed to the position of Consultant Paediatric Surgeon at Royal Aberdeen Children's Hospital in 1984 and to a personal chair in the University of Aberdeen in 1999.

His main interests, in addition to clinical surgery, are in strategic health care planning, working for the Department of Health in Scotland, and in surgical education.

He was previously Chairman of the Intercollegiate Specialty Board in Paediatric Surgery is currently Chairman of the Patient .Safety Board and is Director of Standards and council member of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh He is adviser in paediatric surgery to the Chief Medical Officer in Scotland.

Graham Sunderland BSc MCS (HK) MD FRCS (Glas) FRCS (Eng) qualified from Glasgow University Medical School in 1980. His early surgical education was in Glasgow and the West of Scotland before spending time as a Lecturer in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He returned to take up a post as Consultant Colo-rectal Surgeon in the Southern General Hospital in 1992. He also holds the post of Honorary Senior Lecturer in Surgery at the University of Glasgow. He has long held an interest in surgical training and was instrumental in establishing Basic Surgical Skills training locally and nationally. He is currently the director of Surgical Education for the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow and the Clinical Director of Surgery in South Glasgow University Hospitals.

Rhona Flin (BSc, PhD Psychology) is Professor of Applied Psychology in the School of Psychology at the University of Aberdeen. She is a Chartered Psychologist, a Fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. She directs a team of psychologists working with high reliability industries on the management of safety and emergency response. The group has worked on projects relating to aviation safety (funded by EC and CAA), leadership and safety climate in the offshore industry (funded by HSE and the oil industry), team skills and emergency management (funded by the nuclear industry). She is currently studying surgeons' and anaesthetists' non-technical skills (funded by NES/ RCSEd) and safety climate in hospitals (funded by GUHT). Her recent books include Safety at the Sharp End: A Guide to Non-Technical Skills (with O'Connor & Crichton, Ashgate, in prep); Sitting in the Hot Seat: Leaders and Teams for Critical Incident Management (Wiley, 1996), and Decision Making under Stress (ed. & Salas, Strub & Martin, Ashgate, 1997).

Colin Morgan is Managing Director of ETHICON, A division of JOHNSON & JOHNSON MEDICAL LIMITED. His career with Johnson & Johnson spans over 30 years and includes time based in Portugal as General Manager of Johnson & Johnson Professional Products. He is a past Chairman of ABHI (Association of British Healthcare Industries) and currently a member of their Executive Board with responsibility for the UK Market Access policy group. He was a member of the Government Task Force (HITF) and is currently chairing the implementation group of HITF recommendations relating to Best Procurement practices. He is currently President of the European Association of Surgical Suture Industries, also sits on the board of SHIL (Scottish Health Innovations Limited) and is a member of the Life Sciences Industry Advisory Group. He has also received Honorary Fellowships from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons of Glasgow, the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain & Ireland and the James IV Association of Surgeons.

Nikki is a consultant anaesthetist at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh with a particular interest in anaesthesia for emergency surgery. She was involved in a project to identify anaesthetists' non-technical skills (ANTS) and is currently working with the Royal College of Anaesthetists to integrate non-technical skills assessment into specialty training in anaesthesia. As an anaesthetist, (and also as daughter of a professor of surgery), she has a keen interest in surgeons' non-technical skills and feels lucky to have been invited to join the steering group for the NOTSS project. Nikki is also director of the Scottish Clinical simulation Centre in Stirling which is home to Scotland's only high fidelity human patient simulator and is involved in delivery of acute care training for doctors, dentists, nurses and other AHPs.

Steven Yule (MA, PhD Psychology; MSc Ergonomics) is a Research Fellow in the School of Psychology, University of Aberdeen. He is a chartered psychologist and has worked with surgeons developing and testing the NOTSS system since April 2003 (see www.abdn.ac.uk/iprc/notss ). Current research is looking at whether debriefing surgical trainees on their non-technical skills improves performance during a surgical rotation. Prior to this, his research has been on Human Factors issues in organizations where people are exposed to major hazards. He completed his PhD in 2002 on senior managers' leadership style and safety performance in the UK and US energy sectors and is particularly interested in the role of clinicians' non-technical skills in the quality and safety of patient care. His recent publications on non-technical skills are in Surgery, Quality and Safety in Healthcare, and Medical Education .

David Pitts is the Associate Director of the Leadership & Professional Development Centre at RCSEd and National Co-ordinator of the UK Orthopaedic Curriculum Project. His background is in Occupational Psychology and Management Development. Before joining the Edinburgh college team he worked in both academia and industry on learing and organisational development projects in the uk and overseas. He has published articles on a variety of leadership topics and is co-author of the recently aproved Trauma & Orthopaedics Curriculum.

John L Duncan MB ChB ChM FRCS[Ed] FRCPS[Glas] FACS graduated from Aberdeen Medical School in 1977. He trained in General and Vascular Surgery in Aberdeen, Inverness and Sheffield with a year as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School in the early 1980's. He is a Consultant General and Vascular Surgeon in Inverness, an Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen and is Director of the Highland and Islands Aneurysm Screening Programme. He recently completed 5 years as Treasurer of The Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland. For The College, he is Clinical Tutor, a Member of the Examinations Committee and of the Specialist Advisory Board in General Surgery.

John McLinden is lay chairman of the Edinburgh Royal College of Surgeons Public Liaison Group. John spent 34 years working for Standard Life, first in Information Technology and latterly as HR Manager in the IT Division of the Company. During his time there, he attained an MBA through the Open University.Since 2004 he has provided HR Consultancy in the areas of Investors in People, Career Development and Leadership Development to IT Services company Sopra Group UK (Formerly Newell & Budge).

His main social interest is amateur theatre as chairman, director and actor with Edinburgh Theatre Arts.

A graduate of the University of Bristol and Lecturer in Surgery at the University of Sheffield he returned to Bristol as Senior Registrar. There he was founding President of the Association of Surgeons in Training in 1976. After holding the Travelling Fellowship of The James IV Association of Surgeons Inc. he was appointed Consultant Surgeon to the Royal Surrey County Hospital, Guildford in 1979 and to Kings, Guys and St Thomas’ in 1997.

He has been Hunterian Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, Visiting Professor in Texas and Oregon and President of the Section of Surgery of The Royal Society of Medicine. Editorial work has included the British Journal of Surgery and the Yearbook of Vascular Surgery. He has served on the Intercollegiate Board in General Surgery, been Chairman of the Specialist Advisory Committee and Chairman of the Federation of Surgical Specialty Associations.

He was President of the Association of Surgeons of GB & Ireland in 1997-98 and part of the Working Group at the GMC assessing surgeons’ performance both in 1998 and since 2004. He has served as Surgical Adviser to the Intensive Support Team of the Modernisation Agency and the Performance Support Team of the Department of Health. He was a Council Member of the Royal College of Surgeons of England 2000-07 where he had particular responsibility for workforce and patient safety issues. He served as a non-executive director of the National Clinical Assessment Authority from 2001-05 and has worked in the assessment of performance for the GMC, the NCAA and professional associations. With experts from other industries he is currently developing teaching methods to improve non-technical skills in surgery, based on a joint research programme at Great Ormond Street Hospital and at King’s College Hospital. He is surgical adviser to the National Clinical Advisory Team of the NHS and a member of the campaign team of the NPSA. He has also been an external adviser to the Healthcare Commission and to the Parliamentary Health Committee.