Brian Sommerlad is an honorary consultant plastic surgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.
He has been caring for children with clefts for 45 years – in the UK and by regularly working with colleagues in many less privileged countries.
He was involved in the CSAG process as a member of the committee and then of the implementation and monitoring groups.
His ongoing research interests have been centred around palate anatomy and function and attempting to improve the speech outcomes of palate repair and surgery for VPI.
He was co-founder in 2007 and is chairman of the UK charity CLEFT.