President
Susan Paterson MA VetMB DVD DipECVD FRCVS 
Sue qualified from Cambridge Vet School in 1984. She then went on to take her Certificate in Small Animal Dermatology followed by the Royal College and European Diplomas in Veterinary Dermatology. She has been a recognised specialist in Veterinary Dermatology for 20 years. She has written more than 50 peer reviewed articles and seven text books, the latter being widely translated including into German, Spanish, Chinese and Russian. She has lectured extensively at NAVC, ESVD, WCVD, WSAVA, SEVC and EERVC and contributes regularly at BSAVA Congress. She has lectured in more than 30 countries. She has served as Chair of both Publications and Education at BSAVA. Sue is an elected member of Royal College Council where she sits on Education Committee. She is currently President of ESVD and has recently taken over as the Chair of Education at WAVD. Sue is a Veterinary Director of Rutland House Surgery Group in St Helens.
Sue has been married to her long suffering husband Richard for more than 25 years and has two children Samantha (20) and Matthew (18) and two large boisterous Labradors. She is a keep fit fanatic. She plays hockey regularly representing her club and the North of England at Masters level. She has recently had to give up marathon running after bilateral knee surgery. Over the last few years she has completed 25 marathons including 12 London marathons – each one has been in aid of an animal charity either GDBA or the BSAVA charity PetSavers. She has raised more than £20,000 for animal charities during that time.
Vice President
Ian Ramsey BVSc PhD DSAM DipECVIM-CA FHEA MRCVS
Ian graduated from Liverpool University in 1990, completed a PhD at Glasgow University on feline leukaemia virus in 1993 and a residency in small animal medicine at Cambridge University in 1997. During this time he also did locum first opinion work in a wide variety of small animal practices. He then moved back to Glasgow University in 1998 where he has been ever since.
Ian first went to BSAVA Congress in 1988 and has been to all the others but one since then and still loves every minute of it.
He started his volunteer role in the East Anglia Region as Secretary in 1994 and then moved on to Publications Committee. In 2002 Ian became Chair of the PetSavers Management Committee. In 2006 he took a few years break from BSAVA volunteering (during which time he served as Secretary for the European College of Veterinary Internal Medicine) before coming back in 2011, first as member of, and then as Chair of Congress Programme Committee from 2012-2015. In 2016 he moved into his current role.
Ian is currently the Professor of Small Animal Medicine at Glasgow University Veterinary School and editor of the BSAVA Small Animal Formulary. He is an RCVS and European diplomate in small animal medicine and his main interest is in endocrinology. He has written and co-authored numerous scientific papers, review articles and book chapters in various aspects of small animal medicine. In 2015 Ian received the BSAVA Woodrow Award for his contributions to small animal medicine.
Away from veterinary work his hobbies are DIY, cycling and walking (preferably, but sadly all too rarely, up mountains).
He is married to Yvonne, has two teenage children, Alastair and Heather, and two dogs, a corn snake and gerbils.
Junior Vice President
Sheldon Middleton MA VetMB MRCVS
Sheldon graduated from the University of Cambridge in 2007. He stayed in the area as a new graduate, taking a job in a mixed practice in Bedford. He became Senior Vet there in 2011 and a Partner in 2013. He gained a GPCert(Ophthal) whilst in practice.
Sheldon’s BSAVA career started immediately after graduation when he joined the East Anglia Regional Committee. He then took on the roles of Treasurer, Secretary and Chair of the region in succession and afterwards became a Regional Representative. This led him to be a committee member of the Membership Development Committee and he subsequently became Chair. Sheldon became Honorary Treasurer of the Association in 2016.
He has edited the BSAVA Pocketbook for Vets and is involved in the production of BSAVA’s PDP resource bank.
Sheldon lives with his wife (also a small animal vet) and two children in Bedfordshire. Originally from the Yorkshire Pennines, he still enjoys hillwalking but has to travel out of Bedfordshire to do so! He also enjoys skiing, classical music and days out as a family.
Senior Vice President
Philip Lhermette BSc (Hons) CBiol FRSB BVetMed FRCVS
After completing an honours degree in animal physiology at the University of Nottingham in 1977, Philip went on to complete his degree in veterinary medicine at the Royal Veterinary College, London, in 1982. Following four years in mixed practice in Surrey Philip moved to Kent to establish his own practice, Elands Veterinary Clinic, near Sevenoaks in Kent. Philip is Special Lecturer in Veterinary Endoscopy and Endosurgery at the University of Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine and Science and received the Simon award in 2011 for outstanding contributions in the field of veterinary surgery.
Previous BSAVA posts that Philip has held include Chair of Kent BSAVA, member of publications committee and Chair of PetSavers Management Committee. He has also edited the BSAVA Manual Canine and Feline Endoscopy and Endosurgery.
Philip lives on a farm in Kent with his wife Elizabeth and three daughters, Anna, Sarah and Lisa-Nicole plus an expanding menagerie of pets and livestock. Hobbies include photography, scuba diving and
travel - plus the odd glass of good red wine!
Honorary Secretary
Carl Gorman BVSc MRCVS
Carl graduated from Bristol in 1985. After working in Swindon, Portsmouth and Cheshire, he took on a practice in Newbury where he is now Clinical Director. He has a wide range of clinical interests including surgery, avian and exotic medicine and geriatrics. Since 2000 he has been Small Animal Editor, and now Consultant Editor of UK Vet Companion Animal. He is the author of ‘The Aged Dog’ and ‘Clients, Pets and Vets’.
Carl is on the Southern Region committee and has served as secretary. He has been a Regional Representative and sat on Scientific committee. As a member of BSAVA since 1983, he can boast membership of the association for well over half its existence. He has seen and admired the development of BSAVA over that time.
A firm believer in having a variety of interests to balance veterinary life, Carl has taken part in many challenges for charity, including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, cycling the length of Wales off road, cycling from London to Edinburgh, a half marathon and a Tough Mudder. He has been on charity trips to Malaysia and Greece, neutering strays and continuing to advise the local charities. He is a keen tennis player and golfer. At home his family share space with three dogs, three cats and an increasing herd of tortoises (5 at the last count).
Honorary Treasurer
David Godfrey BVetMed CertSAD CertSAM DipABVP CBiol FSB FRCVS
After qualifying from the RVC in 1988, David spent a few months in mixed practice in Bangor, Co Down, six months in emergency practice in London and then an exciting year in small animal practice in St John’s, Newfoundland which enabled extensive travel around North America. He then settled for a few years in London and took RCVS Certificates in dermatology and medicine. David and his wife, Rosie, moved to Solihull and started the first feline-only veterinary practice in England. During those years, he passed the American Board of Veterinary Practitioner exams in feline practice and performed research in practice including work on feline osteoarthritis that eventually led to an RCVS Fellowship.
After our feline practice, David worked part time at home for a commercial laboratory, and ran some other veterinary businesses, before moving back into clinical work. This time he went back to small animal dermatology and BAER hearing testing. David drives between Cheltenham, Telford, Milton Keynes, and points inside this triangle, seeing dogs and cats with skin and ear problems.
David started volunteering with BSAVA’s Midlands committee as Treasurer. After a couple of years, restructuring led to East and West Midland Regions being created and he found himself chair of West Midlands and so a Director/Trustee of BSAVA. David was then a Regional Representative for a year before moving to Regions Coordinator for three years. These roles included serving on the Membership Development Committee and the Education Committee.
David and Rosie have two grown children, Ella and Oscar, who are pursuing careers in theatre and film and Rosie works as a
small animal practitioner in Coventry. The family have an old cocker spaniel and a middle-aged North American box turtle and like
sightseeing, art galleries, films, theatres, a bit of gentle walking, and David does try to do some oil painting.
Chief Executive Officer
Amanda Stranack
Amanda graduated in Human Sciences from UCL in 1993 and in seeking her next steps, a fortunate introduction led to a role in small but growing business delivering corporate events. This started her career in the world of corporate events where she moved through project management and account director positions and finally to senior management positions working with the boards to develop commercial and business strategies.
For some time she had looked for a position to move to the client side of events, seeking for the chance to shape and build events strategically from within an organisation and the Head of Congress position at BSAVA fitted the bill. BSAVA Congress is the UK’s largest annual association event and something to be proud of, within the veterinary profession but also the world of professional associations and events as a whole. After 4 years in this role Amanda moved to the Director of Operations position and became Chief Executive in 2019.