Giuseppe Mancia is Head of the Division and Department of Internal Medicine at San Gerardo Hospital, Monza, and Chairman of the Department of Clinical Medicine and Prevention at the University of Milan-Bicocca. His research interests include pathophysiology, clinical pharmacology and therapy of hypertension, congestive heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases. Dr Mancia is Past President of the International Society of Hypertension (ISH), the European Society of Hypertension (ESH), the European Society of Clinical Investigation and the Italian Society of Hypertension (SIIA). He is also a former Chairman of the Working Group on Hypertension and the Heart of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). In addition, Dr Mancia is an ex-officio member of the Executive Council of the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) and Chairman of the WHO/ISH Liaison Committee on Hypertension and has been Chairman of the Committee for the ESH/ESC Guidelines on Hypertension (2003 and 2007). He has published more than 1,000 papers in international journals.