Following our 2025 Executive Board election, outgoing President, Volker Straub, announced the makeup of the new WMS Executive Board at WMS 2025 in Vienna, Austria.
The current WMS Executive Board members are:
The voting members of the WMS Executive Board continue to be supported by Honorary President and WMS Founder, Victor Dubowitz. The Editor-in-Chief of Neuromuscular Disorders also has a non-voting seat on the WMS Executive Board. From January 2026, this will be Chris Weihl.
On accepting his elected position as WMS President, Laurent Servais said: “I joined the WMS Executive Board because I think the WMS is great and because I want to make it better. That is still my ambition as President. My aim will be to continue to make the WMS a community where everyone feels it is the place where they can present, learn, progress, listen, teach, connect and interact in a positive and friendly atmosphere. I also wish to remove barriers to enable a broad inclusion in the WMS, particularly for those from countries where myology is still an emerging science. I would like to thank my colleagues on the Executive Board for putting their trust in me to lead this wonderful organisation.”
Gina Ravenscroft, who was selected by her Executive Board colleagues to be the new WMS Secretary, a role previously held by Laurent Servais, said: “I’ve been the Scientific Programme Committee Chair for the previous term and I’m excited to bring my passion for neuromuscular disorders and for the WMS to the role of Secretary. We have achieved a lot in recent years, but there is more to do, particularly in terms of making the Society and our Congresses more accessible for early to mid-career researchers and myologists around the world. I’m looking forward to continuing to make that progress.”
Ichizo Nishino, who is our longest-standing member of the Executive Board was selected as the new WMS Treasurer. He said: “I have been a member of the Executive Board since 2007, but this is the first time I’ve sought an Executive Officer role. I’m looking forward to working with my colleagues on the Executive Board to continue my predecessor, Gisèle Bonne’s work to secure the financial health of the Society so we can do more work to support myology around the world.”
On standing down as President, Volker Straub said: “I’m really proud of how far the WMS has come in the last six years. We have initiatives in place that we hadn’t even thought of in 2019, when I became President, including the creation of EDI and Environmental Sustainability Committees, to name just two. We have grown the annual Congress and made it much more accessible for a wider group of people, and we have put financial support mechanisms in place to support those least able to afford to attend. It has been a great honour to serve the WMS as its President, and I look forward to continuing to support the ongoing success of the Society from my seat on the Executive Board.”
New to the WMS Executive Board are Giovanni Baranello, Jorge Bevilacqua, Giorgia Coratti, Tamara Dangouloff, Edoardo Malfatti, Marco Savarese, and Nicol Voermans. Carsten Bönnemann returns to the Board having served previously. Nicol and Jorge are the WMS Pre-Congress Teaching Course Co-chairs and Marco chairs our Prize Committee.
In advance of the election, the WMS Executive Board agreed to create a role specifically for a member who would represent the needs and views of early to mid-career researchers and clinicians. We had two election candidates who received the same number of votes, so our Board members agreed they should share the role. The two, newly elected early to mid-career Board representatives are Giorgia Coratti and Tamara Dangouloff. As this is a newly created role, Giorgia and Tamara are working together and with the rest of the Board to agree how they can work most effectively.
Following the election, seven members previously on the WMS Executive Board who are no longer Board members are Alan Beggs, Gisèle Bonne, Jim Dowling, Kevin Flanigan, Francesco Muntoni, Benedikt Schoser and John Vissing. We are very grateful to all of them for their many years of service.
The 2022-2025 WMS Executive Board
Published on 4 November 2025.
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