Neil Mortensen is Professor of Colorectal Surgery in the University of Oxford Medical School and has been on the staff of the Oxford University Hospitals since 1987, where he is currently honorary consultant colorectal surgeon. He is a Fellow of Green Templeton College. He trained in Birmingham, Bristol and St Mark’s Hospital and has clinical and research interests in a wide range of colorectal diseases. He is Past Chair of the British Journal of Surgery Society, Past President of the Ileostomy Association, and has been Past President of the Association of Coloproctology GBI and the Coloproctology Section of the Royal Society of Medicine. He is immediate past Editor in Chief of Colorectal Disease. He became a member of the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in 2013. In 2017 he was appointed Vice President, and in 2020 President.