Leadership Academy

Prof Melissa De Regge is a Coordinating Staff and Policy Expert within the Strategic Policy Unit of Ghent University Hospital, where she leads and supports strategic initiatives aimed at improving healthcare delivery, organisational performance and patient-centred care. Acting as a bridge between clinical practice and policy, she contributes to the development and implementation of projects that strengthen healthcare management and quality improvement across the organisation.

With more than 13 years of clinical experience as a nurse in critical care services, Prof De Regge combines frontline healthcare expertise with a strong background in health management research. Her work focuses on the management and operational dimensions of healthcare delivery, governance and service improvement, areas in which she has authored several peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Prof De Regge holds a Master of Science in Healthcare Management and Policy and a PhD in Applied Economics from Ghent University. She is Chair of the Healthcare Management Research Centre (CuraMa) and a member of the Center for Service Intelligence (CSI), two interdisciplinary research centres dedicated to healthcare management and service innovation. She also teaches organisational management at Ghent University.

In addition to her research and teaching activities, Prof De Regge serves on the core team of the MSc in Healthcare Management and Policy programme, holds several quality assurance and curriculum leadership roles, and sits on the boards of the Belgian Association of Ambulatory Surgery and the Alumni Association for the MSc in Healthcare Management and Policy.

Prof Paul Gemmel is Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at Ghent University and Professor of Service and Healthcare Management. His research and teaching focus on service and healthcare operations management, with particular emphasis on understanding how the design of service delivery systems influences customer and patient experiences within healthcare organisations.

In addition to his role as Dean, Prof Gemmel is an associated member of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care within the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, where he serves as Programme Director of the Master of Science in Healthcare Management and Policy. He is also a Research Fellow at Vlerick Business School.

Prof Gemmel is a recognised leader in healthcare management research and has played a key role in establishing several influential research centres, including the Center for Service Intelligence (CSI), the CuraMa Healthcare Management Research Centre at Ghent University, and the MINOZ research centre for hospital management at Vlerick Business School. His work has contributed significantly to advancing knowledge on healthcare operations, service innovation and organisational performance.

Alongside his academic activities, he holds a number of governance and advisory roles within the Belgian health and care sector, including membership of the governing boards of Broeders van Liefde and Zorggroep H. Hart, and the General Assembly of OLV Aalst. He has undertaken research appointments and sabbaticals at leading international institutions, including Tilburg University, Karlstad University, HEC Montréal and Arizona State University.

Prof Federico Lega is a Full Professor of Health Administration at the Public Health Department at Milan University, where he runs all courses in healthcare management and policy for medical students and leads the Research Centre in Health Administration (HEAD).

From 2007 to 2014 he has been the Head of executive education for health managers, clinicians and medical industry leaders at the Bocconi School of Management (SDA).

Since 2015, he is acting as Editor in Chief of the journal Health Services Management Research, Associate Editor of BMC Health Services Research and Medical Care Research Review. He has published eight books and over 150 articles in journals.

As a consultant, he has advised health systems on health policy matters and governance issues, several hospitals and networks in re-organisations, strategy-making processes, value-based approaches, economic evaluations, and process management, both at the national and international level.

In the last ten years, he has advised several companies in the medical industry on their transformation toward value-based models and on the development of effective market-access initiatives. Since 2002 he has coordinated over fifteen initiatives of duality or study tours, involving the exchange of managers and senior clinicians between countries (Italy, UK, USA, Germany and France). He currently sits on the boards of hospitals and local health authorities, advises health departments of regions, national health agencies and insurances, and works as a consultant for WHO.

Prof Federica Morandi is Professor of Management at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Faculty of Economics, Department of Management Studies. She is the Programme Chair of the bachelor degree of Economia e Gestione dei Servizi (Economics and Service Management) at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

Since 2020 she is the Director of the Academic Programs in Altems (Graduate School of Economics and Management of Healthcare Systems) at the same university. She is also responsible for the research activities of Patient Advocacy Associations Lab and Clinical Trial Management Lab at Altems.

She received two awards for research activities from the Academy of Management (2011) and from Assioa (Italian Association of Organization Studies) (2010). She has been a visiting scholar (short term) at ISCTE-IUL Lisbon (Portugal) and at Tillburg University (The Netherlands) at the Department of Organization Studies – School of Social Behavioural Sciences. Her research interests focus both on organizational models in healthcare and on healthcare workforce.

Prof Federica Morandi co authored more than 30 scientific papers both in international and national peer-reviewed journals and about 10 book chapters. She is also author of a monography entitled “Managerial solutions to hospital challenges” edited by Nova Science Publishers, 2016. Prof Federica Morandi is co editor of a book series dedicated to the healthcare management and she is associate editor at Health Service Management Research journal.

She obtained a PhD in Economic and Management of Healthcare Organizations at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.