Professor Ghazi Damanhouri is General Director of the King Fahd Medical Research Centre, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. He is a consultant haematologist, who teaches undergraduate haematology and also coordinates the teaching programme for post-graduate haematologists in the Western Region of Saudi Arabia. Trained in Cairo and London, Professor Ghazi is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. He is also a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists in the UK, for which he is currently Regional Adviser, and Australasia. He held positions in hospitals in both of these countries prior to returning to Saudi Arabia.