Dr Frileux is a former Chief of Digestive Surgery at Hôpital Foch in Paris and Professor of Surgery at Université de Paris. He is also Scientific Director of the Paris Institute for Surgical Teaching. He has a large experience in gastro-intestinal procedures, particularly cancer and inflammatory diseases. He has built up a long collaboration with British surgeons and is a former Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons (London). In the USA, he has developed links with the Mayo Clinic (Rochester) and is a former member of the American Society of Colorectal Surgeons. He has worked for one year as a military surgeon in Tunis and has acquired experience in surgery in a low-resource setting.