Dr Christian Verdicchio is the Chief Executive Officer of Heart Support Australia overseeing the organisation and leading Australia’s largest peer support network to ensure Australians receive long-term support following a cardiac event.

Prior to his work with Heart Support Australia, Dr Verdicchio was the the Corporate Allied Health and Cardiac Rehabilitation Manager at Macquarie Health where he established and led Australia’s largest private cardiac rehabilitation program across 12 hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne.

He is a clinician-researcher with extensive experience in exercise in cardiovascular disease and sports cardiology. He completed his PhD in Medicine under the supervision of Prof Prash Sanders and was awarded Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence for his PhD titled ‘Exercise in Atrial Fibrillation’. He continues to hold academic appointments as a Clinical Senior Lecturer in the Adelaide Medical School at the University of Adelaide and in the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney.

Dr Verdicchio is presently the European Society of Cardiology European Association of Preventive Cardiology Young Ambassador of Australia, and an Executive Member on the CSANZ Allied Health, Science and Technology Council. He has presented and been invited to talk at the leading cardiology conferences globally including the Heart Rhythm Society, Asia-Pacific Heart Rhythm Society, European Heart Rhythm Society, European Society of Cardiology Preventive Cardiology Congress and the Cardiac Society of Australia. He has been selected as a finalist in the Young Investigator Award category at the 2018 ESSA Research to Practice, the 2019 and 2021 ESC Preventive Cardiology congresses, and selected as a finalist for the Early Career Researcher at the ESSA Research to Practice conference in 2021.

Dr Verdicchio has extensive board and governance experience. He was the President of Com.It.Es South Australia from 2017-2021 being the youngest in the world to be elected to such a position. He was one of three founding Board Directors of the new Adelaide Italian Festival in 2019, where he continues to be the Head of Partnerships.

He is a current referee on the SA National Premier League (formerly NSW National Premier League) with more than 300-senior fixtures and was formerly a match official on the Hyundai-A-League, Foxtel Youth League and Australian Cup.

Dr Verdicchio brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in cardiology, governance and corporate management to lead Heart Support Australia ensuring it continues to play a key role in  providing support and advocating for those heart disease patients living in Australia.