Dr. Michael Borger completed his cardiac surgery training and a PhD in Clinical Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Toronto in 2001. He was Assistant and then Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto from 2002-2006. In 2006 he moved to the Leipzig Heart Center as a Staff Surgeon, where he became Adjunct Professor of Surgery at the University of Leipzig in 2008 and Assistant Director of Cardiac Surgery in 2009. He then served as the Director of Aortic Surgery and the Director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Columbia University Medical Center in New York from 2014-17. Thereafter he returned to Leipzig as the Director of the University Clinic of Cardiac Surgery, and became the Medical Director of the Leipzig Heart Center in 2023. His research and clinical interests include surgical management of valvular heart and aortic disease. He served as the Co-Chair of the 2023 ESC Endocarditis Guidelines and the 2025 ESC / EACTS Valvular Heart Disease Guidelines.