Ramana Balasubramaniam is a Senior Medical Officer and Staff Specialist General Surgeon at Goulburn Valley Health, Shepparton, Victoria. He has recently relocated to Australia after spending 3 decades as a surgeon in India. He is known to be a thought leader in the field of abdominal wall reconstruction, and a practising bariatric and general surgeon since many years. Dr. Ramana has been at the forefront of advanced laparoscopic surgery for nearly 3 decades and has done over 25,000 cases, including laparoscopic biliary-enteric anastomoses, foregut surgeries, Whipple’s and other pancreatic surgeries, colorectal, endoscopic neck surgery, retroperitoneoscopic urology and other advanced procedures. He is now sharply focused on teaching hernia surgery. He is well versed in open, laparoscopic and robotic platforms alike. He is currently working on advanced abdominal wall reconstructive techniques in ventral hernias including fascial traction in the management of giant incisional hernias. He was part of the historic first global study on the eTEP approach to ventral hernias, and is considered the pioneer of the AWR (Abdominal Wall Reconstruction) revolution in India. He has described the signs and landmarks of retromuscular anatomy in eTEP procedures and studied the outcomes of complex hernia repairs involving drains. He is involved in research on the use of a novel artificial intelligence system in CT scans to predict outcomes in complex AWR patients. He teaches hernia workshops and courses throughout the world. He has founded the AWR Surgeons’ Community that has around 5500 members currently and is a highly sought after speaker and coach in international conferences as well as meetings in India. He mentors over 1300 surgeons who constitute a community known as Young Turks. He is an invited faculty for European Hernia Society, American Hernia Society and for Harvard Medical School Minimally Invasive and Novel Therapeutics (MINT) events, among many others. He is particularly proud of having designed the logo of the ANZ Hernia Society and for creating a social media based community for the ANZHS. He has multiple publications including editorials in surgical journals and chapters in international surgical books. He enjoys operating privileges in hospitals in every major city in India. He has multiple interests in life, including mentoring and coaching, strength training and rehab, outdoor activities, wildlife photography and travelling.