Russ Ladwa inaugurated as the BDA's 134th president

A former dean of the Faculty of General Dental Practitioners, he has chaired both the Federation of London Local Dental Committees and the Dental Vocational Training Authority, and was a board member of the odontology section of the Royal Society of Medicine before being made its president. In 2012, having been a life-long member of the BDA, Russ was elected to its board, serving until 2019.

Russ qualified as a dentist from the London Hospital Medical College in 1975. He returned from a short spell as a civilian dentist in the US Army to work as an associate in an NHS practice in West London in 1977, buying the practice shortly thereafter.

In the 1980s Russ was involved in establishing the Asian Odontology Group and was a founding member of the Association of Dental Implantology. In 1990, he was one of the first London GDPs appointed as a postgraduate dental tutor, a position he held for 23 years.