Shay McGuinness is a Specialist and Director of Research at the Cardiothoracic & Vascular Intensive Care Unit (CVICU) at Auckland City Hospital, the Medical Director of New Zealand Air Ambulance Service and an Honorary Professor at the University of Auckland. Shay is actively involved in multiple large scale clinical trials through the ANZICS Clinical Trials Group and ANZCA Clinical Trials Network as well as in other large international collaborations. Shay has received >NZ$35 million in funding from competitive grant agencies including the HRC, CIHR and NHMRC and has published >150 papers.

Shay is the Co-Director of the Improving Outcomes after Cardiac Surgery Network which is hosted by the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand, the leading independent research organisation in NZ. His research interests include acute kidney injury, fluid and oxygen therapy and the perioperative management of cardiac surgical patients. He is an honorary senior research fellow at the Australian and New Zealand Research Centre (Monash University, Melbourne) and the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand (Wellington). When not working he enjoys sailing, scuba diving and flying.