Based in Dublin, Shane O'Toole is active as an historian, author, editor, curator, broadcaster and campaigner for threatened buildings. A member of CICA (the International Committee of Architecture Critics), he was named International Building Press Architectural Critic and Writer of the Year in 2008, 2009 and 2010. He was also President of the Architectural Association of Ireland and Director of the Irish Architecture Foundation.

Appointed Minister of Education and Skills in Ireland in March 2011, Ruairi Quinn also served as Minister for Finance from 1994 to 1997, and leader of the Labour Party from 1997 to 2002. A registered architect since 1969 and partner in an architecture firm from 1973 to 1982, Mr Quinn was the first professional architect and town planner ever elected to the Dáil or Irish Parliament.

Born in Tokyo, Takaharu Tezuka – with his partner Yui Tezuka – at Tezuka Architects designed the award-winning Fuji Kindergarten. With spatial designs that are skillfully integrated with the outside environment, their designs range from private houses to community buildings. Based in Tokyo, Takaharu Tezuka has been Professor of the Tokyo City University since 2009.

 A teacher and principal in secondary schools in the state of Victoria, Australia for more than four decades, Martin Culkin has been leading the merger of three secondary schools into one school of 2 100 students in the suburb of Dandenong. Culkin has a strong belief in collaborative team teaching and student inquiry learning. He has worked to develop new curriculum and pedagogies to engage students more effectively and improve educational opportunities.

Dean of Architecture and Building Science at the Vienna University of Technology since 2008 and professor at the university since 2001, Christian Kühn has been Chairman of Architekturstiftung Österreich (Austrian Architecture Foundation) since 2000. He hosted the OECD conference “IMAGINE! Exploring radical visions for tomorrow’s schools and how to make them work” in Vienna in September 2010.

Dr. Julia Atkin is an independent education and learning consultant who assists schools in Australia and internationally in basing their design of all aspects of education on a deep understanding of how people learn .  She has received a number of prestigious awards for her work including being named one of Australia's Smart 100 - a list of 10 people in 10 fields making a difference to Australian society through innovation.

Dr. Cristián Cox is head of the Centre for Research on Educational Policy and Practice at the Catholic University of Chile. Previously he was the director of the Curriculum and Evaluation Unit of the Chilean Ministry of Education (1998-2006), from where he led the design and implementation of the curriculum reform of the schooling system of Chile in the late 1990s.

Alastair Blyth is an analyst at the OECD Centre for Learning Environments (CELE). An architect, senior lecturer and senior research fellow at the University of Westminster, he co-authored a book Managing the Brief for Better Design, first published in 2001. He has written on a range of technical subjects for the UK architectural, property and construction press.