Porter Anderson is executive producer and creative director to INDEX: Design to Improve Life, and an independent consultant based in Copenhagen. Prior to this, he was creative advisor and multi-media manager to the World Food Programme , the food aid organization of the United Nations in Rome.

Anderson is a 26-year journalist in print, broadcast and Internet media, with a career that has included work at CNN USA, CNN International, CNN.com, The Village Voice (New York) and The Dallas Times-Herald.

Anderson holds degrees from the College of William and Mary, the University of Michigan and Florida State University, has read psychology and the arts at the University of Bath, England, and is a Fellow of the National Critics Institute based in New London, Connecticut.

Margaret Catley-Carlson, chair of the Board of the Crop Diversity Trust, the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Water and the Foresight Advisory Committee for Group Suez Environment, is a patron of the Global Water Partnership, and a member of the UN Secretary General’s Advisory Board, the Rosenberg Forum and of the Council of Advisors of the World Food Prize. She serves on the Boards of the IMWI (the International Center for Water Resource Management);the IFDC (Fertilizer Management) and IIED - the International Institute for Environment and Development.

She has been chair of the ICARDA and CABI Boards and the Water Supply and Sanitation Collaborative Council, vice chair of the IDRC Board and a commissioner of water for the 21st Century and a Board Member of the Biblioteca Alexandrina. She was president of the Canadian International Development Agency 1983-89; deputy executive director of UNICEF in New York 1981-1983; president of the Population Council in New York 1993-98; and deputy minister of the Department of Health and Welfare of Canada 1989-92. Ms. Catley-Carlson has ten honorary degrees and is an officer of the Order of Canada.

Dr. Peter H. Gleick is co-founder and president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security in Oakland, California. His research and writing address the critical connections between water and human health, the hydrologic impacts of climate change, sustainable water use, privatization and globalization, and international conflicts over water resources. Dr. Gleick is an internationally recognized water expert and was named a MacArthur Fellow in October 2003 for his work. In 2001, Gleick was dubbed a “visionary on the environment” by the British Broadcasting Corporation. In 1999, Gleick was elected an Academician of the International Water Academy, in Oslo, Norway and in 2006, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C. Gleick received a B.S. from Yale University and an M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. He serves on the boards of numerous journals and organizations, and is the author of many scientific papers and six books, including the biennial water report, The World's Water, published by Island Press (Washington, D.C.).

Gerard V. Magbity, from Sierra Leone, is a water engineer who has been working in the field of logistics for a couple of years. A member of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (UK), he currently works as a logistics specialist with UNICEF, Supply Division based in Copenhagen and as a logistician for the Logistics Response Team of the Logistics Cluster as well as for the Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster. Most of his experience has been in emergency preparedness and response; he has worked with a number of organizations including Oxfam GB, International Rescue Committee, Doctors Without Borders and WaterAid. He has a passion for innovation, especially work that is focused on developing countries.