Niels Elers Koch is Director General of the Danish Centre for Forest, Landscape and Planning, University of Copenhagen (FLD), and the current President of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. The vision of FLD is: We will provide the best coherent programme for research, education and communication for the forest, nature, urban and landscape sectors of the twenty-first century with the aim of promoting a sustainable development. The vision of IUFRO is: As the global network for forest-related research to serve the needs of all forest researchers and decision makers.
He has published more than 200 publications focusing in his latest publications on forest research management in an era of globalisation and realising the environmental benefits of forests.
Koch studied forestry at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University of Denmark (RVAU) where he also obtained his Dr. Sc. in forest policy. He has honorary doctoral degrees in forest science from the Swedish Agricultural University and from the Moscow State Forest University, and has been visiting professor at Utah State University and Oregon State University. 

Dr. R. Michael Martin is the Director for Forest Economics, Policy and Products of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The FAO Forestry Department helps nations manage their forests in a sustainable way. The Organization's approach balances social, economic and environmental objectives so that present generations can reap the benefits of the earth's forest resources while preserving them to meet the needs of future generations.
Dr. Martin has previously worked with the USDA Forest Service and USDI Bureau of Land Management as regional economist, chief economist and director for international forestry operations in Oregon, Alaska and Washington DC.  

Dr Robert Beauregard is Chair of the Association of University Forestry Schools of Canada and Dean of the Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics at the Université Laval, Quebec City, Canada. Between 2003 and 2008, he was holder of the Industrial Research Chair on Engineered Wood Products (CIBISA). His area of expertise is the modelling of complex systems. His current research is in the modelling of the relationships between Sustainable Forest Management, Harvested Wood Products, Sustainable Buildings and Climate Change.
Author of more than one hundred scientific papers, he was research scientist with the New Zealand Forest Research Institute between 1995/97. From 1997 to 2000, he was with the Eastern Laboratory of Forintek Canada Corp., where he was instrumental in the creation of the Department for Value Added Wood Products.
Robert Beauregard is a member of the Canadian Institute of Forestry (CIF-IFC), of the Forest Products Society (FPS) and of the Society of Wood Science and Technology (SWST). He participates since 2005 in the Team of specialists of the Timber Committee of UNECE. He was co-chair of the Building codes and standards session at the joint SWST-UNECE seminar on the “Role of Wood Science in the Green Building Movement” in Geneva, Switzerland in October 2010.

Prof. Dr. Margaret A. Shannon is the Coordinator of the EFI FOPER Project in Southeast Europe. FOPER is a capacity building project in forest policy and education funded by the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and administered through EFI. She is on-leave as a Professor in the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources. She is also a Professor-in-Honor and Guest Professor at the Faculty of Forest and Environmental Sciences, Albert-Ludwigs University, Freiburg, Germany; Adjunct Professor in the Rural Futures Institute, University of New England, Armidale, Australia. Prior to these current positions, she was the Associate Dean of the Rubenstein School at UVM (2007-2009; Research Professor at SUNY Buffalo School of Law (1999-2007); Associate Professor in Public Administration in the Maxwell School for Citizenship and Public Affairs (1995-1999); Corkery Endowed Chair and Associate Professor of Forest Policy and Law in the School of Forestry, University of Washington; Associate (Assistant 1986-1991) Professor of Natural Resources Policy, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry; Senior Fellow, Natural Resources Law Institute, Lewis and Clark Law School, Portand, Oregon (1979-1982). 
Dr. Shannon’s research interests have followed the evolution of participatory processes in forest and natural resource policy, planning and management. Her early work documented the transformative organizational change through learning in the US Forest Service as a result of participatory planning and collaborative management. She was an active participant in the EU COST Action E-19 on “National forest programmes in the EU context’ and an advisor to the EU research on ‘New modes of governance in sustainable forest management’ that explored the research questions raised in the COST action. She was one of the organizers for the USFS Committee of Scientists Report “Sustaining the People’s Lands” providing the scientific policy analysis for a new NFMA planning rule based upon participatory governance, collaborative planning and management, and a landscape approach to planning. 
She served as the Chair of the SAF Working Group on Policy, Economics and Law for over 10 years. Since 2005, she has served as the Chair of the IUFRO Working Group on Forest Policy and Governance and is currently a Deputy for the new IUFRO Division 9 on Forest Policy and Economics. As part of this role, she and the FOPER project team will host the first Division 9 meeting in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Hercegovina, in May 2012. Since 1980, she has also served on the steering and program committees for several US conferences on forestry education and organized the first conference on Women in Natural Resources in 1985.  

Dr. Hosny El Lakany began his professional career as an instructor in horticulture, then in forestry at Alexandria University, Egypt. He studied and practised Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding in Canada and became a professor of Forestry and subsequently Chairman of the Forestry Department at the University of Alexandria, then served as Director of the Desert Development Centre of the American University in Cairo. Dr. El-Lakany was a member of a task force to incorporate forestry into the CGIAR system (1987-1988), that has led to the establishment of CIFOR. He served on the CGIAR Technical Advisory Committee, TAC (1992-1996). In 1995, Dr. El-Lakany joined FAO as Assistant Directeur de Cabinet and was appointed Assistant Director-General of FAO/ Head of the Forestry Department in 1998 until his retirement. Dr El-Lakany returned to UBC in January, 2006 as an Adjunct Professor, teaching and supervising research in International Forestry Policy as well as directing the International Forestry Programme.
He was awarded the IDRC Professional Development Award (1980-1981), and Distinguished World Agroforestry Fellow, ICRAF (2007). He is a member of several scientific and professional bodies including the Canadian Institute of Forestry, the Governing Council of the Commonwealth Forestry Association, the World Bank External Advisory Group on the Forest Strategy, the Board of Trustees of CIFOR, and International Advisory Committee of the Model Forest Network. Dr El-Lakany currently chairs the International Partnership for Forestry Education (IPFE).

Dr. John L. Innes is Dean of the Faculty of Forestry at the University of British Columbia, and also holds the position of FRBC Chair of Forest Management in the Department of Forest Resources Management. He teaches courses in global environmental issues and international forestry. He is Chair of the Commonwealth Forestry Association and an immediate past Vice-President of the International Union of Forest Research Organizations. He is an Honorary Professorial Fellow in the Melbourne School of Land and Environment at the University of Melbourne.
John came to British Columbia in 1999, having previously worked as a Section Head in the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research. Since arriving in BC, he has worked on a range of issues associated with forest management. He is actively involved with climate change research, particularly its effects on forest ecosystems and the development of appropriate management strategies for adaptation, in 2007 was part of the IPCC team that shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore.
As Dean of the UBC Faculty of Forestry, he is encouraging greater international involvement of the Faculty, entrenching its position as one of the leading faculties of Forestry in the world. He has been particularly engaged with China, and has encouraged both an increase in Chinese students studying forestry at UBC, and the application of the Faculty’s expertise to the many challenges facing forestry in China.