Professor Amitav Acharya holds the Chair of Global Governance and directs the Governance Research Centre at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom. During 2001-2007, he was professor of international affairs and Deputy Director and Head of Research of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His previous appointments include Professor of Political Science at York University, Toronto, Fellow of the Harvard University Asia Center, and Senior Fellow of Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Professor Acharya’s publications number over 20 books and 200 journal and magazine articles. His books include: US Military Strategy in the Gulf (Routledge 1989); A New Regional Order in Southeast Asia (IISS 1993); New Challenges for ASEAN (UBC 1995); The Quest for Identity: International Relations of Southeast Asia (Oxford 2000); Constructing a Security Community in Southeast Asia (Routledge 2001); Asia Pacific Security Cooperation (M.E. Sharpe 2004); Crafting Cooperation: Regional International Institutions in Comparative Politics (Cambridge 2007); Reassessing Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (MIT 2007) Singapore’s Foreign Policy; The Search for Regional Order (World Scientific 2007); The Age of Fear: Power Versus Principle in the War on Terror (New Delhi: Rupa and Co. and Singapore: Marshall Cavendish, 2004) and Asia Rising: But Is Asia Leading? (Singapore and New York: World Scientific, 2007). His international media appearances have been with CNN International, BBC World Service, CNBC and Channel News Asia (Singapore). He current affairs commentaries have appeared in Financial Times, Foreign Affairs (Online); International Herald Tribune, Straits Times, The Nation, Jakarta Post, Canberra Times, Far Eastern Economic Review, Japan Times, YaleGlobal Online, and Foreign Affairs covering such topics as Asian security, the war on terror, and the rise of China and India.

Ms. Yuli Ismartono is an Indonesian who has been in journalism and media relations for three decades, mostly in print but also for a period at a Jakarta-based television channel. In recent years, she has also branched out as a consultant in communications strategies. Ms. Ismartono is currently executive editor of the English edition of Tempo, the largest circulation weekly news magazine in Indonesia. She is concurrently the managing editor of AsiaViews, a monthly regional magazine which is distributed as a news supplement in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines. During her many assignments, Ms Ismartono has covered the First Gulf War and the conflicts in Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Cambodia. She has interviewed leaders such as Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto, former South Korean president Dim Dae Jung, Cambodia’s King Norodom Sihanouk and many others. Ms Ismartono also teaches journalism to university and journalism institution students. She is a member of AJI (Alliance of Independence Journalists), the Jakarta Editors Club and the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.

Prof. Pang Eng Fong, an economist by training, Professor Pang Eng Fong is Vice-Provost for Academic Strategic Planning and Dean of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University. He was High Commissioner for Singapore to the United Kingdom from 1999 to 2001. He has also served as Singapore’s ambassador to South Korea, Mongolia, the European Union, Belgium, Luxembourg, Holy See, Netherlands, and Ireland. He has held visiting professorship appointments at the University of Michigan and Columbia University as well as other appointments at the OECD Development Centre and the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. His latest book (edited with Christiane Kuptsch), Competing for Global Talent was published in 2006 by the International Labour Organisation and the Wee Kim Wee Centre, SMU. His other publications include Regionalisation and Labour Flows in Pacific Asia (Paris: OECD Development Centre, 1993); Foreign Direct Investment and Industrialisation in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand (Paris: OECD Development Centre, 1991 (with Linda Y C Lim)); and Education, Manpower and Development in Singapore (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 1982).

Dr Rajiv Kumar, Director and Chief Executive, of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), a New Delhi based economic policy think tank that was established in 1981. Dr. Kumar was with ICRIER earlier as Senior Fellow from 1982 to 1987. A Member of the National Security Advisory Board since August 2006. Member Telecom Regulatory Authority of India since January 2007. From August 2004 to January 2006, Dr. Kumar was Chief Economist with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Dr. Kumar worked with ADB, Manila for over 10 years as the Principal Regional Economist for Central Asia and also with its Research Department as well as Country Economist for Mongolia and China. Worked as Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Finance, Government of India from 1991-1995. Senior Consultant In charge of the Economics Division with the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Projects, Ministry of Industry from 1989-1991. Professor at Indian Institute of Foreign Trade from 1987-89, teaching Competitive Strategy and Micro Economics Senior Fellow from 1982 to 1987 in ICRIER. He has several books and publications to his credit and contributes regularly to newspapers and journals.

Dr. Jisi Wang Professor WANG Jisi has been dean of Peking University’s School of International Studies since March 2005. He is concurrently director of the Institute of International and Strategic Studies at the Party School of the Central Committee, the Communist Party of China, a guest professor of the National Defense University of the People’s Liberation Army, vice-chairman of the China Reform Forum, and president of the Chinese Association for American Studies. He was director and a senior researcher of the Institute of American Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing from 1993 to 2005. He is a Founding Member of the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles, an International Council Member of the Asia Society in New York City, an Advisory Council Member of the Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies of the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C., an advisor to the East Asian Security Program of Stanford University, an international advisor to the Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California, and an Adviser to the Asia Center, Harvard University. Professor Wang’s scholarly interests cover international relations theory, U.S. foreign policy, Chinese foreign policy, and China-U.S. relations.

Prof. Sachihiko Harashina has been working in the field of environmental studies, especially in environmental planning and environmental assessment. He received his Ph.D. degree from Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1975, and started his research activities at the National Institute for Environmental Studies. He moved to Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1983 as Associated Professor and became Professor. He has also been Guest Professor at the University of the Air (the TV university in Japan) since 1993.
His field in environmental planning is public participation and consensus building. He has been advising national and local governments in this field as a chairman or member of study committees and experts committees. His activities in international area are advising to create new guideline of EIA for the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) as the chairman, 2001-2002. He also advised to revise the EIA guideline of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), as the co-chairman and then the chairman, 2002-2004. He is currently appointed as the Examiners Panel (inspection panel) for JICA and chairing the study committee on an environmental and social consideration guideline of the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO). He has been facilitating various consensus building processes in environmental topics. Those are environmental dispute resolution, environmental planning and making EIA guidelines.