Dr. Yong Zhao is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas. He previously served as the Presidential Chair, Associate Dean, and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon, where he was also a Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. Prior to Oregon, Yong Zhao was University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education, Michigan State University, where he also served as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology, executive director of the Confucius Institute, as well as the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the International Academy of Education.

Order of Australia recipient, Professor Lea Waters holds a PhD in Organisational Psychology andcbeen a psychology researcher at The University of Melbourne for 27 years, initially in thecBusiness Faculty and then the Faculty of Education. Professor Waters was the FoundingDirector of the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne (now the Centrecfor Wellbeing Science) and is a world leader in this field with over 120 research publications. Shechas been the Ambassador of the Positive Education Schools Association for a decade.

Austen Ivereigh is a British writer and journalist best known for his books on, and with, Pope Francis, and for his regular articles and columns in the London-based Catholic weekly The Tablet. He is a Fellow in Contemporary Church History at Campion Hall, Oxford, and was an expert at all stages of the Synod on Synodality (2021-2024). He has published two widely-translated biographies of Pope Francis: — The Great Reformer (2014) and Wounded Shepherd (2029) — and collaborated with him on Let Us Dream, the Pope's New York Times-bestselling reflections on the Covid crisis. In 2024 he published First Belong to God: On Retreat with Pope Francis, an eight-day Ignatian retreat that draws on Francis’s teachings and writings, to which the Pope wrote a foreword. Austen lives with his wife to a small farm in Herefordshire, in England, where he practises small-scale regenerative horticulture inspired by Laudato Si’. 

Derek is acknowledged as one of NZ education’s foremost future focused thinkers, He is regularly asked to consult with schools and government agencies regarding the future directions of educational policy and practice in New Zealand and internationally.Derek has been a teacher, principal, a teacher educator and education policy writer. In 2003 he co-founded CORE Education, a leading provider of educational research and services in NZ. He stepped aside from CORE in 2018 to establish FutureMakers, an organization committed to inspiring the next generation of leaders, thinkers and problem-solvers. Derek is driven by a deep personal belief in the public good of education, regarding education as the pathway to self-improvement, and a fundamental right of every human being. He believes that all learners come to class with rich knowledge and experiences; and that our approach to education must place them at the centre of our learning design and teaching. Drawing on this experience, he has co-authored a book titled, “Agency By Design: An Educator’s Playbook” which is available as a free download from the FutureMakers website.In recognition of his work in education, Derek was designated one of 2008’s “Global Six” by the George Lucas Educational Foundation which recognizes individuals making a difference in education.Derek maintains a blog on matters relating to e-learning and other aspects of interest to educators that can be found on the www.futuremakers.nz website.