Andrew Altman is the Chief Executive of the Olympic Park Legacy Company in London. Previously, he was Deputy Mayor of Philadelphia having served for five years as the planning director for Washington D.C. under Mayor Anthony A. Williams, and as the first President and Chief Executive Officer of the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation that was founded to guide the ambitious regeneration of the capital's waterfront. This project has been recognised as one of the boldest and most innovative planning initiatives currently in the United States. Altman is a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution where he will serve as a principal researcher and advisor to the Metropolitan Policy Program. At Brookings he will work closely with Bruce Katz on the development of a new transformative agenda for cities. Altman has been the recipient of numerous fellowships including the Loeb Fellowship at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and a Lady Davis Fellowship at the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology. Altman holds a Masters in City Planning from M.I.T.

Ricky Burdett is Professor of Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age programme. He was Chief Adviser on Architecture and Urbanism for the London 2012 Olympics from 2006 to 2009, architectural adviser to the Mayor of London from 2001 to 2006 and is now advising the Olympic Park Legacy Company on the future development of London's Olympic site. He has curated numerous exhibitions including 'Global Cities' at Tate Modern, was Director of the 2006 Architecture Biennale in Venice and chairman of the Jury for the 2007 Mies van der Rohe Prize. He is architectural adviser to the cities of Genova and Parma, and a member of the Milan Expo 2015 masterplan team. He is a Council member of the Royal College of Art and sits on the Mayor of London's Promote London Council. He is the editor of 'The Endless City', published by Phaidon in 2008, and author of numerous publications on architecture and cities.

Bruce Katz is a Vice President at the Brookings Institution and founding Director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program. The Metro Program seeks to redefine the challenges facing American cities and metropolitan areas and promote innovative solutions to help communities grow in more inclusive, competitive and sustainable ways. In 2006, he received the prestigious Heinz Award in Public Policy for his contributions to urban and metropolitan America. Bruce is a frequent writer and commentator on urban and metropolitan issues. He is the editor or co-editor of several books on transportation, demographics and regionalism, including Taking the High Road (Washington DC, 2005), Redefining Urban and Suburban America (Washington DC, 2003), and Reflections on Regionalism (Washington DC, 2000). His op-eds and articles have appeared in a wide range of major national and regional newspapers. Before joining Brookings, Bruce served as Chief of Staff to Henry G. Cisneros, former Secretary of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. He has also served as the staff director of the Senate Subcommittee on Housing and Urban Affairs. Bruce is a graduate of Brown University and Yale Law School. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Social Policy at the London School of Economics.

Philipp Rode is Executive Director of LSE Cities and the Urban Age Programme. He is Ove Arup Fellow with the LSE Cities Programme and co-convenes the LSE Sociology Course on ‘City Making: The Politics of Urban Form’. As researcher and consultant he manages interdisciplinary projects comprising urban governance, transport, city planning and urban design. The focus of his current work is on cities and climate change. Rode organised Urban Age conferences in partnership with Deutsche Bank's Alfred Herrhausen Society in ten cities bringing together political leaders, city mayors, urban practitioners, private sector representatives and academic experts. He manages the Urban Age research efforts and recently published the reports ‘Cities and Social Equity’ (2009) and ‘Integrated City Making’ (2008). London-focused research includes ‘Density and Urban Neighbourhoods in London' (2005) and ‘A Framework for Housing in the London Thames Gateway' (2004). He has previously worked on several multidisciplinary research and consultancy projects in New York and Berlin and was awarded the Schinkel Urban Design Prize 2000. Rode obtained an MSc in City Design and Social Science at LSE and earlier a degree as Graduate Engineer in Transport Planning and Management at Technical University Berlin.

Since September 2003 Ute Weiland has been in charge of press and political contacts of Alfred Herrhausen Society, Deutsche Bank's socio-political think tank. In 1997 she co-founded the Erich Pommer Institute for Media Law and Media Management at the University of Potsdam and was its assistant managing director until 2003. Born in the former Eastern Germany she graduated from the Academy of Music in Weimar. After unification she became chief of staff to the Secretary of State for education in Saxony. Ute Weiland is a member of the German-Israeli Young Leaders Exchange of the Bertelsmann Foundation and young leader of the Atlantik Brücke.