Dr Oliver Sparrow, Director, Chatham House Forum at the Royal Institute of International Affairs

Oliver Sparrow is responsible for directing the Chatham House Forum, an organization of some twenty private and public sector members that jointly explore the major issues most likely to affect them in the next 10 to 20 years.

His expertise is within the assessment of the forces of change over the next 5­20 years and the implications for national and corporate positioning; corporate strategy - especially innovation management; management of change to create sustainable shareholder value; energy and the environment, and finally technology policy.

Oliver has twenty years professional experience in strategic planning, corporate venturing, innovation management and overseas service with Shell International. He obtained a PhD (Oxford) in biochemistry, followed by applied work in biochemistry, information technology, and social sciences.

Sara Parkin, Forum for the Future

Sara Parkin is a founding Programme Director of Forum for the Future, a leading UK charity that seeks to accelerate the building of a sustainable society through a positive, solutions-oriented approach.

Sara Parkin is 54, married with two sons. She hails from the Island of Islay in Scotland, but lives and works in Hackney, London. Originally a Ward Sister in Edinburgh, she has been an independent campaigner, writer and broadcaster on environmental and sustainable development issues for over 30 years.

Currently she chairs the Real World Coalition of around 30 UK organisations campaigning on the sustainability agenda, is an advisor to the Engineering Council, and a Trustee of Friends of the Earth. She is a Board Member of the Environment Agency and sits on the DTI/OST Energy and Natural Resources Foresight Panel.

During the 1970s and 1980s Sara Parkin played leading roles in both the UK Green Party and the development of Green Parties worldwide, serving at various times as International Liaison Secretary and Chair of the Green Party, and as Co-secretary and Speaker of the European Green Co-ordination.

John Browning, Co-Founder, First Tuesday

John Browning has done a variety of things which revolve around the notion that technology is transforming our world beyond recognition. He is a co-founder of First Tuesday, a global network dedicated to helping entrepreneurs achieve success. He is also co-editor of New Economy Watch, a publication tracking an economy in wild transformation, created in conjunction with George Gilder and Forbes magazine, and he is a contributing editor of Wired. He has consulted on the application of new technology and new media to business strategy with Monitor Company, a strategy consultancy based in Cambridge Massachusetts, CSC Index, Analysys and McKinsey & Co.

He was executive editor of Wired UK, a tragically defunct European edition of Wired. Previously, Browning spent 12 years at The Economist, writing about business, economics and technology. He is the author of The Economist Pocket Guide to IT and the Wired Encyclopedia of the New Economy. He is also a sometime contributor to The Economist, Scientific American, the Wall Street Journal, the Daily Telegraph, the Demos Quarterly and Newsweek. He speaks frequently at conferences on technology subjects, and appears regularly on radio and television. He has degrees in history (UC Berkeley) and computer science (University of London) and lives in London with his wife and two children.

Bill Sermon, Group Design Director, Nokia Mobile Phones

Bill has been head of strategic design at Nokia Mobile Phones for three years. He is responsible for Nokia Design Centre UK, and also for an extension of the team which is based in Tokyo. As part of the Nokia Group Design Management team he is responsible for all global business for Nokia. Previously he was Director and senior consultant on product and brand development for manufacturing at Fitch, and started out as a designer for Philips within TV and white goods. His training was in Three Dimensional Design at Kingston University.