Una Klapkalne was the Chief Executive Officer of the National News Agency, a position she had held since 2006. Until that point, she had been the head of the Policy Coordination Department at the State Chancellery. She joined the department in 2000. She started working in the administration immediately upon graduating, working her way up from an economic consultant to the deputy director of the state Civil Service Administration. From there she moved to the Ministry of Defense, where she served as the deputy state secretary. When the state secretary left for a year, she became the acting state secretary. She served as an advisor to the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior before joining the Policy Coordination Department.  She holds a Master of Business Administration from the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga and a Bachelor’s of the Arts in Economics from the University of Latvia. Additionally, she has earned certificates from the National Administration School of France in Management Effectiveness and from the Adam Smith Institute.   

Baiba Petersone was the director of Latvia’s School of Public Administration. She began her career as a researcher in the Academy of Sciences. After entering politics during Latvia’s independence, she spent seven years as an active politician. In 1996 she entered the civil service as Director of the Department of Education Strategy in the Ministry of Education. From there she joined the State Chancellery as a member of the Policy Coordination Department. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in philosophy, though at the time the field really consisted of social science. 

At the time of this interview, Charles Lepani was Papua New Guinea's High Commissioner to Australia.  Previously, he worked as an economic and public policy consultant. He was a member of the Aid Review team for the governments of Papua New Guinea and Australia. As director of the PNG National Planning Office from 1975 to 1980, he was involved in the formulation of PNG’s post-independence macroeconomic policy and public sector planning system, including aid coordination. Lepani served as PNG’s ambassador to the European Union from 1991 to 1994. He was managing director of Minerals Resources Development Co. from 1994 to 1996, leading the partial privatization of the state’s mining and petroleum assets and subsequently heading Orogen Minerals Ltd.  He earned a master's degree in public administration from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.  

At the time of this interview, Emil Salim was on the faculty of the University of Indonesia in Jakarta. He graduated from the university's Faculty of Economics in 1959. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1964. In 1966, he was a member of a team of economic advisers to President Suharto. In 1967 and 1968, he was an adviser to the Ministry of Manpower. From 1967 to 1969, he was chairman of the technical team for the Council for Economic Stability and was a member of Parliament. He was vice chairman of the National Development Planning Agency in 1969. In 1971 was minister of state for the improvement of the state apparatus. During the 1970s, he was minister of communications, of development supervision and of environment.

At the time of this interview, Lyonpo Sonam Tobgye was chief justice of the High Court of Bhutan, a position he had held since 1991.  He was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court in December 2009.  Tobgye oversaw the drafting of Bhutan’s first constitution and a number of judicial reforms.  From 1986 to 1991, he simultaneously held the positions of auditor general of the Royal Audit Authority and secretary of the Royal Civil Service Commission.  During that time he implemented a number of civil service reforms and drafted the rules and regulations for both the civil service and the Royal Audit Authority.  Prior to those appointments, Tobgye served as a judge on the High Court.  In 2001 he received the Medaille d’Honeur from the Court de Cassation of France for his contribution to the cause of justice in Bhutan.