Matt Grudnoff is the Senior Economist at the Australia Institute. Matt is a researcher and public policy commentator. He has published widely on a diverse range of subjects including poverty & inequality, taxation, the Federal Budget, retirement incomes, housing affordability, energy economics, and climate change. Prior to coming to the Australia Institute, he worked at the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Joan Hoey is the Regional Director for Europe in Economist Intelligence’s Country Analysis division. She is an expert on European political economy, with a special interest in democracy, governance, political risk, global geopolitics and east European post-communist transition. Joan is the Editor of EIU's flagship annual Democracy Index, recognised by governments, international organisations, corporates and academia as a leading measure of global democracy. Before joining the Europe team at The Economist Group in 1995, Joan worked as a journalist covering the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe and the wars that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Selin Sayek Böke (Türkiye, SOC) was a member of the Turkish Parliament and Chairperson of the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). She has been rapporteur for several reports regarding social and economic rights. Former economist at the International Monetary Fund, she taught Economics in the US and in Türkiye. She is currently teaching at Department of Economics, Bilkent University of Ankara, Türkiye.

Serge Stroobants is the Director of Europe and the MENA region and the Global Director for Security, Defence and Intelligence at the Institute for Economics and Peace. His academic specialization is in political sciences, international relations, security and defence, global risk analysis, foresight, and crisis management. He is a visiting Professor at the Riga graduate School of Law, the Trocadero Forum Institute in Paris and the Brussels School of Governance. He is a senior fellow at the Irish College of the KU Leuven and a senior associate at the European Institute for Asian Studies. He is an alumnus of the International Visitors Leadership Program of the US State Department.

André Francisco Teixeira is a Portuguese trainee lawyer, political activist, student and researcher. He is the current President of the National Council of Law Students of Portugal, as well as an attorney in training at Ricardo Sá Fernandes lawyers and an intern at the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Currently working on a dissertation for his Master’s in International and European Law, in NOVA University of Lisbon, he possesses a Bachelour's in Law and an Integrated Master’s in Informatics Engineering, with specialisation in Artificial Intelligence, both in University of Minho. While dedicating himself  to active participation in civic society through student unions, youth associations and political and cultural movements, he is involved in several  international activism networks in the European Union, which cooperate in order to defend a green democratic advancement for society, empowering youths at all levels.