Douglas Webster, Professor Emeritus at Arizona State University, a thought leader on understanding and shaping China's economic geography, has worked throughout China since 1990. He applies strategic thinking, from the city building to macro policy scale, to the world's historically most extensive spatial repatterning. He holds a PhD from UC Berkeley.

Jianming Cai, Professor Emeritus at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is a pre-eminent scholar of Chinese regional development. Since the Opening Up, he has significantly influenced rural development and urban policy through his academic leadership, and high-level advice to Chinese and International organizations. He holds a PhD from the University of Hong Kong.

Larissa Muller has three decades of experience in Chinese spatial development as Senior Partner in Asiaurb and former Head of the University of Calgary Planning Program. She works on shaping spatial systems to support high-performing economies, with a focus on high-tech regions. She holds a doctorate from UC Berkeley.

Feifei Zhang is based at Northern Arizona University. Her research and consulting portfolio focuses on the effectiveness of green initiatives in China, from a built environment-ecological systems interaction perspective. A former Research Fellow in the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and EU Erasmus Mundus Scholar, she holds a PhD from Arizona State University.