Alexandra Zimmermann is Manager of Chester Zoo's Conservation Department (UK) and DPhil student at Oxford University. Her main research interest is in human-wildlife conflicts and she has founded and managed community-based conflict management programmes for jaguars in Brazil (with WCS) and Asian elephants in Assam, India.

Matthew Hatchwell has worked for the Wildlife Conservation Society since 1986, in New York, the Republic of Congo, Madagascar, and now in the United Kingdom as the WCS European Coordinator. In Madagascar, he was instrumental in the creation of Masoala National Park and in developing the relationship between the national park and Zoo Zurich.

Lesley Dickie is the Zoo Conservation Officer of the Zoological Society of London and is developing new auditing processes to fully collate the conservation activities of the Living Collections with respect to the mission of the ZSL. Her main research and conservation interests are in the biodiversity of Madagascar, with particular regard to the conservation role of European zoos on the island.

Chris West is CEO of the Royal Zoological Society of South Australia and Professor of Zoology, Adelaide University. Previously Zoological Director at ZSL, his interests range from good management practice for the conservation impact of zoos, sound ethical frameworks and welfare standards, as well as conservation medicine, and political leadership to link conservation with human and sustainable environmental development, the last being explored locally in Australia.