Jagannath Sarangapani is an active tobacco harm reduction advocate from India and a former member of the board of Association of Vapers India (AVI). Vaping helped him quit a 20-year 40 cigarette a day habit about seven years ago and he has been smoke-free since. He passionately believes smokers need to retain the right to safer alternatives which help transition from smoking, and those who have switched should be allowed to remain smoke-free.

An industrialist for 30 years, Jagannath has managed his family concern which pioneered cellular plastics and insulated panels in India. He holds a Masters’ degree in Engineering from Case Western Reserve University and is also an alumnus of Columbia Business School.

Tomás is a Mexican lawyer and teaches Corporation Law and Successions Law at Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City. An ex-smoker and vaper since 2016, he is co-founder of "Pro-Vapeo Mexico", a Mexican consumer association (registered in 2017), that advocates for tobacco harm reduction and non- combustible alternatives. He is a member of INNCO’s Board.

Professor Gerry Stimson is a leading advocate for tobacco harm reduction and an Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London. A public health social scientist, with over 50 years’ experience of research and advocacy, he was one of the founders of drugs harm reduction in the 1990s, helping to develop and evaluate harm reduction in the UK as a response to HIV/AIDS. Gerry has advised the UK Government, WHO, UNAIDS, UNODC, the World Bank and numerous governments around the world on issues relating to drugs, HIV infection and AIDS, and alcohol. He has also published over 220 scientific publications and several books. 

Currently, Gerry is Director of Research and Policy at Knowledge•Action•Change, and is involved in the FSFW-funded Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction and Tobacco Harm Reduction Scholarship programmes. He is also a co-founder of the Global Forum on Nicotine, which has been delivered by KAC Communications since 2014. 

Fiona Patten was a member of the Victorian parliament in Australia from 2014 to 2022. She campaigned on harm reduction policies for 30 years and ran the adult industry association (Eros) for 20 years. She initiated and delivered reforms including voluntary assisted dying, abortion law reform, the decriminalisation of sex work and drug law reform.

Since leaving parliament she has continued to work on social reform issues including medicinal cannabis, drug harm reduction including for tobacco, criminal justice reform and greater separation of church and state.

In 2018 she published her autobiography -‘Sex, Drugs and the Electoral Roll’. She is also the owner of a registered wildlife sanctuary.

David Sweanor is an adjunct professor, Faculty of Law, and chair of the advisory board of the Centre for Health Law, Policy & Ethics at the University of Ottawa and has been actively involved in tobacco and health policy issues since the beginning of the 1980s. He has worked globally, and with numerous groups, including the International Union Against Cancer, World Health Organization, World Bank and the Pan American Health Organization and played a key role in achieving many global precedents in tobacco policy. He currently focuses much of his tobacco and nicotine related efforts on risk reduction strategies.