Clive Bates has had a diverse career in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Starting out with IBM, he then switched career to work in the environment movement. From 1997-2003 he was Director of Action on Smoking and Health (UK), campaigning to reduce the harms caused by tobacco. In 2003 he joined Prime Minister Tony Blair’s Strategy Unit as a civil servant and worked in senior roles in the public sector and for the United Nations in Sudan. He is now Director of The Counterfactual, a consulting and advocacy practice focussed on a pragmatic approach to sustainability and public health.

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.

Konstantinos Farsalinos, MD, MPH, is a physician and senior researcher specialising in Public Health at the Universities of Patras and West Attica in Greece. He has conducted extensive research on smoking, tobacco harm reduction, and vaping since 2011, publishing over 90 studies and articles. Notably, he authored the first systematic review on the safety and risk profile of e-cigarettes in 2014; his research was influential in shaping the EU’s regulatory framework on vaping. In 2020, he was recognized as a Highly Cited Researcher for his significant impact in global science. During the pandemic, he published studies exploring the relationship between smoking, nicotine, and COVID-19.

Joe Thompson is Group Science & Regulatory Affairs Director at Imperial Brands. He is responsible for the science that substantiates Imperial Brands' next generation products as potentially reduced harm relative to continued smoking and the stewardship of Imperials products. He leads a large multi-disciplined team of 200 people, and a laboratory network spread over several countries. Joe has 24 years experience in the science of tobacco & nicotine, risk assessment and regulatory affairs. Joe is also the President of CORESTA (Cooperation Centre for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco), a global organisation with over 170 company, institute, and laboratory members. CORESTA is an authoritative source of publicly available, credible science and best practices related to tobacco products. Joe is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and a European Registered Toxicologist (ERT) with degrees in Toxicology and Physiology.