Dr Manuel M. Dayrit heads the WHO HRH Department in providing global guidance and support to countries for developing a sustainable health workforce. Scaling up the education of health workers towards their equitable distribution and effective performance are critical concerns. The adoption of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel during the May 2010 World Health Assembly was a milestone in global public health to which Dr Dayrit and the HRH Department contributed significantly. Dr Dayrit was Secretary of Health (Minister) of the Philippines (2001-2005). He completed medical and public health studies at the University of the Philippines and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Prior to his appointment as Under Secretary for Food and Health, Professor Leung was Professor in Translational Public Health at the University of Hong Kong from 1999 to 2008. His research and teaching focused on high impact public health issues in Hong Kong SAR, the mainland and East Asia. Professor Leung was Vice President and Censor in Public Health Medicine of the Hong Kong College of Community Medicine, and served as consultant to various national and international agencies including the World Health Organisation and World Bank. As a Fulbright Scholar, Professor Leung trained in health policy and management at Harvard University and later returned on sabbatical as Takemi Fellow in International Health. He earned a higher research doctorate from the University of Hong Kong, majoring in paediatric epidemiology and health services research. He is a medical graduate of the University of Western Ontario and completed family medicine residency at the University of Toronto.

Professor Sarah H. Kagan received her undergraduate education at the University of Chicago and Rush University as well as her postgraduate education at the University of California, San Francisco. After receiving her PhD in Nursing in 1994, Professor Kagan joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania. She is now the Lucy Walker Honorary Term Professor of Gerontological Nursing in the School of Nursing and Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Abramson Cancer Center. She is the author of two books, 16 book chapters, and 50 peer-reviewed papers. Professor Kagan's work has garnered several national and international awards, the most salient of which is the award of the MacArthur Fellowship in 2003.

Professor Joy Johnson is the Scientific Director of the Institute of Gender and Health (IGH), one of 13 institutes that comprise the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. IGH's mandate is to support research that examines how sex and gender affect the lives of men and women, boys and girls. She is also a Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of British Columbia. Drawing on a broad array of theoretical perspectives her work explores the social, structural and individual factors that influence the health behaviour of individuals. A major thrust of her work focuses on sex and gender issues in substance use and mental health. Her work has been recognized with numerous awards including the UBC Killam Research Prize.

Professor Peter Griffiths is Chair of Health Services Research at the University of Southampton, England and executive editor of the International Journal of Nursing Studies. Prior to taking up his current post he was director of England's National Nursing Research Unit. He has long been involved in the evaluation of innovations in service delivery, including nurse-led sub-acute care and, more recently, the national roll out of the "Productive Ward" programme in England and two provinces of Canada. His current programme of research explores issues of workforce effectiveness using routinely collected data and the development and use of nurse sensitive outcomes and quality measures. Professor Griffiths is author of over 100 peer reviewed research publications, many articles in professional journals, and has edited several books, including “Nursing Research Methods” part of the Sage Publications “Fundamentals of Applied Research” series.

Ms Elizabeth Adams is currently a Consultant, Nursing and Health Policy with the International Council of Nurses. She is also an Adjunct Associate Professor with Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia. Prior to this she served as Deputy Nursing Services Director for the Health Service Executive in Ireland. In this national role, she actively drove the strategic direction and policy development of nursing and midwifery. Her areas of expertise included positive practice environments, workforce planning, and strategy and policy development. Over the 26 years of her nursing career, she has worked for both the Department of Health in Ireland and Western Australia. In her time at the Department in Ireland she researched the first national study of nursing and midwifery resource. While in the Department in Western Australia she helped to manage significant health reform and was instrumental in establishing the nurse practitioner role in Western Australia.

Professor Sanchia Aranda is the Director of Cancer Services and Information at the Cancer Institute New South Wales, Australia. She is also a Professor of Nursing at the University of Melbourne and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the Immediate Past President of the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care (2006-2010), Chair of the National Centre for Gynaecological Cancers, a board member of International Union Against Cancer and the Advisory Council for Cancer Australia. Her research interests focus on the development of an evidence base to enhance supportive care outcomes for people with cancer. She has received in excess of AUD 17 million in competitive research funding including 6.5 million in development funding and 3.5 million Government funding to develop a framework for cancer nursing education and learning materials. She has successfully translated her studies of novel nursing and supportive care interventions in clinical settings.