Chris Collinge is a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies at the University of Birmingham. He has research interests in regional and local economic change, particularly the emergence of 'knowledge economies' in various forms, and is currently researching the development of economic knowledge across European regions.

John Gibney is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Urban and Regional Studies, University of Birmingham. He researches comparative European urban and regional development and is working on a number of leadership projects for government bodies across economic development, planning and regeneration.

Chris Mabey is Professor in Human Resource Management and directs the DBA in the Business School. He is Director of the Centre for Leadership at the University of Birmingham (CLUB) and researches, advises on and runs leadership development for organisations of various sizes in diverse sectors.