Hadja Lahbib is a Belgian Minister and also has over 25 years’ experience as a journalist presenting TV news and reporting internationally, including from conflict zones such as the Middle East. She also produced and directed documentaries, created programmes on society and culture, and was appointed to prepare Brussels' bid for the title of European Capital of Culture in 2030.

David Harland has been the Executive Director of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD), a Geneva-based foundation that specialises in the mediation of armed conflict, since 2011. In 2018, he publicly announced that the Basque armed group ETA had dissolved itself as the final step in a long-running process to bring an end to violence in the Basque country. In 2022, Harland and HD were cited as an initiator of the UN-brokered deals to ease the global food crisis by facilitating agricultural exports from Russia and Ukraine. HD was awarded the Carnegie Wateler Peace Prize for 2022 "for its more than 20-year track record in ending armed conflict and for its patient, creative and discreet approach". Harland also sits on the UN Secretary-General's High-Level Advisory Board on Mediation and on the Scientific Advisory Board of the Robert Koch Institute Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG).