Abdallah Daar was born in Tanzania. He is a Professor of Public Health Sciences and of Surgery at the University of Toronto, and Director of Ethics and Commercialization at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global Health. He is also Chief Science and Ethics Officer of Grand Challenges Canada. Dr. Daar is the recipient of the UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics of Science, and often advises governments and the UN, UNESCO, WHO, and OECD on global health. He is the coauthor of The Grandest Challenge: Taking Life-Saving Science from Lab to Village.

Stephen Lewis is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ryerson University in Toronto. He is the board chair of the Stephen Lewis Foundation (www.stephenlewisfoundation.org), which is dedicated to turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa, and he is co-founder and co-director of AIDS-Free World in the United States.

Mr. Lewis is a member of the Board of Directors of the Clinton Health Access Initiative and Emeritus Board Member of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. He also serves as a Commissioner on the newly formed Global Commission on HIV and the Law, created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the support of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

Stephen Lewis' work with the United Nations spanned more than two decades. He was the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa from June 2001 until the end of 2006. From 1995 to 1999, Mr. Lewis was Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF at the organization's global headquarters in New York. From 1984 through 1988, he was Canada's Ambassador to the United Nations.

From 1970-1978, Mr. Lewis was leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party, during which time he became leader of the Official Opposition.

Mr. Lewis is the author of the best-selling book, Race Against Time. He holds 34 honorary degrees from Canadian universities and in June 2010 he received an honorary degree from Dartmouth College in the United States. Mr. Lewis was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest honour for lifetime achievement, in 2003.

He was awarded the Pearson Peace Medal in 2004 by the United Nations Association in Canada; the award celebrates outstanding achievement in the field of international service and understanding. In 2007, King Letsie III, monarch of the Kingdom of Lesotho (a small mountainous country in Southern Africa) invested Mr. Lewis as Knight Commander of the Most Dignified Order of Moshoeshoe. The order is named for the founder of Lesotho; the knighthood is the country's highest honour.

James Maskalyk is an assistant professor in the University of Toronto's Faculty of Medicine and a founding editor of the medical journal Open Medicine. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed book Six Months in Sudan: A Young Doctor in a War-Torn Village. Dr. James Maskalyk lives in Toronto.

Samantha Nutt, MD, MSc, CCFP, FRCPC, C.M. Founder and Executive Director, War Child Canada. War Child U.S.A. is an award-winning humanitarian, acclaimed public speaker and a leading authority on the impact of war on civilians. She is a medical doctor and a founder of War Child, an international humanitarian organization. Dr. Nutt has worked with children and their families at the frontline of many of the world's major crises — from Iraq to Afghanistan, Somalia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Sierra Leone to Darfur, Sudan. Committed to human rights and social justice, her humanitarian work has benefited many thousands of war-affected children globally.

Dr. Nutt was recently appointed to the Order of Canada, Canada's highest civilian honour, for her contributions to improving the plight of young people in the world's worst conflict zones. Dr. Nutt's bestselling new book, entitled Damned Nations, was released on October 25, 2011 through McClelland & Stewart Ltd. Damned Nations is a bracing and uncompromising account of Dr. Nutt's work over the course of fifteen years in some of the most devastated regions of the world. www.warchild.ca

James Orbinski was the International President of Médecins sans Frontières in 1999 when it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He is a Research Scientist and Associate Professor at St. Michael's Hospital and the University of Toronto. He is the founder of the Drugs for Negelected Diseases Initiative, a not-for-profit pharmaceutical research and development entity focused on the diseases of the South. He recently founded Dignitas, an organization focused on community-based treatment, care and prevention of HIV in the developing world.

Dr. Orbinski lectures internationally on humanitarianism and global health. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed national bestseller An Imperfect Offering: Humanitarian Action in the Twenty-First Century.

Peter Singer has dedicated the last decade to bringing science and innovation to tackle the health challenges of the world's poorest people. He is well known around the world for his creative solutions to some of the most pressing global health problems.

Dr. Singer is the Chief Executive Officer of Grand Challenges Canada and Director at the McLaughlin-Rotman Centre for Global health, University Health Network and University of Toronto. He is also Professor of Medicine at University of Toronto, and the Foreign Secretary of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. He also chairs the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences' new assessment of Canada's Strategic Role in Global Health. He has advised the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UN Secretary General's office, the Government of Canada, Pepsico, BioVeda China Venture Capital Fund and several African governments on global health.

In 2011, Dr. Singer was appointed an Office of the Order of Canada for his contributions to health research and bioethics, and for his dedication to improving the health of people in developing countries. He is co-author of The Grandest Challenge: Taking Life-Saving Science from Lab to Village.

Gillian Findlay is one of the co-hosts of CBC TV's award-winning the fifth estate. Over the course of her distinguished career as a journalist, Ms. Findlay has served as London correspondent for CBC News, where she covered such stories as the war in the former Yugoslavia, the famine in Somalia and the Persian Gulf War and its aftermath. As ABC News's Moscow-based correspondent, she covered the war in Chechnya and later, as the network's Middle East correspondent, she reported on the Palestinian Intifada, and events in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan.

Carol Off is the host of CBC Radio's As It Happens. She has witnessed and reported on many of the world's conflicts, from the fall of Yugoslavia to the U.S.-led "war on terror," and has won numerous awards for her CBC television documentaries. Her bestselling and award-winning books include Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World's Most Seductive Sweet, The Ghosts of Medak Pocket: The Story of Canada's Secret War and The Lion, The Fox and the Eagle. She lives in Toronto.