The Earl of Home: Lord Home was appointed Chairman of Coutts & Co in June 1999 and became Chairman of Coutts Bank (Switzerland) Ltd in March 2000. Lord Home is an active member in the House of Lords and was appointed Opposition Front Bench spokesman on Trade, Industry and Finance until his resignation in December 1998. He is also Chairman of Grosvenor Group Ltd, MAN Limited and a Board Director of The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).

The Right Hon The Lord Heseltine: Lord Heseltine was a Member of Parliament for the Conservative Party for the Borough of Henley from 1974 to 2001. He has held many senior political positions including Secretary of State for the Environment, Secretary of State for Defence, President of the Board of Trade, and Deputy Prime Minister from 1995 to 1997. He is also a successful entrepreneur, founding Haymarket Publishing Group, the largest private magazine publisher in the UK.

Peter Kellner: Peter Kellner has been Chairman of the leading market research organisation, YouGov, since 2001. He has advised on polls and public opinion to institutions including the Bank of England, Foreign Office and Trades Union Congress. Previously, he was a journalist and political commentator for over 30 years, for titles including The Sunday Times and BBC Newsnight. He has also been a visiting fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford, and the Institute for Policy Studies.

Doug Richard: Doug Richard is a highly successful UK-based Californian entrepreneur. Among others he is the founder and executive chairman of Library House, an investment research and consulting firm. He has recently shot to prominence as a “dragon” (investor) in BBC ’s Dragons' Den. In 2006, he received the Queen's Award for Enterprise for his work promoting, developing, and helping entrepreneurs.

Sir Max Hastings: Sir Max Hastings is an acclaimed journalist, editor, historian and author. He became a foreign correspondent and reported from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC television and the Evening Standard in London. After ten years as editor and then editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph he returned to the Evening Standard as editor in 1996 until his retirement in 2001. He received a knighthood in 2002.

Tom Aikens: Tom Aikens is a master chef and the founder of Tom Aikens restaurant. He left London in 1993 to work under Joel Robuchon in Paris and Gerard Boyer in Reims before returning to Pied à Terre as head chef in 1996. Here he maintained the two Michelin stars earned by his predecessor and in doing so he became the youngest British chef ever to be awarded two Michelin stars. He spent a year as head chef at La Tante Claire before opening Tom Aikens in April 2003. The restaurant won a Michelin star in January 2004 and in 2005 it was named as the eighth best restaurant in the world in Restaurant's Top 50.

Emma Willis: Emma Willis is the founder of Emma Willis, a custom shirt making company. She trained at the Slade School of Art before starting her business in 1987, designing and making men’s shirts. In 1999 she opened her elegant and intimate shop in Jermyn Street, London. Her philosophy is to adhere to the original traditions of English shirt making, using luxurious Italian and Swiss cottons, silks and linens, many of which are exclusive to her collections. Emma Willis is GQ's ‘Shirt Style Shrink’, answering a host of questions on the subject.

Robin Saunders: Robin Saunders is a Managing Partner of Clearbrook Capital Partners. She first worked for Northern Trust in Chicago and then moved to London with Citibank. After a stint at Chemical Bank and Deutsche Bank she joined the German state-owned WestLB in July 1998. In 1999 she helped turn around Bernie Ecclestone’s Formula One through a £792m securitised bond issue and brokered a £426m loan to finance the new Wembley Stadium. After leaving the bank in 2004 she established the private equity investment firm Clearbrook Capital Partners.

Alasdair Pepper: Alasdair Pepper is one of the most experienced media lawyers in the UK and has been a partner in Carter-Ruck, the leading defamation and reputation management firm in the country, since 1986. He devised the firm’s MediaAlertService, which enables the firm to efficiently handle and assist clients with media interest. He is the secretary of the Media Section of the International Bar Association and has spoken on the issue of reputation at conferences around the world. 

The Author: Michael Hayman is Chief Executive of The Communication Group plc, a leading public relations consultancy. He provides senior communications counsel to clients including De Beers Group, the Government of Dubai and Rio Tinto. Michael is an accomplished speaker and author, regularly addressing global business audiences, governments, political leaders and business media on a range of communication issues. He was previously a Director at WPP consultancy Hill & Knowlton. Prior to this he was an adviser to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, to a former Secretary of State for Employment and a senior member of the Department of Trade and Industry Parliamentary Select Committee. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, a commissioner to the Edinburgh festivals, and one of The Observer newspaper’s Courvoisier The Future 500, a showcase of the UK's top business talent.