Dr Ganbat Damba is Chairman, of the Board of the Academy of Political Education, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. The Academy of Political Education is a non-governmental institution which engages in research and training in both the city and countryside. The Academy has made key contributions in promoting democratic values within, for example, human rights and freedoms, the rule of law, the role of an individual in the society and democratic elections. From 1999 to 2010,  Dr Ganbat Damba worked as Executive Director of the Academy. During 2009 to 2017 he was an advisor to the President of Mongolia (on research) and a Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies in Mongolia. Since May 2017, he has been the Ambassador of Mongolia to the Federal Republic of Germany. Dr Ganbat Damba received his PhD in 2002 from the Academy of Science in Mongolia. He is currently a member of the regional Asian Barometer Survey’s (ABS) working group, in charge of Mongolia (since 2002). Under his management, the ABS has been conducted four times in Mongolia. From 1996 to 1999, he served as an expert in the Foreign Aid Coordination Unit; under the Prime Minister of Mongolia. During 2009 to 2015 he was a Board Member of the National Public TV/Radio; and during 2014 to 2016 a member of Ministerial Board of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia. Dr Ganbat Damba has published various articles examining issues such as: democratization, democratic and authoritarian values, elections, political party development and the principles of foreign (and security) policy.

Dr Tapan Sarker (PhD, The Australian National University) is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of International Business and Asian Studies, within the Griffith Business School. He is the Deputy Director (Research) at the Griffith Centre for Sustainable Enterprise (of Griffith University) and a member of the University’s Griffith Asia Institute in Brisbane, Australia. Tapan Sarker has more than 20 years of teaching, research, administrative and consulting experience in a range of areas, including: university, government, international NGOs and industry. In the latter, he has worked as a project manager and consultant for leading resource sector companies such as: BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (India) and Sinarmas Forestry (Indonesia). Prior to joining Griffith University, he worked as a Fellow at the Centre for Social Responsibility in Mining, at the University of Queensland. He was also a co-ordinator of Leadership for Environment and Development (LEAD), Japan program; an international NGO that has played a pioneering role in developing leadership capacity across sectors. He was also a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Tax and Fiscal Policy Research, at Harvard University. Tapan Sarker has publications in the areas of: sustainable growth, business ethics and corporate social responsibility, internal revenue mobilisation and taxation policy, and the political economy of natural resources. He has authored/co-authored three books and over 25 journal articles on sustainable growth, climate change and the political economy of natural resources.

Dr Steven Fish is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He studied for his PhD - at Stanford University - in Political Science. He teaches courses at graduate and undergraduate levels, in: general comparative politics, foundations of social theory, regime change and democratization, and politics, society and economy in Eurasia. Steven Fish’s research interests include: political regimes and regime change, social movements, political parties, constitutional systems and national legislatures, and the sociology of religion. He undertook extensive fieldwork in Eurasia, Eastern Europe, and Southeast Asia, and has also research experience in Western Europe, East Asia, and Latin America. He currently serves as consultant to US government organizations including the Department of State (and other federal government agencies) and as consultant to a variety of international organizations, such as the European Commission for Democracy through Law (the Venice Commission) and the e-Parliament. He also serves as a commentator in electronic media, including: Al-Jazeera English, CCTV, CNN International, CNBC, the BBC, KGO TV San Francisco, KTVU TV Oakland, and KRON TV San Francisco. His articles and books include: Indonesia: Democracy Despite Scarcity (Journal of Democracy), Fighting Reversion: Strong Legislatures as the Key to Bolstering Democracy (in: Nathan J. Brown, ed., The Dynamics of Democratization: Dictatorship, Development, and Diffusion, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press), Failed Democratization (in: Christian W. Haerpfer, Patrick Bernhagen, Ronald F. Inglehart, and Christian Welzel, eds., Democratization, New York: Oxford University Press).