Dr. Chandra Embuldeniya is a business leader with hands on experience in driving transformation and innovation in many sectors. Notably, he was the first private sector personality invited by the government of Sri Lanka to set up a national university, and founded the Uva Wellassa University, Sri Lanka. Dr. Embuldeniya is a senior consultant and an expert in a multiplicity of disciplines that combines his business acumen with development. His industry experiences include primary aluminium production, dry cell manufacturing, software development, data analytics, marketing, hi-tech agriculture development, higher education, and business process reengineering.

Prof. Rowena is the Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Division, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. As an academic, Prof. Rowena is widely recognized as an expert in managing people in smaller and entrepreneurial firms. She draws on her research expertise around people-orientated organisational issues to set strategy, manage significant human and financial resources and effectively lead in a challenging environment. She has published widely in leading international and domestic academic journals on the nature, development and management of work and employment generally and particularly in smaller and entrepreneurial firms. She is an acknowledged global academic expert on entrepreneurship and human resource management.