Esther brings a unique set of talents and experiences to her role as moderator of this series. With a BA in economics at Harvard and five years' experience on Wall Street, she is trained to recognize the power and the flaws in any business model.

With 23 years of experience writing the high-tech newsletter Release 1.0 and two years as chairman of ICANN, the agency that sets policy for the Internet's domain name system, she is completely at home with the new economy (and has investments in many start-ups including Google to prove it).

Finally, as moderator of the PC Forum conference for 23 years, she is comfortable engaging titans of industry with thought-provoking questions that generate new insights both for the audience and for the titans themselves.

Prior to this role, Tim has most recently been accountable for defining the Group’s networked IT Services Strategy, and for rebuilding BT’s global product and sales capability after the closure of Concert, the joint venture with AT&T, which Tim led at the invitation of the BT Board. In 1999, Tim was the interim CEO at Telfort, BT’s fixed and mobile company in Holland. Since joining BT in 1989, he has been in leadership positions in a number of major change programmes, including Per Second Pricing and the London Code Change in 1990.

Prior to joining BT, Tim spent 10 years with Shell post graduation in Economics in a variety of roles both in the UK and overseas.

Prior to joining Yahoo! in August 2001, Libby was "vice president of people" at Southwest Airlines, where she led all human resources functions including employment, training, benefits and compensation. She also played a key role in developing an employment brand strategy, which helped double employee growth in six years and fostered the company's reputation as a leading employer of choice and one of the most admired companies in America. Libby also served as chairman of the Society for Human Resource Management in 2001 and was named fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources in 1998. She holds an MBA from the University of North Texas and a BBA from Southern Methodist University.

Libby co-authored HR from the Heart: Inspiring Stories and Strategies for Building the People Side of Great Business (AMACOM) as well as Brand from the Inside: Eight Essentials to Connect Your Employees to Your Business (Josey-Bass).

In his present role, Jim Bowden is responsible for ensuring that the Army has sufficient manpower for its current commitments, and future plans. He's recently developed the Army Retention Strategy and worked with the UK's National Audit Officer to assess the impact of operations on people.

Colonel Bowden is a Former Royal Engineer. He has commanded an Engineer Regiment and in his career has served in variety of roles including with bomb disposal and armoured units. He has also been an instructor at the Staff College, which trains the top 2% of officers from all three services at their career mid-point.

Jim is married to Susan, a teacher, and has two young children. He lives in Wiltshire, England.

She leads a wide range of company-wide programs and initiatives that support, drive and influence HP's diversity philosophy, strategy, goals, customer relationships and business results. Emily and her global team work, in partnership with HP business leaders and employees across the world, to create and maintain a diverse, inclusive work environment with a focus on expanding employee engagement and involvement at all levels. Additionally, she manages HP's Voice of the Workforce (VoW) survey and action-planning process.

Emily is recognised as a visionary catalyst for many of HP's pioneering diversity "firsts". She led the worldwide initiative that defined and published the first set of HP's Business Reasons for Diversity and Inclusion; developed company-wide diversity priorities and goals, and established a Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Committee comprised of HP senior leaders from each of HP's businesses worldwide. She also opened the way for HP to be a leader in adding gender identity/expression to the company non-discrimination and harassment-free policies, as well as, to be one of the first companies to offer Domestic Partner Benefits. Emily's conviction to strengthen and renew HP's commitment to diversity and inclusion has resulted in innovations such as diversity and inclusion eLearning for employees using "virtual classroom", expanding the company's Work-Life policies worldwide, and developing the "best work environment" initiative that revitalised HP's personal conduct policies and practices – including reaffirming the company's widely regarded 'Open Door Policy'.

Under Emily's leadership, HP now sponsors more than 60 Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that serve as "HP brand champions," engaging in customer-focused activities and contributing to HP's business goals. HP's ERGs worldwide cover many core dimensions of diversity, including women, African-American, Asian, Hispanics, people with disabilities, and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees.

She holds a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in counselling from University of Northern Colorado.

She is well-used to operating within a global company with a highly diverse cultural mix as Luxoft staffs its teams from the deep IT talent pools available throughout Eastern Europe. The organisation's headquarters in Russia reflect the make-up of the company while it also has major offices in the US, UK and the Ukraine.

Tatyana is moving perceptions of outsourced IT away from the simple 'bottom line' focus under the strapline, 'we're not cheaper, we're better'. She uniquely positioned to understand the benefits and intricacies of introducing diversity through her personal and professional background.

Following her upbringing and education within Eastern European, Tatyana has gained experience within several organisations such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers (where she spent over six years in the Management Consulting Division) and Viquity (where she developed and executed complex sales deals in the Enterprise Software space to Global 1000 companies).