James Harker-Mortlock has a track record in starting and running a successful business in the publishing, information and Internet fields over the last 31 years. He has developed widespread contacts at a senior level with major information and media companies globally and with government agencies producing information. He has experience in content aggregation as well as website design and electronic information product development over many years. In 2006 he purchased a superfine merino wool and fat lamb production enterprise at Yass near Canberra. His community involvement includes support for intervention in East Timor over twenty years and as secretary of the Australia-Solomon Islands Friendship Association. He is a supporter of a number of charities and is involved actively in politics at the national level.

Andrew Harper's background is in the pastoral industry, working for over 25 years in the stud merino industry in the NSW Riverina and western Queensland, as an overseer, professional woolclasser and contract stockman. He has worked as a photojournalist in Central and Southern Africa and in 1999 completed 'Capricorn Expedition', a solo 3800km walk across Australia raising money for the Royal Flying Doctor Service and charities in his home town of Deniliquin. Since 2000 he has owned and operated the Outback Camel Company, a desert camel trekking business based in Central Australia. He has completed eight crossings of the Simpson Desert and in 2002 took part in the 'Central Australian Expedition' which connected the 19th Century routes of explorers Augustus Gregory and John Stuart in the Tanami desert of Western Australia and the Northern Territory. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and actively supports and encourages the preservation of Australia's desert exploration history, Afghan cameleer heritage and the ecological surveying and exploring of remote desert regions.

Mr Shelmerdine is a director of MotherCare Australia, and until November 2010, Deputy Chairman of The Myer Family Company Holdings Pty Ltd, a member of its investment committee, remuneration and nominations committee and Chairman of the Audit and Governance Committee.

In addition, David is a founding director of ClimateWorks Australia, and is Convenor of the Sustainability and the Environment Funding Program for the Sidney Myer Fund and The Myer Foundation. He has been involved in several significant philanthropic initiatives with the Foundation and the Fund over the past ten years.

He is managing director of Laradoc Pty Ltd, a privately owned agribusiness company with interests in the pastoral, livestock and viticulture sectors. David has a Graduate Diploma in Agriculture from Roseworthy Agricultural College in South Australia and has been directly involved in the management and strategic direction of a number of privately owned agribusiness companies and is currently a member of Agrium’s Landmark advisory council.

Currently at the National Museum of Australia, Mike Smith is a field archaeologist, university lecturer and museum curator. The major focus of his archaeological research is the prehistory of Australia's deserts. For 30 years he has worked extensively across the Australian arid zone systematically attempting to piece together a picture of the human and environmental history of this fascinating region. His work is represented in leading International journals such as Nature, Science, Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, Antiquity, Archaeology in Oceania and Quaternary Science Reviews, He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and of the Society of Antiquaries (London), In 2006 the Australian Archaeological Association awarded him the Rhys Jones Medal for his contribution to Australian Archaeology. In 2010, The Royal Society of South Australia awarded him the Verco Medal for distinguished research in science.