Christof Appenzeller has been Head of Climate Services at the Federal Institute of Meteorology and Climatology (MeteoSwiss) since 2004, where he has also been senior scientist and project leader since 1999. He has a diploma in dynamical meteorology (1987) and a doctorate in Natural Science (1994) from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zürich. From 1994 to 1996 he was Research Associate at the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, USA. From 1996 to 1999, he was Research Associate at the Department for Climate and Environmental Physics, University of Berne, Switzerland. Christof was Senior Lecturer (Habilitation) at ETH-Zürich and his research has covered climate analysis and diagnostics in various aspects of the global atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere climate system.

He has authored more than 40 scientific contributions to reviewed journals, including Science and Nature. He is the Swiss representative in various international bodies, including the WMO Commission for Climate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the European Climate Support Network (EUMETNET-the network of European Meteorological Services).

Ben Kirtman received his BS in Applied Mathematics from the University of California-San Diego in 1987, and his MS and PhD from the University of Maryland-College Park in 1992. He has been professor at the University of Miami-Rosenstiel School for Marine and Atmospheric Science since 2007.

Currently, he is co-Chair of the US CLIVAR Prediction, Predictability and Applications Interface Panel and a co-Chair of the NOAA Climate Test Bed - Climate Science Team. He is also co-Chair of the International Climate Variability and Predictability (CLIVAR) Working Group on Seasonal to Interannual Prediction and Chair of the World Climate Research Programme Task Force for Seasonal Prediction.

Ben Kirtman is Executive Editor of Climate Dynamics. Hee is the author or co-author of over 75 peer-reviewed papers focused on understanding and predicting climate variability on time scales from intra-seasonal to decadal scales.

Lisa Goddard holds a and a BA in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley, USA, and a PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from Princeton University, USA. She is currently a research scientist at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) and an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences of Columbia University, USA. She has been involved in El Niņo and climate forecasting research and operations with IRI since the mid1990s. She has extensive experience in forecasting methodology and has published papers on El Niņo, seasonal climate forecasting and verification, and probabilistic climate change projections. Currently leading the IRI's effort on Near-Term Climate Change, Lisa Goddard oversees research and product development aimed at providing climate information at the 10-20 year horizon and how that low frequency variability and change interacts with the probabilistic risks and benefits of seasonal-to-interannual variability. She also developed and oversees a new post-doctoral programme in the USA, the Climate Prediction Applications Postdoctoral Program, which links recent climate PhDs with decision-making institutions. Ms Goddard sits on four scientific advisory panels and co-chairs two working groups.

Leonard Njogu Njau, a climate scientist, has been Chief of the Climate and Environment Department (CED) at the African Centre of Meteorological Application for Development (ACMAD) in Niger since 2006. From 2000 to 2006, he was a climate scientist, Department of Meteorology, University of Nairobi attached at the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Centre (ICPAC) in Nairobi, Kenya. From 1988 to 2000, he was the Assistant Director of Meteorological Services (Observatories/Research and Training). From 1994 to 1996, he was seconded to ACMAD, Niamey, Niger. From 1979 to 1988, he was Senior Meteorologist in charge of training (Institute for Meteorological Training and Research Nairobi). Leonard has done a variety of consultancies, including for a capacity building project in the estimation of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in Sub-Saharan Africa, coordinated by the National Environmental Secretariat and funded by the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Environment Programme. Leonard holds a Bachelor of Science, a Master of Science and a Ph.D. in meteorology from the University of Nairobi. Leonard has authored and coauthored numerous papers, including peer-reviewed articles in technical proceedings, bulletins and journals.

Jagadish Shukla is a Distinguished University Professor and Acting Chairman of the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Earth Sciences at George Mason University (GMU). He is President of the Institute of Global Environment and Society (IGES).

Jagadish Shukla has made contributions to the science of meteorology and to the global society through fundamental scientific advances, institution building, and international cooperation in meteorology. His research has established that there is predictability in the midst of chaos and that there is a scientific basis for short-term climate prediction.

In 2008, he was appointed by the Governor of Virginia as a member of the Commission on Climate Change. He was one of the Lead Authors of the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007). He has received the International Meteorological Organization (IMO) Prize (2007), the Rossby Medal (2005); the Walker Gold Medal (2001); andthe Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal of NASA (1982).

He is a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorology Society, India Meteorology Society and an Associate Fellow of TWAS (the academy of sciences for the developing world). He is author/co-author of 200 scientific papers and editor/contributor of four books. He founded Gandhi College for education of rural women in the village of his birth in India.

Prof. In-Sik Kang is currently Professor of School of Earth Environment Sciences and the Director of Climate Environment System Research Center in Seoul National University (SNU), Seoul, Republic of Korea. He has been SNU Professor since 1986 after his post-doc at GFDL/Princeton University and the Director since 2000. He has worked with international climate society as members of various WCRP/CLIVAR panels such as Asian-Australian Monsoon Panel, Working Group on Seasonal-Interannual Prediction, Pacific Panel, and others, and has been working with Third world scientists as Directors of various workshops and Staff Associate at International Institute of Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. He has published more than hundred papers in SCI Journals and book chapters related to Monsoon and climate modeling and has served as associated Editors in various international Journals.