Frank spent nine years as an investment banker in New York, London and Bahrain before switching to journalism and joining the BBC in 1995. Frank has reported extensively on the global ‘War on Terror’ in Guantanamo Bay, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. He went on to write the bestselling book Blood and Sand, the poignant story of what can happen to your belief system when the culture you have embraced ends up trying to kill you. He was awarded an OBE in 2005 for services to journalism.

Henry Hogger is a British diplomat with 36 years of experience conducting bilateral relations, advising ministers, and reporting on political events. With specialization in the Arab world, his expertise spans the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa, including developmental work in Venezuela, Jordan, Namibia, and Syria. The former British Ambassador to Syria, he is one of the preeminent voices on geopolitics and the future of the country.

Seasoned war correspondent Jeremy Bowen provides riveting anecdotes from a life reporting on the front line at some of the most fraught conflicts of the past twenty years. Jeremy has covered hostilities from over 70 countries ranging from El Salvador, Somalia to the West Bank and his current role as the BBC’s Middle East Editor enables him to cast a welcome light onto one of the most complex areas of the world.

Thorvaldur Gylfason is Professor of Economics at the University of Iceland. He is also Research Fellow at CESifo (Center for Economic Studies) at the University of Munich & Research Associate at the Center for U.S.-Japan Business and Economic Studies at New York University. He was elected to Iceland's Constitutional Assembly in 2010 and appointed by Parliament to a Constitutional Council that drafted a constitutional bill delivered to Parliament 29 July 2011.

As one of the most recognised and respected TV foreign correspondents in the country, Rageh Omaar has one of the biggest international profiles of British TV journalists in the world, both as a prominent reporter and presenter for the BBC and Al Jazeera English. With a regular daily audience of 8 million people, Rageh’s eyewitness reports and feature length documentaries have been shown in over 180 countries.