Rodd is programme director of the Netwell Centre, within the School of Health and Science at Dundalk Institute of Technology in Ireland.  An architect by training, Rodd graduated with distinction from Oxford Brookes University in 1982 launching a career that has spanned hospital master planning and design (CRI Ltd, USA), spatial resource management (founder of FMW Ltd, Ireland) and ageing-and-place research (Netwell).  Rodd’s research and innovation interests are focussed on understanding the interrelationship between environmental structure and people’s health and wellbeing.  Rodd has been very involved in the WHO’s age-friendly cities movement from its inception, and is committed to improving the quality of life for older people through place-centred innovation, service improvement and social innovation. Rodd has supported the European Commission and its partners in the development of the Action Plan for Innovations in Age-Friendly Buildings, Cities and Environments, within the European Innovation Partnership on Active & Healthy Ageing.  Rodd has recently become chair of the Louth Age-Friendly Alliance where his activity is very much at the intermediary interface between research, policy and practice, with a focus on implementation and impact. 

João Breda is a PhD in Nutritional Sciences from Porto University. He graduated in Nutritional Sciences also at Porto University. He has done his Master Degree in Public Health by the Medical Sciences Faculty of the University Nova de Lisboa and an MBA from the European University in Barcelona. 

Dr Jill Farrington is a Consultant in Public Health Medicine from the UK and Honorary Senior Lecturer, Nuffield Centre for International Health and Development, University of Leeds, UK. She has over 25 years experience in clinical medicine and public health, including 17 years in international public health, at local and national level in Europe, Asia and Africa. Working for the WHO Regional Office for 11 years, she was Deputy Head, Centre for Urban Health and Manager, WHO Healthy Cities Network during 1997-2003 and then as Coordinator, Noncommunicable Diseases, WHO European Region 2004-2008. Since her return to the UK, she has continued teach and contribute to international public health, most recently as part of the evaluation team of Phase V of the WHO Healthy Cities Network.

Mr. Arto Holopainen, M.Sc (Tech.) is Development Director at Kuopio Innovation Ltd., Vice President at Finnish Society of Telemedicine and eHealth, Secretary at European committee for standardization (CEN)/TC251/WGIV, Member of the Board at Finnish Social and Health Informatics Association, Liaison - International and Regulatory Affairs at Finnish Medical Technology Association. He is also a member of IEEE Personal Health Devices working group as well as member of ISO/TC215. 

Professor Ilona Kickbusch is recognized throughout the world for her contribution to health promotion and global health. She is currently adjunct professor at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva and director of the Global Health Programme. She advises organisations, government agencies and the private sector on policies and strategies to promote health at the national, European and international level. She has published widely and is a member of a number of advisory boards in both the academic and the health policy arena. Professor Kickbusch has received many awards and served as the Adelaide Thinker in Residence at the invitation of the Premier of South Australia. She has launched a think‐tank initiative “Global Health Europe: A Platform for European Engagement in Global Health” and the “Consortium for Global Health Diplomacy”. Her key areas of interest are global health governance, global health diplomacy, health in all policies, the health society and health literacy. She has had a distinguished career with the World Health Organization, at both the regional and global level, where she initiated the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion and a range of “settings projects” including Healthy Cities. From 1998 – 2003 she joined Yale University as the head of the global health division, where she contributed to shaping the field of global health and headed a major Fulbright programme. She is a political scientist with a PhD from the University of Konstanz, Germany.

Jinhee Kim is currently consultant at WHO Kobe Centre (WKC), working on intersectoral action for health (ISA) in the Urban Health Team. She has been involved in healthy cities in the Republic of Korea for over 10 years in research and in practice. As a researcher, she participated in studies on developing healthy cities indicators and evaluation for Korean healthy cities, worked with many local governments in developing and implementing healthy cities programmes and other topics including health impact assessment. She was the healthy cities coordinator at the Gangnam district government, Seoul in 2009-2011. Her research interests include intersectoral action for health, local government health policies and community-based participatory methods. She is pursuing a PhD at Seoul National University on her dissertation titled “Innovation and change in the local health promotion system: the case of healthy cities in Seoul”.

Gabriel Scally is Visiting Professor of Public Health in the University of the West of England (UWE). His major academic role has been as Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Healthy Urban Environments at the University. Prior to 2012 he was a Regional Director of Public Health in England from 1994. In that role he was both a senior civil servant in the Department of Health and a Director in successive National Health Service bodies. Before moving to England he was Chief Administrative Medical Officer and Director of Public Health in the Eastern Health and Social Services Board from 1986 to 1993 and Chair of Belfast Healthy Cities.

Ninna Thomsen is the Mayor of Health and Care in the City of Copenhagen since 2009.