Lid King was Director of CILT and then between 2003 and 2011 was National Director for Languages taking forward the implementation of the National Languages Strategy for England. He was co-author - with Lord Ron Dearing - of The Languages Review, and has represented the UK on languages at both the European Union and the Council of Europe. He established the Languages Company in 2008, originally in order to support the national policy on languages and also to promote languages pedagogy and policy issues.

Lorna Carson is Assistant Professor in Applied Linguistics and Director of the Trinity Centre for Asian Studies at Trinity College Dublin. Her teaching and research focuses on multilingualism with a particular emphasis on understanding the language classroom. She is President of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics (IRAAL).