Prof. Hirokazu Tatano is the vice-director of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) and the head of the Research Division of Disaster Management for Safe and Secure Society, Kyoto University. He has served as the vice-president of the International Society of Integrated Disaster Risk Management (IDRiM Society) since 2010 and as the secretary-general of the Global Alliance of Disaster Research Institutes (GADRI) since 2015. He has carried out pioneering research on economic consequence analyses with a major focus on economic resilience to natural disasters at the levels of individual business, market and regional economy. Another research focus is methodologies for integrated disaster risk management and governance. Through these academic activities, he contributes to establishing "implementation science" as a key research area for disaster risk reduction.

Prof. Paul Kovacs is the founder and executive director of the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction at Western University, Canada. He has written more than 200 publications and articles, and he is a passionate champion for insurance, disaster resilience and adaptation to climate extremes. He has worked in private industry, the public sector and academia. He is a co-chair of the Infrastructure and Housing Working Group of Canada's Adaptation Platform, and he is also a co-chair of the Science and Technology Working Group of Canada's Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction. In addition, he is a member of a number of boards and advisory panels. Paul is a proud husband and father, with a growing collection of bow ties.