Michael Tost is a senior researcher at Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria. Michael has an environmental engineering master’s degree from Montanuniversitaet Leoben and various post-graduate courses at London Business School, UK and AGSM in Sydney, Australia. Before starting his own business and joining Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Michael was Head of External Affairs, Europe & North America for Vale, based, Switzerland and Head of Mining and Metals at the World Economic Forum, Switzerland. Before, he was with Rio Tinto, where he worked for over 12 years in various sustainable development and health, safety and environment related roles in Austria, UK and Canada.

Andreas Endl's research topics include sustainable consumption and production, as well as good governance and commodity policy. During his studies at the University of Vienna (AT) and at the Free University of Brussels (BE) in human ecology, he has increasingly dealt with approaches to human-environment relations. Through his many years of work in EU-funded research projects, such as COBALT, MIN-GUIDE, and Minland, he has gained extensive experience in policy analysis in the resource sector and the design of workshop-based stakeholder and peer-learning processes.

Mihaela earned her Ph.D. in International Law from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in October 2018. Her Thesis focuses on the regulation of State-owned entities (State-owned enterprises, sovereign wealth funds, national oil companies and export credit agencies) at the intersection of international economic law and human rights. Mihaela has dual legal qualifications in common law and civil law, and has been admitted as a lawyer in Australia (Supreme Court of Western Australia and Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory). She also holds a License in Law from Romania (Licentiat in Stiinte Juridice). After obtaining her License in Law in Romania, Mihaela has completed an LL.B at the University of Western Australia and an LL.M in International and European Law (specialization: International Trade and Investment Law) at the University of Amsterdam. Before commencing her Ph.D. studies, Mihaela was an Intern with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law and worked in a law firm in Perth, Western Australia. Mihaela has in-depth knowledge of the mining industry, having initially worked in various roles for several exploration companies in Eastern Europe. More recently, she has acted as a consultant to several private equity funds and various mining and exploration companies doing business in Eastern Europe and Australia. Mihaela is also a member of the Coordinating Committee of the European Society of International Law (ESIL) Interest Group on Business and Human Rights and has published in peer-reveiwed journals on various topics of international law.