Robert Sandford is the EPCOR Chair of the Canadian Partnership Initiative in support of the United Nations "Water for Life" Decade and also sits on the Advisory Committee for the prestigious Rosenberg International Forum on Water Policy. He is a director of the Western Watersheds Climate Research Collaborative; an associate of the Centre for Hydrology at the University of Saskatchewan and a fellow of the Biogeoscience Institute at the University of Calgary. As well, he sits on the advisory board of Living Lakes Canada and is co-chair of the Forum for Leadership on Water and a member of the Advisory Panel for the RBC Blue Water Project. In 2011, he was invited to be an advisor on water issues by the InterAction Council, a global public policy think tank composed of more than 20 former national leaders, including Jean Chrétien, Bill Clinton, and Vicente Fox.

Robert is the author of some 20 books on the history and heritage of the Canadian mountain West, including Ecology and Wonder in the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks World Heritage Site (AU Press, 2010), Water, Weather and the Mountain West (RMB, 2007), Restoring the Flow: Confronting the World's Water Woes (RMB, 2009) and Ethical Water: Learning to Value What Matters Most (RMB, 2011). He lives in Canmore, Alberta.

Merrell-Ann S. Phare is a member of the Forum for Leadership on Water (FLOW), which published “Changing the Flow: A Blueprint for Federal Action on Freshwater.” She is also a legal advisor to the Assembly of First Nations regarding water matters. Merrell-Ann serves on numerous advisory committees and consultation bodies on behalf of the Centre for Indigenous Environmental Resources (CIER), including the Expert Advisory Committee to the National Round Table on Environment and Economy (NRTEE), the Regulatory Advisory Committee of the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency and recently finished two three-year terms on the Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) of the NAFTA Commission for Environmental Cooperation. She was a member of the 2005 Lake Winnipeg Implementation Committee and the 2003 Manitoba Task Force on Emissions Trading and the Manitoba Economy. She has been a member of Canada’s delegation to the United Nations’ Commission on Sustainable Development, and represented the Assembly of First Nations on Canada’s delegation to the first meeting of the parties to the Kyoto Protocol. She is also a member of RBC’s Blue Water Advisory Panel, which advises the Royal Bank on water matters and, in particular, distribution of its $50-million Blue Water Fund.