David Roodman is a research fellow at the Center for Global Development currently focusing on microfinance. His book, "Due Diligence: An Impertinent Inquiry into Microfinance," asks bottom-line questions about the benefits of microfinance, and what they imply for how microfinance should be supported. He has been architect and manager of the Commitment to Development Index since the project’s inception in 2002. He has written several papers questioning the capacity of common cross-country statistical techniques to shed light on what causes economic development. In 2011, Roodman ranked in the top 10 on the RePEc list of top young economists in the world.

David Roodman previously worked at the Worldwatch Institute, where he wrote three monographs on environmental issue, and one on debt, “Still Waiting for the Jubilee: Pragmatic Solutions for the Third World Debt Crisis.” He also authored the book, “The Natural Wealth of Nations: Harnessing the Market for the Environment.” Roodman holds a BA in Theoretical Mathematics from Harvard College and was a Fulbright Fellow in Vietnam.

Milford Bateman is a freelance consultant on local economic development policy and, since 2005, a Visiting Professor of Economics at Juraj Dobrila University of Pula, Croatia. After spending two years conducting field work in the former Yugoslavia, he returned to the UK in 1990 to complete his PhD at the University of Bradford, UK, on the subject of small business and local economic development policies. A year later, Bateman moved to the University of Wolverhampton, UK, to take up the tenured position of Lecturer in East European Economics. In 1996, he was appointed an Associate Professor and Head of the Local Economic Development in Transition Economies Unit (LEDTEU). In 2000, Bateman moved into full-time consulting, first at the OECD in Paris working as an advisor on SME policy to the Investment Compact, before moving to Croatia to open the Western Balkans office of a major UK economic development consulting company.

He is the author of numerous articles and book chapters, including "Why Doesn't Microfinance Work? The Destructive Rise of Local Neoliberalism." His most recent work was editing "Confronting Microfinance: Undermining Sustainable Development," which looks at the impact of microfinance in the Western Balkans.

Chuck Waterfield has 25 years of experience in microfinance, with a mixture of practical field experience (six years starting MFIs in both Haiti and Bolivia) and experience leading network strategy development (serving as microenterprise director for both MEDA and for CARE International). He developed Microfin, the most popular financial planning software in the microfinance industry and teaches business planning courses around the world, with more than 3,000 microfinance professionals having been trained in his courses. His current work as an independent consultant includes clients across the industry. Currently on faculty of Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, he was formerly on the faculty of the Boulder Microfinance Training Program for ten years and Southern New Hampshire University’s Microenterprise Development Institute for eight years. In addition to Microfin, he has a broad range of products and publications including the SEEP FRAME Tool, the CARE Credit and Savings Sourcebook, and CGAP Handbook on Management Information Systems. In 2008, he founded MFTransparency and works as the CEO and President.