John Bruton was deeply involved in the Northern Irish Peace Process leading to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement and presided over a successful Irish European Union Presidency in 1996 helping to finalize the Stability and Growth Pact, which governs the management of the single European currency.  Before being appointed Ambassador to the United States, John Bruton served as a leading member of the caucus that drafted the European Constitution and was Vice President of the European People's Party from 1999 to 2005.  He was first elected to the Irish Parliament ("Dáil Éireann") in 1969 at the age of 22 as a member of the Fine Gael Party, becoming its leader in 1990 and leading it into government in 1994. He previously served as Ireland’s Minister for Finance (1981-1982 & 1986-1987); Minister for Industry & Energy (1982-1983); Minister for Trade, Commerce & Tourism (1983-1986). He resigned his seat effective November 1, 2004 to take up appointment as European Union Head of Delegation in the United States.

     Rockwell Schnabel was appointed as the U.S. Representative to the European Union on September 26, 2001, and served until July, 2005. He was chairman and co-founder of Trident Capital, a venture capital firm aimed at supporting new economy companies. A longtime businessman, he started in the securities business as a financial analyst before joining the LA-based firm of Bateman, Eichler Hill Richards Inc. (now Wachovia Bank) and rising through the ranks to become its president.  He accepted his first government post in 1986, when former President Ronald Reagan named him U.S. ambassador to Finland. After leaving Helsinki in 1989, Ambassador Schnabel went to Washington, D.C., where he served at the Department of Commerce as Deputy Secretary and then as Acting Secretary of Commerce in the administration of George Bush Sr.

     Anthony Lewis is a journalist and former New York Times columnist.  He joined the New York Times in 1969. The author of several books, Lewis is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner for national reporting: in 1955, for a series of articles in the Washington Daily News on the federal government's loyalty security program, and in 1963, for distinguished reporting in his coverage of the Supreme Court's proceedings in that year.