Erkki Lakervi received his MSc from Helsinki University of Technology in 1969. He worked in systems planning and operations in both rural and municipal Finnish electricity supply utilities, before being appointed associate professor at Tampere University of Technology in 1977. In 1986 he was appointed full professor, specialising in power systems and high-voltage engineering, becoming head of the power engineering group in 1987. Lakervi is a member of the IET, a senior member of the IEEE and a member of CIGRE. He has had two books published in Finland on electricity distribution, as well as many papers in Europe and the USA, particularly associated with computer-aided design. His particular interests are in distribution system design and the behaviour of MV insulators in adverse weather conditions. He is also involved in the design of electricity distribution systems in developing countries.

Ted Holmes graduated from Queen Mary College, London, in 1950 and spent 19 years on the generation and transmission side of the electricity supply industry, first commissioning power stations and substations, and later as a system design engineer. In 1969 he moved to the Midlands Electricity Board with responsibility for planning the board's primary networks supplying the 6.6 kV and 11 kV systems, specialising in load forecasting and capital budgets, until he took early retirement in 1987. Currently he is a freelance consultant and lecturer on power distribution systems; he has worked in Europe, the Middle East, South East Asia and South America. Holmes has served on a number of ESI boards on system design, being especially involved in distribution supply voltage control, and has published many papers on the subject. He is a Fellow of the IET.