Willemien Bax is currently Head of the OECD Forum, the Organisation's largest annual public event. Ms Bax, a Dutch national, has over 20 years of experience in public affairs, working with governments, as well as non-governmental organisations and the private sector. Prior to joining the OECD, from 2001 to beginning 2010, Ms Bax worked with the European Consumers Organisation (BEUC) as Deputy Director-General where she oversaw BEUC’s public affairs and media relations strategies in a number of public policy areas ranging from transparency and governance to food, environment, health, economic and legal affairs. In 2004, she initiated a training programme financed by the European Commission, for all consumer organisations in the EU, as well as potential EU-candidate countries. The training focused on giving consumer organisations the tools to develop effective public affairs and communication strategies. In 2009, in her capacity as European Chair of the Trans Atlantic Consumer Dialogue, she contributed to debates on major international public policy issues such as financial regulation, innovation and energy efficiency.

Ruth van Veelen is Assistant Professor in Social and Organizational Psychology at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her research focusses on diversity in organisations, and particularly how gender biases and stereotypes in masculine organizational cultures affect the professional development and career choices men and women. Ruth obtained her Ph.D entitled "Integrating I and We: Cognitive Routes to Social Identification" (cum laude) in 2013. From 2013-2016, she worked at University of Twente in the field of Human Resource Development. Since 2016 she is Assistant Professor in the Groups & Identity Lab at Utrecht University. Ruth obtained several grants for her work on professional identity development and career choices of STEM talents. Ruth’s research characterizes as theory-driven, empirical-based and with direct applied relevance to practice. To this end, in her research projects she collaborates with stakeholders in for example academia, high-tech and healthcare to jointly foster (gender) diversity and inclusion at work and in careers.

Belle Derks is full professor of Social and Organizational Psychology at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She studies the psychological consequences of the negative stereotypes that women and ethnic minorities face in work- and educational settings. An example of this work is her research on the Queen Bee phenomenon, e.g., women who dissociate from other women to get ahead in a masculine organization. For her research she acquired several prestigious grants, such as the NWO VENI (2008) and NWO VIDI (2015). Belle was chairperson of the Dutch Young Academy (part of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) from 2018-2020.

Mara A. Yerkes is an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Social Science at the Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University, in the Netherlands. Her research centres on the two broad themes of comparative social policy and social inequalities. In relation to social policy, Yerkes researches comparative welfare states, industrial relations and citizenship regimes. In relation to social inequalities, Yerkes’ research interests include inequalities related to work, care, communities and families, in particular in relation to gender, generations, and sexuality. Yerkes is the principal investigator of the European Research Council (ERC) project CAPABLE, a comparative study on gender inequalities in work-life balance in eight European countries, and of CoGIS-NL (COVID19 Gender (In)equality Survey Netherlands). She is currently co-chair of the European Social Policy Analysis Network (ESPAnet) and joint editor of the journal Community, Work and Family.

Johanna Kruger is a PhD candidate in Social and Organizational Psychology at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She recently received her MSc in Social and Health Psychology at Utrecht University, after obtaining a BSc in Liberal Arts and Sciences (Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Major) at University College Utrecht, the Netherlands. Johanna’s research interests include gender and social inequalities, specifically the role of stereotypes and other social psychological pathways by which gender disparities emerge. Her MSc thesis focused on gender and work-family guilt.