Prof. Thomas Cottier is the Managing Director of the World Trade Institute and Head of the the Institute of European and International Economic Law at the University of Bern. He is Professor of European and International Economic Law at the University of Bern and also currently teaches at the Europa Institut in Saarbrücken, Germany and at Wuhan University, China. 

Prof. Cottier has a long-standing involvement in GATT/WTO activities. He served on the Swiss negotiating team of the Uruguay Round from 1986 to 1993, first as Chief negotiator on dispute settlement and subsidies for Switzerland and subsequently as Chief negotiator on TRIPs. He held several positions in the Swiss External Economic Affairs Department and was the Deputy-Director General of the Swiss Intellectual Property Office. In addition to his conceptual work in the fields of services and intellectual property and legal counselling, he has also served as a member or chair of several GATT and WTO panels. He directs the national research programme on trade law and policy (NCCR Trade Regulation: From Fragmentation to Coherence) located at the WTI. He served the Baker & McKenzie law firm as Of Counsel from 1998 to 2005. 

Prof. Nicolas Michel graduated from the law faculty of the University of Fribourg in 1973, where he also earned a doctorate in 1979. He also holds a Master of Arts/International Relations from the University of Georgetown at Washington D. C. He is admitted to the Swiss bar. From 1998 to 2003, he acted as the Director of the International Law Directorate in the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and served from 1998 to 2004 as Legal Adviser of the same department. In 2004, he was appointed by Kofi Annan as Under-Secretary-General for Legal Affairs and United Nations Legal Council, posts he occupied until 2008. 

Prof. Nicolas Michel has previously taught at the University of Fribourg and is currently a Professor at the Faculty of Law of the University of Geneva and Adjunct Professor at the Graduate Institute of International Studies and Development in Geneva. He teaches United Nations and international law.