Tom Roche is the founder and coordinator of Just Forests and an individual member of the Irish Development Education Association (IDEA), RCE Dublin and Stop Climate Chaos. He served a 5-year apprenticeship as a carpenter before emigrating to Australia in 1967 at the age of eighteen. On his return to his hometown of Tullamore in 1971 he setup and ran a small furniture-making business in Tullamore for 25 years before starting Just Forests in 1989. He also facilitated approximately 600 Wood of Life workshops in 220 schools/venues nationwide including 4 weeks in Dublin ZOO. Tom was the 1st Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) endorsed Contact Person for the Republic of Ireland. He acted as FSC coordinator for 5 years and facilitated the establishment of the first FSC national steering group. This led to the independent certification of Ireland’s forests. 

Elaine Nevin is the National Director (Chief Executive Officer) of ECO-UNESCO since 2002. Elaine holds a BA in Geography and Political Science and an MA and a Higher Diploma in Education. She has worked in the field of environmental education since 1995 and believes that empowering, educating and engaging young people is an essential component to achieving sustainable development. Elaine has headed up a range of projects in ECO-UNESCO including the Young Environmentalist Awards programme; Youth for Sustainable Development peer education, the development of ECO-UNESCO as a QQI accredited centre, and the development of Green Youth Employability programmes. She led the consultation on the National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development in the Republic of Ireland in 2008 which fed into the National Strategy on ESD in 2014. She is currently heading up ECO-UNESCO's involvement in the UNESCO Global Action Programme on the implementation of ESD and is a member of the key partner network for the implementation of UNESCO's GAP under the key priority area 4 - 'Mobilising and Empowering young people'. Elaine sits on and has sat on a range of bodies including the Irish Environmental Network, National Youth Council of Ireland (past Vice-President; current Chair of the NYCI Specialist Organisation Network), and is the Chairperson of the Advisory Group on the National Dialogue on Climate Change. She was a Ministerial Appointee to the Environmental Protection Agency in 2011 and was reappointed to the EPA Advisory Committee in 2016; she is a member of the Advisory Committee for the National Strategy on Education for Sustainable Development in the Department of Education and Skills, and sits on the Steering Committee of the Regional Centre of Expertise in ESD Dublin.