Location: USA. Sumithra Rajendra was the Convenor of the World Universities Debating Championship which was held in Multimedia University, Malaysia in 2005.

She won the All- Asians Debating Championship and was a semifinalist at the AustralAsians in 2006. She has also adjudicated in numerous debating tournaments and was the Deputy Chief Adjudicator at the Brisbane Australs.

In 2006, she received a Fulbright Scholarship to pursue her M.A. in International Relations at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.

She co-directed the Fall Policy Debate Clinic at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in 2007.  Ms. Rajendra continues to be involved with the CSIS debate program. Currently, she works with the Emerging Markets Forum, a not for profit initiative based in Washington D.C.

Location: Scotland. Andy won the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) in 1997 for Glasgow University. He was a regular finalist and winner of regional and national debating tournaments.

He is the author of the rules for the Public Speaking Competition at the World Universities Debating Championship.

Andy has judged in tournaments all over the world, including the finals of competitions at Oxford and Cambridge, national schools debating competitions, and the John Smith Memorial Mace (the UK and Ireland national championships). He is a three-time WUDC Grand Final adjudicator and has adjudicated the Grand Final of the European Universities Debating Championship on four occasions.

He was Secretary of the World University Debating Committee in 2000-1 and has served as a consultant on the organising committee for both championships, as well as heading up the adjudication team at WUDC XXI in Glasgow.

Andy has extensive experience of debates coaching with school and university students, both in his native Scotland and various other European countries, and continues to play an active role in both schools and university debates adjudication. He currently lives and works in Edinburgh.

Location: Scotland.  Bob was a regular competitor and adjudicator on the global debating circuit in the mid-to-late 1990s.  He’ll thank you not to note just how long ago that was.

Bob won the John Smith Memorial Mace in 1996, competing for the University of Edinburgh.  He was a finalist in the World Universities Debating Championships in 1996 and 1997, double winner of The Scotsman Scottish championships, and a regular winner or finalist in intervarsity competitions in the UK and Ireland.

He also won the stand-up comedy competition at Worlds in Princeton in 1995 against, he admits, a weak field. 

Bob has adjudicated the finals and breaks of many national and international tournaments, and represented Scotland twice on Worlds Council.

Bob now works in the whisky industry and plans to enter politics.

Location: Scotland. Tommy is a two time World University Debating Championship (WUDC) Grand Final judge and was also an original member of the WUDC commission charged with formalising the organisation of the championship.
 
During his debating career for Strathclyde University in Scotland Tommy was a regular winner on the UK & Ireland debating circuit including victories in the Scottish Championship, the UK Individual Championship. He also made numerous finals appearances including the John Smith Mace  British & Irish Championship, Dublin, Oxford, Cambridge, UCL.
 
Tommy debated internationally at four WUDC championships and has reached finals of competitions in three separate continents.
 
He coached the Strathclyde University debating team for a number of years helping them to several wins UK & Ireland competitions, two world championship quarter finals and two top five speaker prizes in WUDC.
 
Tommy now runs a Glasgow based consultancy company.

Jason Jarvis is a professor at the Korea Development Institute School of Public Policy and Management where he teaches public speaking and debate to graduate students seeking degrees in business and public policy.

He is the founder of the Northeast Asian Open debate championship as well as the founder and Director of the Asian Debate Institute. Jason has judged regularly in the elimination rounds of major international debate competitions including the World University Debate Championship, the Austral Asian Debate Championship, the All Asian Intervarsity Debate Championship and the Asian Universities Debating Championship.

Jason is a graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, GA (USA) where he was a member of the prestigious Barkley Forum, one of the oldest and most successful debate programs in the United States. Jason served as a Graduate Assistant Debate Coach at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC where he received his MA in Communication. Prior to moving to Korea he served three years as the Assistant Director of Speech and Debate at Arizona State University in Tempe, AZ (USA).

I am a Cornishman, born in the yet-barbaric wildernesses of South West England (which doesn’t really account for the name, I suppose). I debated in a UK university as an undergraduate (badly: too much rhetoric and too little substance) and got re-involved when Asian universities started attending international debating tournaments in the early 90s.

I have served as Chair of the WUDC committee; wrote the Guide to Adjudication for the WUDC and the rulebook for the All-Asian Intervarsity Debate Championships. I have adjudicated the Grand Finals of the All-Asian debating Championships four times, The Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championship Grand Final ten times and the World Universities Debating Championship Grand Finals four times.

I have also continued to debate, winning the Asian Masters competition four times as a part of Team Malaysia. I reside in Malaysia, train and coach debaters in high schools, universities and corporate management, and don’t take a particularly good photograph.

Neill Harvey-Smith is the Chair of the World Universities Debating Council.

As a speaker, he was twice national champion, twice an International Mace finalist, a World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) finalist and a World Masters winner.

He has adjudicated four WUDC Grand Finals, served as WUDC Deputy Chief Adjudicator and is Chief Adjudicator of this year’s European University Debating Championships as well as next year’s US Universities Debating Championships.

Neill is a professional communication coach who works with clients all over the world, primarily in the fields of financial services, IT, academia and politics.

Location: United States of America. Ian is the co-author of the World University Debating Championships Adjudication Guide and Member Emeritus of the World Universities Debating Council.

He was the co-Founder, Chair and Coach of the Ateneo Debate Society (Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines). Since 1999, Ian continues to serve as the Director of Forensics and Faculty of the Speech Communication Department at the University of La Verne.

He has coached both the Ateneo and La Verne at the WUDC. His teams have become World Octofinalists, Quarterfinalists, Semifinalists, and Grand Finalists.

He is a six-time Grand Finals Adjudicator at the World University Debating Championships (WUDC). He has also judged finals of the Australasian Debating Championships, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge, CUSID B.P. National, U.S. Universities, and All-Asian Debating Championships. Ian served as the Chair of the World Debating Council from 2002-2008.

Location: Malaysia. Praba is the co-author of the World University Debating Championships Adjudication Guide and life member of the AustralAsian Intervarsity Debating Association.

He has participated in the Asian, AustralAsian and World University Championships as both speaker and judge, representing both Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and De La Salle University, Manila.  He was Asian champion, winner of the Martin Sorensen best speaker prize at the AustralAsian championships and two time finalist of Worlds Masters. 

Praba has coached debating across Asia, working extensively in the Philippines, Singapore, Japan and Thailand.

Currently Praba is a local councillor in Sepang and works at the editorial desk of Malaysiakini.com, an online newspaper and most visited Malaysian website. He runs his blog prabaganesan.wordpress.com which deals with socio-political developments in Malaysia.

Location: Australia. Ray is the author of the World Parliamentary Rules, used by the World Universities Debating Championships, World Masters and numerous national parliamentary competitions.

Ray is also editor and contributing author of the Australia-Asia Debating Guide, the primary debating text for three on three debate in Australia and Asia and the rules for the AustralAsian Intervarsity Debating Championships.

He has participated in AustralAsian and World Universities Debate Championships and World Masters as a speaker and judge. He has twice been Deputy Chief Adjudicator at Worlds and was Chief Adjudicator at Australasians.

His service to debating has been recognised with life membership of the Monash Association of Debaters and the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Association, emeritus membership of the World Universities Debating Council and an Australia-Japan Foundation Award, presented by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Ray is the founder of the Election Debates blog and has provided election debate comment and analysis for radio and print media. He lives and works in Melbourne.