John Overton is a geographer who has worked on development issues and the Pacific region for over thirty years. His Pacific education began with a position at the University of the South Pacific in the mid-1980s and has continued through working with many students and colleagues from the Pacific Island region. He is currently Professor of Development Studies at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.

Warwick E. Murray gained a PhD in geography at the University of Birmingham, UK and served as a lecturer in geography at the University of the South Pacific (1997-2000). Taking up a university role in Wellington in 2001 he has focused his research on development geographies of the Pacific Island region and Rim (including Latin America). An Editor of Asia Pacific Viewpoint since 2002, he is currently Professor of Human Geography at Victoria University of Wellington.

Gerard Prinsen teaches Development Studies at Massey University New Zealand, after a professional career in development practice. Most of his research revolves around local health and education services as spaces where small, rural, or remote communities negotiate their relationships with big metropolitan powers.

Avataeao Junior Ulu is an international development practitioner and has worked in the wider Pacific region since 2002. His master's degree focused on aid sovereignty in Samoa, and excerpts from his thesis can be found in this book. Junior is currently completing his PhD on migration, education and development with reference to Samoa. He also does development consultancy work in his spare time.

Nicola (Nicki) Wrighton spent many years working in the Pacific Island region for aid agencies, as a consultant and for Pacific organisations, including the Government of Tuvalu. Her master's degree in 2010 on aid and Tuvalu helped shape the Marsden Fund grant that funded the research for this book. She was working on her PhD on aid and sovereignty in the Pacific at Victoria University of Wellington when illness struck and she died tragically in 2014.