Hansjörg Lipowsky holds an Engineering Degree and spent most of his carrer working for Audi AG, ultimately as head of the Metallic Materials directorate within the Technical Development Department. Since his retirement from Audi, he works as a consultant for the German and the European Copper Institute.

Emin Arpaci studied metallurgy at Clausthal-Zellerfeld Technical University and TU Berlin, both Germany. Having previously worked for the German Copper Institute, he now manages his own engineering office and works as an appointed court surveyor.