Mr. Verbeek is a senior Dutch career diplomat with 28 years professional experience, mostly in multilateral diplomacy, both within the Foreign Ministry and during postings in Vienna, Sarajevo and New York. His was also posted as deputy chief of mission in Lagos/Abuja. His professional experience also includes being the Head of the European Community Monitoring Mission in BiH in the first half of 1997, where he was in charge of EU monitoring of the situation in BiH across the board. During his latest diplomatic assignment abroad at the Netherlands Permanent Mission to the U.N. in New York, he held the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary. He left New York in September 2001, took sabbatical leave and did a number of special assignments. He has been Director of Working Table III on Security Issues since October 2003. Before joining the Foreign Ministry, he studied philosophy at the University of Amsterdam, majoring in analytical philosophy, philosophical anthropology, philosophy of science and logic, and working at the faculty as a junior lecturer for four years. He has published several articles on international affairs.

After graduating from the Faculty of Law of the Charles' University, Mr. Kalasnikov joined the Institute of International relations in Prague as a Research Fellow. At that time, he was dealing mainly with the political processes and conflicts on the territory of the ex-USSR. After the political changes in Czechoslovakia in November 1989, he joined the Foreign Service. He worked in the Analysis and Policy Planning Department, and later on became the Director of the Department of CIS and
SEE countries. From 1995 until 2000 he was posted in Vienna as the Deputy head of the Czech Mission to OSCE. From 2000 until October 2002, he worked as the Director of SEE Countries in MFA and was appointed as the SP/SECI National Coordinator. He joined the SP office in October 2002.

Mr. Sterie is a diplomat with experience in the security policy area. He comes from the NATO and Global Affairs Department of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he was in charge of non-proliferation and counter-terrorism issues and represented Romania in international various meetings and negotiations, mostly with US and EU institutions and member states. He was the National Executive Coordinator for security issues during the Romanian Chairmanship of the SP Working Table III. Also, he worked within the Agency for Export Control, where he worked with different law enforcement agencies on sensitive topics, such as trafficking of weapons and dual-use items.