The ECHOLOGY Lab Leaders are luminaries in their respective fields and, in addition to their role guiding the development process and transferring skills and expertise to the Lab participants, provide direct access to international networks.

JAVIER CANDEIRA (AUS) is a Spanish-born educator, artist and activist working at the intersection of technology, art and politics. He has produced an internet culture TV show for Canal+, built interactive television services for Universal Studios and curated exhibitions for Art Futura, Sony and the City of Madrid. He collaborated in the porting of the Creative Commons licenses to the Spanish legal system, and has participated in campaigns to promote free and open source software, internet neutrality, open access to public data and freedom against software patents. He owns and runs Barrapunto.com, the leading Spanish language community around open source and civil rights in the digital realm. Currently he teaches embedded devices and utility computing to students at Monash University.

USMAN HAQUE (UK) is the founder of Pachube (now known as Cosm.com), a real-time data infrastructure and community for the Internet of Things (acquired by LogMeIn Inc in 2011); and director of UK-based Haque Design + Research. Trained as an architect, he has created responsive environments, interactive installations, digital interface devices and dozens of mass-participation initiatives. His skills include the design and engineering of both physical spaces and the software and systems that bring them to life. He received the 2008 Design of the Year Award (interactive) from the Design Museum, UK, a 2009 World Technology Award (art), a Wellcome Trust Sciart Award, a grant from the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science and Technology, the Swiss Creation Prize, Belluard Bollwerk International, the Japan Media Arts Festival Excellence prize and the Asia Digital Art Award Grand Prize.

GEO HOMSY (USA) is an innovator, scientist, engineer, and technology artist with a deep understanding of physics, computation, biology, and robotics.  He holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and has collaborated on more than thirty large-scale machine sculpture and technology-based artworks over a period of 23 years. He has also made original contributions in theoretical chemistry, biological computation, secure networks, and spread-spectrum data storage. Current work includes biofuels research, guidance navigation and control for aerospace applications, and teaching introductory electronics to artists. Geo is a member of the three-artist Organograph team, winners of the San Jose Climate Clock international design competition.