David VL Smith founded the business research agency, DVL Smith, over 30 years ago and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire Business School. He holds a PhD in Organisational Psychology from the University of London. He is a former Vice President of ESOMAR, the worldwide marketing intelligence association, and a Fellow and past Chairman of the UK Market Research Society.

Adam Riley started his career in London-based market research agencies in the early 1990s before becoming a global marketing strategist in the Chairman's office of Samsung in South Korea, after gaining an MBA from The London Business School. Returning to London, Adam joined the marketing strategy practice of Monitor Company (now Monitor Deloitte), before founding the consultancy Decision Architects in 2006.

David and Adam founded Polymathmind.ai in 2023 to help organisations collaborate with AI and develop the power skills needed to grasp the opportunities this presents for the future.