The conference was co-chaired by Dr. Nina Vik and Mr. Finn Katerås of the Norwegian Environment Agency. They lead work with preparating and organizing the conference, co-chaired the conference itself and are resonsible for the conference report. Nina has a PhD in biology, and works primarily with international co-operation on biodiversity. She is presently the national focal point for IPBES. Nina was co-chair (with Tone Salhaug) of the eighth Trondheim Conference in 2016. Finn has a degree in economics and business administration, and works primarily with issues related to environmental economics and ecosystem services. He was rapporteur for the second Trondheim Conference in 1996, Conference Director for the fifth Trondheim Conference in 2007 and co-chair (with Peter J. Schei) for the sixth Trondheim Conference in 2010. He co-chaired (with Asghar Fazel of Iran) much of the CBD negotations leading up to the adoption of the CBD Strategic Plan 2011-2020 and the Aichi targets in Nagoya in 2010.

The organizer of the conference was the Norwegian Environment Agency, and the agency had in place a team to plan and implement the conference. Anne Martinussen was the conference coordinator, and Kristin Sundal was the conference secretary (assisted by Ingeborg Einum).

In addition to staff from the agency, the extended secretariat during the conference was staffed by people from inter alia the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research and students from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Details on key people from the secretariat and the organizers are available in the who is who section.

The conference co-chairs were assisted by a chief rapporteur in preparing and writing the conference report, and this was Jerry Harrison of the UN Environment World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP WCMC).

UNEP WCMC also assisted with preparing the conference program and liaising with relevant international organisations and institutions.