Iván Szelényi is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Political Science at Yale University and at New York University (Abu Dhabi). He has a long standing interest in class formation under state socialism, and researched the origins of the new entrepreneurial class.
Peter Mihályi is Professor at the Department of Macroeconomics, Corvinus University of Budapest, and Visiting Professor at the Central European University, Hungary. In the 1990s, he served -- inter alia -- as Deputy Government Commissioner for Privatization and Deputy Minister of Finance.