Neil Richardson was born in London in 1963, later moving to Australia, where he graduated from the University of Western Australia with a degree in Business and Marketing. He worked in the commercial sector in Australia and England before taking up a position in the Sultanate of Oman in 1989. He has since specialised in the area of heritage management, and particularly the preservation of traditional craft industries in the face of increasing modern pressures. He lectures on Oman's craft traditions and other aspects of the country's heritage and culture, and has travelled widely throughout the Middle East and East Africa, researching the role of crafts in traditional lifestyles.

Marcia Stegath Dorr was born and raised in America, earning degrees in Fine Arts and Education from the University of Michigan. She taught art and established an interior design firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan, before going to live in the Gambia with her family in 1983. While there she developed an abiding passion for the preservation of traditional culture, and also created a West African artisans co-operative. In 1986 she moved to the Sultanate of Oman, where her work in cultural preservation continued with a United Nations project to revitalise traditional pottery production in Dhofar. Since then her work has taken her to Africa, Lebanon, Yemen, Jordan and Turkey.

Together they have worked on the preservation and promotion of Oman's traditional craft industries, including the staging of exhibitions on behalf of Omani artisans and the drafting of a national craft-development program and of specific craft-development projects. They were also the founding members of Omani Heritage Gallery, a non-profit enterprise that links Oman's craft communities with market for their products.