Dr. Erich Gamma is technical director at the Software Technology Center of Object Technology International in Zurich, Switzerland. Dr. Richard Helm is a member of the Object Technology Practice Group in the IBM Consulting Group in Sydney, Australia. Dr. Ralph Johnson is a faculty member at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Computer Science Department.

John Vlissides is a member of the research staff at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center in Hawthorne, New York. He has practiced object-oriented technology for more than a decade as a designer, implementer, researcher, lecturer, and consultant. In addition to co-authoring Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, he is co-editor of the book Pattern Languages of Program Design 2 (both from Addison-Wesley). He and the other co-authors of Design Patterns are recipients of the 1998 Dr. Dobb's Journal Excellence in Programming Award.