This question - 'What are the characteristics of a professional teacher educator?' - was simply sent out as a survey to all teacher educators who engage with the Teacher Education Advancement Network (TEAN). The aim was to give respondents the opportunity to comment from their own perspectives, whatever they were, thus adding their voices to our search for the characteristics of professional teacher educators. The resulting data were collated and refined by the authors of this paper who then worked together to write the think piece. As a think piece it sets out to provoke a response from its readers and hopes that readers will 'think' and use it to share in dialogue with colleagues and continue to add their voices to this debate.