Speakers
Scott Adams – President, Birchbark Media
Scott Adams, president of Birchbark Media, a marketing and PR agency, has been helping to market and develop outdoor tourism businesses for over a decade. His passion for outdoor experiences and entrepreneurial determination have allowed him to excel his field.
Scott has grown a solid reputation within the tourism industry through his blended use of new media, SEO and web technologies. Scott has been a web-marketing advisor, organized training workshops, taught College level marketing courses, ran successful online campaigns, tweeted about stuff, made friends on Facebook, wrote a blog that only his mother reads and gets paid to watch YouTube.
Ellen Barone – Journalist
New Mexico-based journalist Ellen Barone has been covering adventure travel since 1998. Inspired by a Fulbright teaching exchange to Scotland in the early nineties, the freelance writer-photographer has traveled to more than 60 countries for travel-related assignments.
Whether she’s sailing across the Atlantic, crossing the Sahara on camel, surfing Maui’s swells, dog sledding the Alaskan tundra, cycling the Sicilian coastline, eating scorpion in Singapore or hanging out in the tango bars of Buenos Aires, she strives for honest storytelling and vivid photography that inspires travelers to pack their bags and experience our blue planet for themselves.
In addition, she’s a gifted workshop teacher, radio host, photo tour leader, speaker and author of several online columns offering practical advice and information for travelers.
Together with travel journalist, Judith Fein, Ellen publishes the group travel blog, YourLifeIsATrip.com and co-authors the adventure travel column, The Wild Pair.
Her website, EllenBarone.com, is an online portal viewed by hundreds of thousands of travelers – is one-stop shopping for expert advice, vacation tips, gear and gadget reviews, photo galleries and travel articles.
Laura Begley Bloom – Deputy Editor, Travel + Leisure
Laura Begley Bloom is deputy editor of Travel + Leisure, the world’s leading travel magazine brand. She guides the magazine’s destination, hotel, cruise, and style coverage; top edits various front-of-book sections, editorial platforms, and packages; and oversees a number of themed issues, including Hotels and Style & Culture. Laura has also written articles on a wide range of locations and topics, including trekking in Easter Island, dancing tango in Buenos Aires, white-water rafting in the Himalayas, cultural preservation in Cambodia, and island hopping in the Seychelles, just to name a few.
Additionally, Laura focuses on important brand initiatives, from the magazine’s new iPad app (coming out in November) to the first-ever Travel + Leisure store, now at three international airports—and growing. She helped launch and continues to oversee the magazine’s book series, with three annual titles: The World’s Greatest Hotels, Resorts & Spas; 100 Greatest Trips; and Unexpected. Additionally, Laura works on the magazine’s television programming and has collaborated on shows with the Travel Channel and Bravo.
An expert in the travel field, Laura appears regularly on various television outlets including NBC Today, ABC Good Morning America, CBS The Early Show, and CNBC. She also moderates panels and has been a featured speaker at industry events like the American Express Publishing Luxury Summit and conferences hosted by the Harvard Business School, the Caribbean Travel Organization, and more.
Before joining Travel + Leisure, Laura was a travel editor at Condé Nast’s Brides magazine. Previously, she was a reporter at Money magazine and a stringer for The New York Times. She began her journalism career as an intern with the I-Team, the investigative unit of WCCO-TV, Minneapolis’s CBS affiliate. She has also written for Wallpaper, Elle Decor, Fortune, Glamour, Men’s Journal, InStyle, London Telegraph, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Journalism is part of Laura’s heritage. Her great great grandfather was a Civil War correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and a member of the legendary Bohemian Brigade. A graduate of Smith College with a degree in Economics and East Asian Studies, she and her husband Jonathan live in New York City and Amagansett, New York.
Ellen Bettridge – Vice President, American Express – U.S. Retail Travel Network
Ellen Bettridge is American Express’s vice president of the U.S. Retail Travel Network, responsible for the management and growth of the company-owned U.S. travel service offices; as well as sales, account management, card integration and product development initiatives for the U.S. Representative Network Travel team. A role she has had since 2002. Through her leadership, Bettridge has grown the Representative Travel Network sales 100% by attracting some of the largest industry agencies to the franchise that compliment American Expresses expansive products and services. Prior to this role, Bettridge held various management positions within American Express including, director account development executive, field performance manager for the eastern region in Corporate Services
Bettridge takes an active role within the travel industry and is currently serving as ASTA’s Corporate Advisory council Chairman, and she sits on the advisory boards of Travel + Leisure, Rosewood Hotels and Travcorp.
Keith Bellows – Editor-in-Chief, National Geographic Traveler
Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo and a Canadian citizen, Keith Bellows, 58, was named editor-in-chief of NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVELER magazine in January 1998 and a vice president of the National Geographic Society in March 2000. Under his stewardship, the magazine has been nominated for two National Magazine Awards, won more than 60 Lowell Thomas Awards for best travel writing (it has been named best magazine eight of his 11 years and this year won as best magazine and best website), and eight Folio Awards for Best Travel Magazine. As a tip of the hat to new media, TRAVELER has won an iTunes People’s Choice Award for Best Podcast of 2006, for which Bellows wrote two scripts. Its “Intelligent Travel” won a 2007 Travvie and a 2009 Lonely Planet Award as best travel blog.
In addition to editing TRAVELER, Bellows developed a major spinoff of the magazine’s website built around the award-winning special issue 50 Places of a Lifetime. He also writes “One on One,” a regular interview column with compelling figures—Al Gore, hotelier Ian Schrager, Steve Case, Dolly Parton, futurist Andrew Zolli, Island Records founder Chris Blackwell—who have something important to say about how we travel and where we go. He helped position TRAVELER as a leader in sustainable travel and has made it the travel photography magazine (it runs the world’s biggest travel-photo contest, the only travel cell-phone contest, and a series of city-based photo seminars regarded as the best in the business). He also helped create journeystreams, an innovative open-source web program to help students tell stories.
Prior to joining National Geographic, Mr. Bellows was developing internet content as early as 1994. He worked for Rupert Murdoch’s Delphi web service; as creative director launched BabyCenter.com (now owned by Johnson & Johnson); was the executive producer of Excite.com; and was founding partner of WestWorld Media, which developed Metallica’s first website and created the college-based Campus Voice.com.
He has written for Esquire, Sports Illustrated, Parenting, AARP, and many other magazines. He also wrote The Canuck Book and the 1998 Winter Olympics ACCESS Guide for ABC-TV. He is now writing 100 Places That Will Change Your Child’s Life, part of a program he is developing to encourage parents, corporations, and schools to view travel as a critical learning tool. It will be published in October 2011.
Eric Brodnax – Vice President & General Manager, The Away Network at Orbitz Worldwide
Eric Brodnax is a Vice President with Orbitz Worldwide where he serves as General Manager of The Away Network (Away.com, Outside Online, GORP, AdventureFinder, Trip.com, and Lodging.com). He joined Away as part of the founding management team in April of 1999, was SVP of Marketing & Operations during the company’s formative years, and assumed his current role after Orbitz’s acquisition of the company in January of 2005. As GM, Eric is responsible for setting the overall strategy and vision for the company including high level editorial direction.
Eric has a long standing interest in outdoor and active pursuits and the environment. He grew up on St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands where he rode horses, sailed, and scuba dived. He competed in the 1988 Olympic Games held in Seoul, Korea, has a strong personal interest in whitewater kayaking, biking, hiking, skiing, and off the beaten path travel, and serves on the board of Sustainable Travel International.
In addition to growing up in the Caribbean and living/working in Prague in 1992, he has had the good fortune to visit more than fifty countries. Personal favorites among these experiences include exploring the jungles of Belize, observing wildlife at Waterburg Plateau and Skeleton Coast National Parks in Namibia, meandering through the wine country of South Africa’s Cape Province, and hitchhiking through the Sahara desert in Algeria.
Eric has thirteen years of total online business experience, and has held positions prior to Away that include being President and Co-founder of a wine importing company focused on South African brands, working as a management consultant in the former Czechoslovakia, and running marketing and business development for an online market research company. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and a BA from Princeton University.
Eric is married and lives in Washington, DC with his wife Leigh and children Sarah and Anders.
John Canning – MediaSherpa
John Canning ’s career has spanned media production, delivery and platforms for over 20 years. Canning runs MediaSherpa Consulting and Productions that focuses on digital media and game strategy and technology consulting for major companies such as Mary Margaret Network, Disney as well as small startups. In addition, MediaSherpa Productions has done work for the likes of the Vatican, the Monaco Film Festival and ARC – The A&R Channel. John currently serves as the executive producer and videographer for Green Living Project.
Prior to MediaSherpa, John held several production roles including Senior Producer and Project Manager for Yahoo! Studios and Yahoo! News overseeing original productions as well as Director of Content Distribution and Field Producer and photographer for Richard Bangs Adventures.
Before Yahoo, John was a Technical Evangelist for Microsoft’s eHome Division where he led external evangelism for applications and services for eHome, working with external third parties in the areas of media and data distribution, content, and whole home control and services. In addition, he was Product Manager for the Microsoft TV division where he was responsible for VOD, interactive services, conditional access and billing integration into the MSTV Server solution.
Canning’s career in media-focused technology began on the hardware side at Scientific Atlanta, where he was an RF Engineer and Application Architect in the Set Top Box and Cable Modem divisions. Since then, his career has spanned the gamut of media technologies, providing him with unique insight into the influences and balances among those technologies, and how they can best be employed.
Moe Carrick – CEO, Moementum
Moe Carrick enthusiastically loves to help leaders transform themselves and their companies. When she is not doing that, she loves to play outside in glorious Central Oregon and can often be found digging in her garden or running local trails.
In addition, Moe has woven a cohesive and provocative tapestry of personal leadership experiences, Fortune 100 consulting, academic and institutional learning, keynote addresses, authorship, strategic partnering, and masterful facilitation.
She has 25 years of experience doing this work, which combines with her education to be what many folks laughingly call, “a senior practitioner.” She tries not to take those comments personally.
Dr Mike Cantlay – Chairman, VisitScotland
Dr Cantlay is Chairman and Managing Director of William Glen Limited which operates tourism, leisure and retail interests in Scotland, Canada and the USA. He was previously Chair and Managing Director of highland dress specialist Hector Russell and also tourist retail chain The Whisky Shop. Dr Cantlay was brought up in Callander where he still lives and his business is headquartered. He has held several public appointments including Deputy Chair of VisitScotland; Chair of Scottish Enterprise Forth Valley; Chair of the Board of Management at Forth Valley College and an advisory member of the board of Scottish Enterprise. He is also serving a second term as Convenor of Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park Authority; an appointment he will complete later in 2010; and is a Non Executive Director the board of Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL), a position which he will continue to undertake..
Dr Cantlay has had links with tourism throughout his career and brings extensive knowledge and experience of tourism at home and abroad, as well as a track record of serving Scotland’s global Diaspora. He was awarded the Scottish Thistle Tourism Award for Young Manager of the Year in 1992, has held numerous positions with local tourist associations, has been Director of several retail businesses with tourism links – both in Scotland and North America, and was a Board Member of the Scottish Tourist Board and VisitScotland from 1998 to 2005 (including Deputy Chairman from 2001 to 2005).
Costas Christ – Chairman, World Travel and Tourism Council – Tourism for Tomorrow Awards
Costas Christ is an internationally recognized sustainable tourism expert whose work and travels have taken him to more than 100 countries across six continents, including expeditions to some of the world’s most remote wilderness areas and archaeological sites.
Costas is the Editor At Large for National Geographic Traveler and the former Global Travel Editor for National Geographic Adventure. He also writes the Go Green Travel Column for Virtuoso Life, in addition to serving as Virtuoso’s Director for Sustainability.
His professional career in travel spans more than three decades and he is a frequent keynote speaker at international travel conferences and events, including three National Geographic Adventure-sponsored speaking tours from 2007 – 2009. He serves as Chairman of the World Travel and Tourism Council – Tourism for Tomorrow Awards which recognize global leadership in sustainable practices and is a special advisor to World Travel Market Responsible Tourism Day. He has appeared many times on television and radio, including Travel Channel, Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, BBC, and National Public Radio, among others and is widely regarded as one of the pioneers of ecotourism. Costas’ travel articles and essays have also appeared in many leading publications, including the New York Times, International Herald Tribune and Sunday Times of London. He was a founding member and former Chairman of The International Ecotourism Society. As Senior Director at Conservation International, Costas supervised ecotourism projects in eighteen countries, working with the travel industry and local communities to support the protection of biodiversity and support cultural and natural heritage preservation. He is an adviser to various travel foundations, including serving as Ambassador-at-Large for the Spirit of Big Five Foundation, as an executive board member of The Bodhi Tree Foundation, and as a senior adviser to The Leading Travel Companies Conservation Foundation. In 2008, Costas was recognized as a ‘Travel Visionary’ by the International Restaurant and Hotel Awards.
Kathy Dragon – Founder/CEO, TravelDragon
Kathy has more than two decades of experience in the Adventure/Experiential Travel industry. She’s been leading, designing, selling and operating small group adventure trips and has personally escorted over 3000 guests and worked with hundreds of guides and tour operators worldwide to design trips targeting particularly the North American boomer market.
As the founder and CEO of TravelDragon.com, a currated source and search engine for over 6,000 unique itineraries offered by 500+ of the best small tour operators in the world, she hopes to help tour providers distribute their products through targeted networks. Kathy has been involved with the travel development section of with two substantially funded .com’s (WholePeople.com – a Whole Foods Market Company and EONS.com – a social networking site for age 50+ consumers) as well as growing well established adventure travel companies: Vermont Country Cyclers and Country Walkers.
Kathy is a frequent international speaker, consultant, strategist and SME (subject matter expert) in the categories of Boomers, Prime Time Travelers (50-70) & Women as they relate to and interact with TRAVEL, Technology, Social Media, Green, Sustainability, Outdoors, and Natural Foods. She continues to design and lead limited custom departures through her own adventure travel company The Dragon’s Path.
John E. DiScala – (a.k.a. Johnny Jet)
John E. DiScala travels around 150,000 miles and visits over 20 countries each year. He and his website JohnnyJet.com have been featured over 2,000 times in major publications, including USA Today, Time, Fortune and The New York Times, and he has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNBC, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, FOX News Channel and PBS.
JohnnyJet.com has been named “one of the top best money-saving web sites for travel” by Budget Travel Magazine, while the L.A. Times calls it “one of the top 10 essential travel resources on the internet.” Outside Magazine touted Johnny for having one of the world’s best “dream jobs”.
Every week, Johnny hosts a “travel website of the week” for several radio stations around the country, he writes weekly for Frommers.com and he has written for USAToday, The Boston Herald, LAX Magazine and Coast Magazine.
Chris Doyle – Vice President, Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA) & Editor, AdventureTravelNews™
Chris Doyle is a long-time enthusiast of adventure travel who’s gained immeasurable insights from the people he’s connected with on five continents, and the activities he’s experienced including whitewater rafting, fly-fishing, rock climbing, sky-diving, paragliding, backpacking, marathon running, sea kayaking, dog sledding, mountain biking and mountaineering.
Since 2004, Doyle has played a key role in Adventure Travel Trade Association’s strategic direction and development. In addition to overseeing content for www.AdventureTravelNews.com and www.Adventure.Travel, he’s primarily responsible for the ATTA’s research, marketing, public relations and communications initiatives, and directs the content and execution of ATTA’s annual Adventure Travel World Summit, regional meetings and professional development programs.
For more than 20 years, he’s offered an array of strategic public relations and business expertise in the retail, technology, sports and outdoors, adventure travel, fashion, home furnishings and non-profit sectors. He’s managed corporate reputations and developed extensive national awareness campaigns for retailers and manufacturers, supported the launch of six Internet concerns, worked extensively with trade organizations and industry analysts, launched numerous private-label product campaigns and managed consumer affairs crises.
Paul Easto – Wilderness Scotland
“Following an early career in property and environmental consultancy, Paul switched to the travel industry in 2001. Recognising the world class potential of Scotland as an adventure travel destination, he co-founded Wilderness Scotland; an inbound tour operator. From small beginnings, Wilderness Scotland has grown to establish a market leading reputation for high quality and innovative adventure experiences in the wild places of Scotland. In the 2009, Wilderness Scotland was named by National Geographic as the Best Adventure Travel Company in Europe.
The company’s commitment to sustainable tourism and wilderness conservation has also contributed to its success and recognition, including being named as the Best Green Tour Operator in the 2007 World Travel Awards. He is actively involved in the promotion of sustainable tourism at a local and strategic level, and is the sustainability champion of the Tourism Innovation Group. In recent years, he has enjoyed sharing his knowledge and experience working with and advising the public and private sector in several European destinations.
An avid skier and mountain biker he still occasionally finds himself in at the deep end, researching new routes and guiding one or two trips each year.”
Thomas Enderlin – Marketing Coordinator, Sustainable Tourism, Rainforest Alliance
Thomas Enderlin is the Marketing Coordinator for the Rainforest Alliance’s sustainable tourism program; the Rainforest Alliance’s tourism program is working to help tourism entrepreneurs conserve their environments and contribute to local community livelihoods, while improving their own triple bottom line, by actively training in sustainable practices, providing marketing support, educating, and reaching out to build a global network of leaders in sustainable travel. Thomas acts as program liaison between travel associations, tour operators and agencies, tourism boards, ministries, and other industry leaders in North America and RA’s conservation projects in Latin America, building a network of demand and awareness for the program in order to maximize the global competitiveness of suppliers and complete sustainable value chains.
Before joining the Rainforest Alliance, Thomas worked as a green coffee trader with the Mercon Group where he piloted several strategic marketing projects in Latin America and Europe, but his interest in using business as a conservation tool as well as his passion for adventure lead him to his current challenge. He also led a number of tourism marketing projects for Grupo Café Britt in Costa Rica. A marine biology & philosophy major from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, Thomas has spent the last few years living and working throughout Latin American and Europe, building a diverse background in business, language, culture, and world experience.
Myles Farnbank – Wilderness Scotland
“Myles is a highly qualified wilderness guide with many years of sea kayaking, canoeing, sailing and mountaineering in many of the world’s wildest places. In 2007, he joined Scotland’s leading adventure travel company, Wilderness Scotland as a Senior Guide, and a year later became their Director of Training. As part of his role Myles has developed their innovative Wilderness Guide Training Programme. The first scheme of its kind in the UK, the programme delivers comprehensive training to all of the company’s guides including Guiding Philosophies, Environmental Advocacy and Leave no Trace. Ultimately, Myles hopes that the programme format will be adopted by other like-minded companies across the UK and beyond.
As a Fellow of The Royal Geographical Society and a Master Educator of Leave No Trace, Myles is one of the country’s leading voices on sustainable adventure and he delivers a wide range of environmental training to the tourism industry, all over the UK”.
Judith Fein – Journalist & Author
Judith Fein, author of the much-acclaimed new book, LIFE IS A TRIP, is an award-winning international travel journalist who lives to leave. She resided for more than ten years in Europe and North Africa and has a passion for adventures that are exotic, authentic, quirky, historic and immersed in local culture.
She has written travel articles for more than 90 magazines, newspapers and internet sites, including The L.A. Times, National Geographic Traveler, The Boston Globe, Sierra, the Utne Reader, Hemispheres (United Airlines), Travel Age West Magazine (for travel agents), Robb Report, Art and Antiques, Intermezzo, Continental, The Denver Post, New Mexico Magazine, The Dallas Morning News, Executive Traveler, Dreamscapes, TravelandLeisure.com, Just For Canadian Doctors, Hadassah Magazine, Wine Enthusiast, Organic Spa, Native Peoples, Islands, MSN/UK, AAA Traveler, The Christian Science Monitor, ConsumerTraveler.com. She has appeared on the Today show and countless local and region TV and radio shows. Judith was a regular reporter for “The Savvy Traveler” on national public radio for 6 years, is travel editor of Spirituality and Health magazine and the San Diego Jewish Journal and Contributing Writer for Organic Spa magazine.
She is the editor and co-founder of the popular website www.YourLifeisaTrip.com which now has over 70 writers. She has been an acclaimed speaker for many venues like the Educational Travel Conference, Women in Communication, Northern New Mexico Press Women’s Association, A Taste of Honey (Albuquerque), the Hospice Organization, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, the Archives of the State of New Mexico.
She is the Vice President of the Travel Journalist Guild. With her photojournalist husband Paul Ross, she produces travel videos, slideshows and does travel performances. The duo teach travel writing and photography around the globe.
Neil Fiske – President & CEO Eddie Bauer LLC
Mr. Fiske has served as President and CEO of Eddie Bauer LLC since June of 2007. During his tenure he has led the effort to bring the company back to its roots and reclaim its place as an American icon.
This includes the launch of First Ascent in 2009, “the most significant line of outerwear in a generation”, built by some of the world’s best known mountain guides. First Ascent’s final testing ground was Mt. Everest in May 2009. And, as part of this, Eddie Bauer produced near real-time daily video coverage of its Return to Everest Expedition – a first in Everest’s history. Mr. Fiske has also pulled the company’s rich heritage forward bringing the quality, value, and style of its product back to the standards set by the company’s founder, Eddie Bauer, in 1920.
Mr. Fiske has over 20 years’ experience in retail and related industries. Before his role at Eddie Bauer, Mr. Fiske was chief executive officer of the Bath and Body Works, a division of Limited Brands. Prior to Limited Brands, Mr. Fiske spent fourteen years at Boston Consulting Group focused on the Consumer Goods and Retail sector.
Mr. Fiske is the author of “Trading Up: The New American Luxury,” a Business Week bestseller and winner of the American Marketing Association’s Newberry award for best marketing book. He was also recognized as “Marketer of the Year” and “Retailer of the Year” in 2004 and 2005 by Women’s Wear Daily.
Mr. Fiske is a graduate of Harvard Business School and Williams College. He is an avid skier, climber, and outdoorsman.
Nicky Fitzgerald – Luxury Adventure Travel Industry Veteran
Nicky Fitzgerald opened her first hotel in 1982 at the southernmost tip of Africa and since then has opened, operated and marketed over 60 luxury safari lodges and boutique hotels across South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Tanzania, Kenya and India.
In 1994 she was employed by Conservation Corporation Africa (CC Africa) as Operations Director and moved across to Sales and Marketing in 2001. Nicky was part of the team that grew CC Africa from 3 to 50 lodges across sub Saharan Africa, and later in India, in all the great wilderness high spots – Masai Mara, Ngorongoro Crater, Serengeti, Okavango Delta, Victoria Falls, Namib Desert, Kruger National Park, Kahna and Bandhavgarh National Parks, to name but a few. The company employed 2800 people and also ran successful tour operations business in 15 African countries. Many CC Africa lodges are award winning (Ngorongoro Crater Lodge was voted 2nd best hotel in the world by UK Conde Nast Traveller magazine in 2005) and the company has been honored with multiple prestigious ecotourism awards – including global winner of British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Award. In 2008 she was responsible for the rebranding of CC Africa to &Beyond and repositioned &Beyond’s travel business from being a tour operator to becoming a luxury travel provider specialising in fulfilling high ticket trips off the website.
Nicky departed from &Beyond in October after 15 years with the company and is currently exploring the many opportunities that the luxury travel industry offers especially in Latin America. Together with her husband Steve she is a founding partner of Pangaea Associates, a consultancy focusing on the development of ecotourism in the developing world.
Michaela S. Guzy – Vice President/Travel and Business Development, Travel + Leisure
Michaela S. Guzy is the Vice President responsible for overseeing the travel category and development of new business initiatives for the Travel + Leisure brand. With six global editions in twenty-four countries, one of the fastest growing travel content websites, and three Travel+Leisure retail outlets–Travel + Leisure is one of the most recognized travel brands in the world. In her role, Guzy oversees the brand’s business operations, including sales, new program development, and industry relations.
Over the course of her career, she has established herself as a leader in the publishing and travel industries. Guzy joined Travel + Leisure in April 2007 as Advertising Director, Travel + International. Most recently she served as the Travel & Consumer Electronics Director for Town & Country, Town & Country Travel and Town & Country Weddings, and in Condé Nast Corporate Sales. Guzy began her career in media planning at Deutsch Inc. In addition to speaking at the Adventure Travel Trade Association’s summit in Scotland, Guzy will also speak at the VisitBritain International Business Exchange and at the ABETA Summit in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
In her free time, Guzy volunteers and helps to raise funds for the New York Center for Children. She graduated from Spring Hill College with a degree in Communication Arts/Advertising and a minor in Studio Art/Graphic Design, and resides in New York City.
Travel+Leisure is published by American Express Publishing Corporation
Erika Harms – Executive Director, Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC)
Erika Harms is the Executive Director of the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) and Senior Advisor on Tourism at the United Nations Foundation. In this role, Ms. Harms manages and oversees the implementation of activities under the framework of the TSC, a cutting edge initiative that provides a clear set of standards, protocols, processes and measurements for how businesses can better the planet and practice sustainable tourism.
As Advisor on Tourism, Ms. Harms supports the UN Foundation’s tourism and conservation efforts. An experienced executive who has a background in business, government, and philanthropy, Ms. Harms has focused on creating platforms to bring together the private and public sector in support of the United Nations’ conservation priorities, and has spearheaded initiatives such as the World Heritage Alliance for Sustainable Tourism and the Partnership for Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. Each of these initiatives works with travel industry leaders including Fairmont, Mandarin Oriental, Grupo Plan, NatureAir, and Sabre/Travelocity. She joined the UN Foundation in 2001, previously serving as the Executive Director for the Sustainable Development Program.
Before joining the UN Foundation, Ms. Harms came to the United States as Deputy Chief of Mission and Consul General of the Embassy of Costa Rica in Washington, D.C. Prior to her diplomatic career, she worked for Monsanto Corporation as marketing manager for Central America and the Caribbean.
From 1989 to 1995, she developed her passion for and knowledge of environmental issues while serving as a consultant in environmental law and policies for the government of Costa Rica, the World Bank, and local and international NGOs.
Ms. Harms is a member of the WHA Governing Body, the Board of UNWTO, the Board of the International Coral Reef Action Network (ICRAN), the Board for UNDP’s Equator Initiative, and the Board of Friends of Osa. She has served as a judge for the WTTC Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, the National Geographic Geotourism Challenge, the Travel and Leisure Global Vision Awards, and Smithsonian Travel. In 2008, Conde Nast Traveler recognized Ms. Harms as a “Trail Blazer” in Sustainable Tourism.
A 1991 graduate of the University of Costa Rica’s Law School, Ms. Harms holds a degree of Attorney at Law and Notary Public. In 1995, she obtained her master’s degree in Business Administration and Natural Resource Management from INCAE, Central American Institute of Business Administration, in Alajuela, Costa Rica. Born in Costa Rica, Ms. Harms’ native languages are Spanish and German.
Christina Heyniger – President, Xola Consulting, Inc.
Christina Heyniger is the President of Xola Consulting, Inc., which she founded in 2004. Xola works with governments, entrepreneurs and community tourism interests to develop and market eco/nature/adventure tourism products and services. They have supported clients in Latin America, Asia, Europe and the United States.
Xola’s recent work includes supporting the government of Mexico to set a strategy for adventure tourism market development and promotion; strategic planning with the Department of Transportation to support rural entrepreneurs in the state of Kansas in the U.S.; supporting adventure tourism private sector development in Northern Montenegro; and designing a program to respond to the development challenges of the Sundarbans Area (one of four of India’s natural heritage sites inscribed in UNESCO’s World Heritage List) in collaboration with the World Bank and the Government of India and the Government of West Bengal.
Christina holds a BA in Communication from Cornell University, an MA in Communication, Culture and Technology from Georgetown University, and an MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from American University. Originally from Alaska, Christina now lives in San Francisco, California.
Hugh Hough – President, Green Team
Hugh is the President and founder of Green Team, a New York-based marketing communications agency with 17 years of experience and expertise in the travel and sustainability arenas. At Green Team, Hugh has helped develop effective messaging for clients like Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, National Geographic, WWF, Environmental Defense Fund, Conservation International, VisitScotland, Monaco, Dominica and Ecuador.
Hugh is a sought-after speaker on the topics of sustainable tourism, “green” marketing, corporate philanthropy, corporate social responsibility, NGO partnerships and global consumer trends. He is a frequent contributor to g-Think, as well as assorted industry publications. In 2006, Hugh was selected by the Climate Project to be one of the initial 1,000 individuals trained to present Al Gore’s presentation regarding global warming chronicled in the film, An Inconvenient Truth.
Davin Hutchins – Founder and CEO, NOMADSLAND
Davin Hutchins is a filmmaker, producer and entrepreneur specializing in news, documentaries and new media with an emphasis on international social issues, media training and online delivery platforms. He currently runs NomadsLand LLC, a video production and interactive marketing firm whose slogan is “Video Strategies for Social Change.” NomadsLand produces video campaigns for CSR departments, geotourism, social startups and nonprofits.
Hutchins is also currently the Director of IndiesLab at PBS & ITVS. In this role, Hutchins helps define PBS and ITVS strategies in building a lasting, healthy ecosystem for independent public interest documentary work in the digital age. He works with iTunes, Amazon, Hulu, SnagFilms, Netflix, PBS Video to raise profile of independent documentary titles.
Hutchins has fifteen years experience in television journalism and has worked with CNN, CNN International, BBC World, Headline News, TechTV, Witness, Internews and Huffington Post. His projects and assignments have taken him throughout the Middle East and Africa.
In 2008-09, he was Managing Producer at American News Project in Washington, D.C. He produced investigative video reports which appeared on outlets such as the Huffington Post, Al Jazeera English, CNN and center-left independent media sites. His online reports have tallied more than two million views.
Among career highlights, Hutchins directed The Art Of Flight in 2004-05, his debut feature documentary which featured at AFI Fest Hollywood, International Documentary Festival Amsterdam and Bangkok International Film Festival. It is available on Amazon, iTunes and SnagFilms. He also trained journalists in the West Bank, Syria and Jordan in 2007-09.
Hutchins holds a Masters of Arts Degree in Middle East Studies from the American University in Cairo and two Bachelors of Arts Degrees in Journalism and History from California State University: Fresno.
John Kasaona – Assistant Director, Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC)
John Kasaona is a pioneer of community-based conservation — working with the people who use and live on fragile land to enlist them in protecting it. He is a leader in the drive to reinvent conservation in Namibia — turning poachers into protectors of species. It’s a standard nature-documentary scenario: a pristine animal habitat under constant threat by the people who live there, hunting, camping, setting fires. But John Kasaona knows there is a better way to see this relationship between people and environment. As the assistant director for the Integrated Rural Development and Nature Conservation (IRDNC) , Kasaona works on ways to improve the lives of rural people in Namibia by involving them in the management of the lands they live on — and the species that live there with them.
Kasanoa’s Community-Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) program helps rural villages set up communal conservancies, which manage and use local natural resources in a sustainable manner. Essentially, it’s about restoring the balance of land and people to that of pre-colonial times, and allowing the people with the most interest in the survival of their environment to have control of it. His work was featured in the recent film Milking the Rhino.
Kurt Kutay – Founding Director & President, Wildland Adventures
Kurt Kutay has traveled and guided groups throughout the world since 1975. Kurt completed an M.S. degree in Natural Resources from the University of Michigan after conducting research in the National Parks of Costa Rica. He has also worked on international programs for the U.S. National Park Service.
Kurt has authored a chapter on adventure travel for Fodor’s guide books and written many articles on ecotourism. As a founding member of the Board of Directors for numerous professional associations and conservation organizations including The International Ecotourism Society, the International Galapagos Tour Operators Association, and the Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition of East Africa, Kurt is recognized as a pioneer in adventure travel and ecotourism.
Kristin M. Lamoureux, Ph.D. – Director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies, George Washington University
Dr. Kristin Lamoureux is the Director of the International Institute of Tourism Studies at the George Washington University, as well as an faculty member of the Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, specializing in destination management, adventure and volunteer tourism, sustainable and niche tourism development. Currently, her duties include the oversight of all of the Institute’s activities including the Professional Education Program and all grants/contracts such as the Global Sustainable Tourism Alliance.
Additionally, she is involved in several projects focusing on tourism in developing countries including Mali, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Bulgaria and Jordan. Dr. Lamoureux has served as a consultant for USAID, the World Bank, the UN World Tourism Organization, the US Environmental Protection Agency, the Ecotourism Society, and Conservation International, among others. Her primary focus areas include sustainable tourism development, destination management and tourism workforce development. She has recently been quoted in several articles pertaining to her work in volunteer tourism including Time Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler the Globe and Mail Newspaper and the Washington Times.
Dr. Lamoureux began her education in Ecuador where she lived for several years. She has an A.S. from La Universidad Catolica del Ecuador, a B.S. from Johnson and Wales University in Rhode Island, a M.T.A. (Master of Tourism Administration) and a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a focus on Strategic Management and Sustainable Tourism from The George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Liza Masias – Director for Business Development Sales & Marketing, InKaterra
Liza acts as liaison between Inkaterra and its clients and partners. She has broad experience in hotel management, conservation and fund raising, and a good understanding of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development issues.
Liza previously worked for the Four Seasons Hotel Company, Conservation International, the Brazilian Foundation for Sustainable Development, Special Events Coordinator for The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, DC, and Director for Special Events for the National Museum of the American Indian at the Smithsonian Institution, DC, and most recently Assistant Analyst for InSpire Invest in the area of Social and Environmental Corporate Responsibility, Oslo, Norway. Liza holds a Bachelor of Science in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.
Jim Mather MSP – Minister for Enterprise, Energy, and Tourism, Scotland
Born in March 1947, Jim Mather MSP was educated at Paisley Grammar, Greenock High School and Glasgow University, where he studied accountancy, law and economics.
In 1964, he became an apprentice chartered accountant, going on on to work in the computer industry, latterly running his own business, before entering politics.
From 2000 until 2004, he was the party’s National Treasurer. At the 2003 Scottish Parliament election, Jim was elected as a Highlands and Islands MSP. As Shadow Enterprise and Economy Minister, he was a member of the SNP’s Shadow Cabinet.
Mr Mather became the MSP for Argyll and Bute at the 2007 Scottish Parliament election and was appointed Minister for Enterprise, Energy and Tourism.
He has been involved in the development and promotion of the Economic Case for Independence and is a Director of Business for Scotland.
He is married with two children.
Al Merschen – Managing Partner, Myriad Marketing
Between his experience in teaching marketing at several Universities and his practical experience in marketing research and advertising, Merschen has acquired a diverse and balanced background. Al began consulting projects in 1987, with clients from a variety of industries, however it was travel that captivated his real interest.
For the past twenty years, Myriad has specialized in creating global marketing campaigns, strategic planning and public relations for a variety of airlines, tour operators and other industry leaders as well as representing nine tourist boards on five continents. Always the teacher, he also conducts marketing presentations throughout the world.
Praveen Moman – Co-founder and Managing Director, Volcanoes Safaris
Praveen Moman had the good fortune to be born in Uganda, at the heart of the African continent, in an extended family that was part of the pioneering and adventuring Asian community that was the forefront of opening up East and Central Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He grew up on safari under the big African sky before the winds of change brought his family to Britain when he was a teenager. After a career as a political and policy adviser in the British Government and the European Union, he returned to his African roots by co-founding Volcanoes Safaris in 1997 with Yusuf Mulima Mubiru.
Under his guiding vision, Volcanoes Safaris has been at the forefront of reviving tourism in Uganda and Rwanda, after the conflict in the region had settled down. Today the company is recognized for the unique great ape eco-tourism model it has created, centred around the threatened gorilla and chimpanzee populations of the western rift valley. Praveen has led the Volcanoes team that created the company’s eco-lodges near the great ape parks. The eco-lodges are sensitive to the post-conflict context, the culture of local communities and the need to use resources in a sustainable way and have empowered local people to manage them. Volcanoes Safaris is the only safari company to be a signatory to the UN Kinshasa Declaration on Saving the Great Apes.
Educated at London and Cambridge University in the UK, Praveen is a trustee of Seva Mandir UK, a respected Indian charity working with rural communities in Rajasthan, India and is a former VSO volunteer in Jamaica and a Robert Schuman Scholar. He is on the Advisory Board of the Association of Adventure Travel Trade Association in the USA and Pure Life Experiences and the Bodhi Tree Foundation.
Alexia Nestora – Marketing Consultant, Lasso Communications
Alexia Nestora is a voluntourism industry consultant, helping providers with strategy and monitoring industry trends.
Alexia previously ran the North American division of volunteer provider i-to-i and has recently helped with Mintel reports on volunteer tourism as well as articles in the WSJ, Smart Money and NY Times.
Alexia frequently speaks about voluntourism at industry conferences and loves sharing marketing tips and tricks. She is an active member of the Building Bridges Coalition, Adventure Travel Trade Association and runs an industry blog to encourage the sharing of best practice.
Dr. Wallace “J” Nichols – Co-founder, Ocean Revolution & Research Associate, California Academy of Sciences
Dr. Nichols has been a leading ocean conservationist for 15 years. Focusing on sea turtles, he has published numerous studies on sea turtle biology and conservation and led the first team to track a marine animal crossing an ocean (a loggerhead tracked 12,000 km from Baja California Sur, Mexico to Japan) in 1996-7.
His latest research with Hoyt Peckham has shown the Baja California Peninsula to have the world’s highest sea turtle bycatch rate. He is a Research Associate at the California Academy of Sciences, former President of the International Sea Turtle Society, and Eastern Pacific co-chair for the IUCN’s Marine Turtle Specialists Group. Dr. Nichols was a Fulbright Fellow, a Bradley Fellow at Duke University, and is a member of numerous advisory boards including Oceana, Sea Turtle Restoration Project, and Save Our Shores. He co-founded SEE Turtles in 2007 as a way to promote wildlife conservation through travel.
Chris Noble – General Manager, WorldNomads.com
Chris Noble is the General Manager for WorldNomads.com, a leading global travel insurance company and a co-founder of The Footprints Network, an alliance of e-commerce businesses funding community poverty alleviation around the world. Chris’ passion for travel, marketing, social media, travel philanthropy and customer engagement has helped position WorldNomads.com as one of the most innovative travel services companies online.
Chris has developed a number of successful travel programs from a documentary series currently screened on Nat Geo Adventure, travel scholarships and ambassador programs that engage an active adventure community of over 2 million travelers. When he’s not wrestling with his kids and twittering from obscure locations, he can be found travelling off the beaten track, shooting documentaries and wishing he could hold a tune in Karaoke.
Mads Pihl – Tourism Consultant, Destination Arctic Circle Region
Mads Pihl is a tourism consultant in Greenland’s Destination Arctic Circle Region, an emerging adventure destination on Greenland’s West Coast.
He was once a social anthropologist but nowadays those skills are employed in a bottom-up approach to destination management in a vast Arctic region where tourism actors are few and far apart.
Mads spends most of his time either on the road connecting with local companies, encouraging networking and collaboration or he develops an online presence for the regional brand through various social media and websites.
Colin Prior – Photographer & Publisher
Colin Prior is one of the world’s leading travel photographers with a career spanning three decades. During this time he has established himself as a leader in the publishing and in 2005 established the Colin Prior Photography School. He was commissioned by British Airways to produce their corporate calendars for a four-year period – a project that took him to over 40 countries and to some of the wildest places on earth. Colin has published numerous books and is a regular contributor to magazines and newspapers. He is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and a founding member of the US based International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP).
In a world where the Internet has become the dominant media channel, will still photography continue to play such an important role in the face of video’s popularity online? Is ‘a picture still worth a thousand words’ and can inspiring photography hold its own in the in face of emerging technology. Colin will explore ways of harnessing inspiration and aspiration to ‘sell the dream.’
Norie Quintos – Senior Editor, National Geographic Traveler
Norie Quintos is a senior editor at National Geographic Traveler magazine, based in Washington, D.C. She edits the annual Tours of a Lifetime special issue and other consumer features, as well as the popular “Smart Traveler” section of the magazine.
Previously, she wrote about consumer travel for U.S. News & World Report and was an editor at Caribbean Travel & Life magazine. She has traveled widely and was most recently in Kenya and southern Patagonia on assignment.
Chris Seek – President, Solimar International
Chris Seek is president of Solimar International and has over 10 years of experience in marketing and sustainable tourism development. Chris founded Solimar in 2002 after traveling 6 months through Latin America providing digital marketing services to more then 200 small tourism enterprises in 11 different countries. Over the last 7 years with Solimar, Chris has applied his professional background in marketing and corporate social responsibility with his own personal travel experiences (more then 45 countries) to design sustainable tourism development strategies that provide tangible results to both our clients and targeted beneficiaries.
Prior to working in tourism, Chris worked as a marketing professional for Fortune 500 clients including Heineken, Sony, Perrier, GE, and others. Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications form Wake Forest University and a Masters of Business Administration from American University with concentrations in Sustainable Destination Management and Marketing.
Federico Solano – Marketing Manager Europe, Sustainable Tourism, Rainforest Alliance
Federico Solano has worked in the tourism industry since 1994 focusing in the marketing field in different areas such as hospitality, airlines, travel agencies and car rentals. He joined the Rainforest Alliance ´s Sustainable Tourism program in 2004.
During his time in the Rainforest Alliance, Solano has coordinated projects in several Latin American, North American and European countries, supporting sustainable tourism by helping offer and demand to adopt responsible practices towards the environment and local communities. His dedication in promoting sustainable tourism to consumers and the tourism industry has led to multiple strategic alliances with local governments, international organizations and private industry.
Federico holds a Masters in Business Management from the Universidad Fidelitas de Costa Rica and a Masters in Green Marketing from the Instituto Ambientum de Madrid.
Marcus Shapiro – Founder, Fit for Trips
Marcus will be the instructor for the Fit for Trips – Summit Fitness sessions on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday during the Summit.
Marcus Shapiro is the founder Fit for Trips. His company offers tour operators a turn-key system that allows them to offer clients pre-departure trip-specific fitness programs. Clients access their fitness programs online from anywhere around the world, from any computer. Fit for Trips has evolved over the past year and is now beginning to see partner tour operators use Fit for Trips as a booking tool.
Well before Marcus attended his first Adventure Travel World Summit in Seattle back in 2006, he and his wife, Pam, were adventurers themselves. They traveled with the likes of Wilderness Travel and Myths and Mountains. Their adventures led them to East Africa, French Polynesia, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands. Additionally, Marcus has explored both ends of the country by bike including the backwoods of Montana and the vast singletrack of Moab, Utah as well as trails in the North Georgia mountains and Tsali, North Carolina.
Traveling came to a halt in 2003 when his first son was born. Marcus still found a way to fulfill his love of Adventure Travel, though this time from the supply side. Hence Fit for Trips was conceived to give travelers a trusted resource for shaping up to get the best opportunity to enjoy all of the incredible adventure itineraries just as he had. This can be attributed to a healthy lifestyle and being in shape. And, of course, although it need not be mentioned the incredible tour operators crafting amazing experiences for people to enjoy, make the experience complete. Fit for Trips did a soft launch with Thomson Safaris in June of 2009 and that’s when things got rolling.
Marcus has been in the fitness industry since 1993 as a personal fitness trainer. Marcus runs Fit for Trips and continues to personal train and field test exercises and programs used with Fit for Trips clients. Marcus received his BS in Athletic Training and shortly after earned his Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) designation thru the National Strength and Conditioning Association. Marcus has also earned the trust of his colleagues in physical therapy who refer to him their discharged patients. His many years of fitness experience and adventure travel allow him to confidently extend his knowledge to all adventure travelers through Fit for Trips.
Marcus’ interests and experience go way beyond the world’s highest peaks. He is also an active father of two boys, the inventor of a portable dry-land training device for paddlers and visionary of virtual software for personal training used to support Fit for Trips clients.
Keith W. Sproule – Tourism Advisor, WWF-Namibia
Keith Sproule is the Tourism Advisor to the WWF-Namibia program office, focused on development of the Communal Conservancy Tourism Sector and support for joint-venture (JV) lodge and campgrounds in the communal conservancies.
A hands-on travel and tourism industry professional, Keith has been an advisor on ecotourism policy and planning to governments on three continents. He has worked and traveled in over 105 countries, including many of the premier ecotourism destinations around the world. He has been a long-term contract consultant with private tourism investment projects, international development banks and government agencies in Egypt, Belize, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Cyprus among other destinations.
Keith served two terms as Chairman of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES), and is currently a board member of Sustainable Travel International (STI) and the Charture Institute. He has been a field judge for the World Travel and Tourism Council’s Tourism for Tomorrow Awards. He is an owner and managing director of the Bentwood Inn, a luxury lodge in Jackson Hole, WY.
John Sterling – Executive Director, The Conservation Alliance
John Sterling has spent the past 17 years in the conservation field, and has been involved with The Conservation Alliance since 1996. The Conservation Alliance is a group of 170 outdoor industry companies that work together to protect threatened wild places throughout North America. John was Director of Environmental Programs at Patagonia, Inc. until 2002, and represented the company on the Alliance board.
He left Patagonia to launch a career to help businesses engage in meaningful conservation work. John was hired as Executive Director in 2005, and has helped The Conservation Alliance build its membership and profile within the outdoor industry. Prior to his time at Patagonia, John was a staffer at Earth Island Institute. He serves on the boards of the Oregon Natural Desert Association, based in Bend, Oregon. John is an avid climber, telemark skier, and backpacker, and an aspiring birder. He can be found most mornings walking along the Deschutes River with his daughter, Lily and son, Ian.
Shannon Stowell – President, Adventure Travel Trade Association
Shannon is President of the Adventure Travel Trade Association. Under his leadership, the organization has grown into the largest international association of adventure travel companies with more than 600 members and dozens of tourism boards, major corporations and influential individuals helping propel industry initiatives forward.
His education and early profession were spent in environmental chemistry and biology including working for America’s National Marine Fisheries Service and then 8 years with an environmental testing firm, working on soil and groundwater cleanup projects around the Pacific Rim. He then co-founded www.Altrec.com, an outdoor and adventure travel gear retailer. He directed the company’s business development, affiliate marketing and non-profit relations for six years.
Committed to non-profit endeavors, Shannon served for four years on the Board of the American Hiking Society and works with his city’s food bank.
Shannon also wrote an outdoor column for a Washington newspaper and co-authored a book in 2008 published by National Geographic on adventure travel: Riding the Hulahula to the Arctic Ocean- A guide to 50 Extraordinary Adventures. He has studied Mandarin Chinese and has traveled the globe extensively speaking on adventure tourism and sustainability practices.
Dr. Sakena Yacoobi – Executive Director, Afghan Institute of Learning
Dr. Sakena Yacoobi is Executive Director of the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), an Afghan women-led NGO she founded in 1995. Established to provide teacher training, education and health services to women and children, over 7 million have benefited from AIL’s programs to date. Sakena’s vision of a healthier Afghanistan evolved after watching her mother give birth to 15 children, only to have 5 children survive. Under Sakena’s leadership, AIL has established itself as a visionary organization which works at the grassroots level and empowers women and communities to bring education and health services to poor rural and urban girls and women, as well as other disenfranchised Afghans. AIL was the first organization to offer human rights and leadership training to Afghan women in the 1990s. AIL supported 80 underground home schools for 3000 girls in Afghanistan during the Taliban regime. AIL was first to open Women’s Learning Centers for Afghan women—a concept now copied by many organizations throughout Afghanistan. Dr. Yacoobi has received multiple recognition-of-service awards in Afghanistan.
Internationally, her awards include:
- 2004 Women’s Rights Prize of the Peter Gruber Foundation.
- 2006 Senior Ashoka Fellow—first Ashoka Fellow from Afghanistan
- 2006 Skoll Social Entreprenuer
- 2007 Gleitsman International Activist Award
- 2009 UNFPA Board of Advocates Award
- 2009 Henry R. Kravis Award for Leadership
Sakena was among 1,000 women nominated to receive the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. Sakena has received honorary doctorates from the University of the Pacific and Loma Linda University for her work in human rights and for her distinguished contribution to society. Dr. Yacoobi is on the boards of Global Fund for Women and Creating Hope International and is an advisor to Women’s Learning Partnership and the Peter and Patricia Gruber Foundation.
Mei Zhang – Founder, WildChina
Mei Zhang is Founder of WildChina, a premium sustainable travel company offering distinctive, ecologically sensitive journeys to all corners of China. A native of Yunnan province in southwest China, Mei earned her MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS) and worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company until she found her true passion in sustainable travel.
Mei left a management consulting career to start WildChina in 2000, inspired by the clash she perceived between economic development and conservation of both nature and culture in Yunnan. She strongly believed that there was a for-profit solution to this: providing sophisticated interpretation of Chinese culture and nature, and therefore creating an experiential travel that was unheard of in China. She built WildChina on the mission to assist travelers to experience China differently.
From the start, WildChina involved local stakeholders to develop grassroots eco-tourism programs, such as helping a local village lodge owner turn his property into an eco-lodge that caters to international guests, from assisting with menu development to improvements on lodging and bedding. WildChina also pioneered environmentally friendly backpacking journeys, a first in China. By using solar power, minimizing waste and hiring and training local crews to set up tents and prepare gourmet meals, WildChina ensures that clients travel in style without damaging the environment.
Together with the current CEO Albert Ng, Mei has transformed WildChina, with offices in Beijing, Hong Kong and the United States, into an award-winning business: National Geographic Adventure – “Best Adventure Travel Company on Earth;” National Geographic Traveler – “Tours of a Lifetime;” Travel & Leisure – “A list Agent for China.” The WildChina story has been covered by CNN, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, TIME and more.
Realizing that WildChina alone cannot change the industry, Mei makes time to speak at various forums and conferences about eco-tourism and sustainable tourism in China. She returns to Harvard each spring to present the case study that HBS wrote on WildChina, teaching MBA students that one can be a successful entrepreneur in the sustainable travel business.
