Advisory Committee – ATWS 2011

Scott Adams – Founder & President, Birchbark Media

Scott Adams has been helping to market and develop outdoor tourism businesses for ten years now. His passion for travel experiences and entrepreneurial determination have allowed him to excel in the field of marketing and media relations for the tourism industry. Scott has also grown a solid reputation within the tourism industry through his blended use of new media, search engine optimization and web technologies. He has been a web-marketing advisor, organized training workshops, produced travel videos, taught college level marketing and ran successful online and offline media campaigns.

As founder and president of Birchbark Media, Scott has developed his business to focus on providing the tourism industry with the right content – web copy, videos, advertising campaigns, press releases, and social media – to capture the interest of consumers. He has also focused much of his energy on providing the tourism industry with the skills and knowledge needed to create their own content. Scott often presents at conferences, meetings, universities as well as facilitating training workshops for business owners and marketers.

Scott is currently on the board of directors for the Ontario Ecotourism Society and can often be found wondering the Canadian wilderness, paddle and camera in hand.

Dan Austin – Director, Austin-Lehman Adventures

Born and bred into the outdoor life in the hills of California, Dan ignited his passion for adventure travel in 1976 as partner of a rafting company in the Pacific Northwest. His travels soon took him to Alaska, where he owned and operated a mid-size construction company. Here he gained valuable experience working out difficult logistics and long-distance problem solving. His company completed projects from the most remote Alaskan village to the military bases of Hawaii and The Azores.

Looking for a new challenge and having experienced small group adventure travel as a guest, Dan and a partnership group bought Backcountry Tours of Bozeman, Montana in 1994. Established a decade earlier, Backcountry Tours was a well recognized purveyor of small group, multisport tours throughout the western United States. The foundation was laid.

The purchase of Backcountry turned out to be the catalyst for things to come. In 2000 Dan partnered up with retired industrialist and financier Paul Lehman and changed the name to Austin-Lehman Adventures.

As fulltime Director, Dan was responsible for growing the brand and developing Austin-Lehman Adventures into a respected and recognized player in the international travel marketplace.

2008 saw significant expansion at ALA with the purchase of Euro-Bike and Walking Tours, who in 1974 became the first U.S. bike tour company to establish operations in Europe. The acquisition successfully added 34 years of bike tour expertise and legacy to the Austin-Lehman brand.

In 2009 Dan’s life passion and hard work was richly rewarded when his company was named the “Best Tour Operator in the World” by Travel + Leisure magazine readers. The fall of 2010 saw yet another well earned opportunity come Dan’s way as he and his wife Carol were fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to purchase 100% of Austin Lehman Adventures. His partner Paul wanted a chance to pursue more personal adventures in his life.

Success to Dan has always meant more than accomplishments in the business world. In 2010 Dan found a way to pay it forward and leverage his success for the good of others. He took on a new challenge and established a Bicycles for Humanity (B4H) chapter in Billings, Montana. Starting with 125 of his own bikes, Dan, his family and friends collected over 200 additional donated bikes and shipped them along with a container full of tools and school supplies to the remote village of Ngoma, Namibia. Dan and his son Andy were there for the unveiling and helped establish B4H’s 26th Bicycle Empowerment Center by turning the container into an active “Bike Shop” while training a crew of locals on to how to operate and manage it. For 2011 and beyond, Bicycles for Humanity Montana will continue its efforts to gather and ship donated bicycles to Africa.

Dan lives in Billings, Montana with his wife Carol and two very active young adults, Kasey and Andy. When not in the office managing Austin-Lehman Adventures’ day to day business, the Austin’s are out doing what you would expect; traveling the world, biking, hiking, fishing, climbing and exploring new destinations. Active in his own community as well, Dan serves as a member of the Custer County Leadership Committee while also chairing a committee of over 100 locals as they set out to make Billings a more “Bicycle Friendly” community by developing and maintaining and extensive network of new and existing bike trails.

Stephen Austin – Executive Marketing Director, CPTM (PROMTOUR – Mexico Tourism Board)

Born and raised in Mexico City, Stephen has spent the vast majority of his life in Mexico. After high school, he ventured to the Southeast of the U.S. to Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina and then completed an AB degree in History at Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA. His first professional adventure was working for the Agency for International Development (AID), which afforded him the opportunity to travel extensively throughout Mexico—visiting many of the lesser known nooks and crannies of this amazing country.

Two years later, he returned to the U.S. to earn his Master´s Degree in International Business from Columbia University in New York City. Since then, he has been back in Mexico working for a variety a companies in different business´ various marketing and commercial roles: Baxter Healthcare, Coca-Cola Femsa (Soft Drinks), Diageo (Spirits), Western Union (Financial Services) and now, travel, at the Mexico Tourism Board.

Stephen has a great passion for travel, and a great desire to help make adventure travel one of the central features of Mexico tourism, now and in the future, not only because it represents a great business opportunity, but because it has so many additional benefits in terms of sustainability and community development. He’s an avid traveler, and the last few years he has made adventure travel his primary modus of travel along with his twin boys Stephen and Patrick (11). Their most recent adventure trips have been to Veracruz on the Gulf Coast of Mexico, Puerto Vallarta and Costa Rica.

Ajeet Bajaj – Managing Director, Snow Leopard Adventures Pvt. Ltd.

Ajeet Bajaj is an explorer, adventurer and a professional in the field of adventure tourism. Ajeet proudly unfurled the Indian flag at the Geographical South Pole on the Indian Republic Day, 2007 making him the first Indian to ski to both the North Pole and the South Pole. He reached the North Pole on April, 26, 2006 becoming the first Indian to do so. He is also one of the few people on Earth to have skied to both ends of the planet.

Enduring temperatures that went below minus 70 degrees Celsius, crossing 50-feet high ridges of ice, handling open icy water leads and problems arising out of shifting Polar ice, crossing crevasses, tackling blizzards and wind speeds exceeding 60 km per hour, Ajeet had to face some of the most extreme conditions our planet has to offer. Ajeet was officially given our national flag at a ceremony in South Block prior to his departure for both the expeditions.

With over 25 years of experience in adventure sports, Ajeet is the first Asian to have rafted and kayaked some of the most challenging rivers in the world in North America (Colorado & Alsek rivers in USA and Ottawa river in Canada), South America (the upper Amazon river), Europe (Choruh river in Turkey and Chuya & Katun rivers in Russia), Asia (rivers in Nepal, Thailand & Srilanka), Australia (Tully, Barron and N. Johnston rivers) and Africa (Zambezi river). Ajeet has also led several demanding first descent rafting and kayaking expeditions on rivers in the Indian Himalayas. Ajeet is also regarded as the pioneer of sea kayaking in India and has undertaken expeditions to Greenland, Australia, Canada, Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.

Ajeet has won a bronze medal in the national games for kayaking and one silver and two bronze medals in international rafting competitions in Switzerland and Siberia, Russia. He captained an international team for world white water championships in Turkey.

Ajeet Bajaj is a member of the National Tourism Advisory Council and has recently completed his second term as President of the Adventure Tour Operators Association of India. He chaired Sub-Committee on Adventure, Sustainable, Wildlife and Eco-tourism for 11th plan and the committee for camping & caravan tourism policies for Ministry of Tourism, Government of India. Ajeet is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, UK and is the Managing Director, Snow Leopard Adventures P. Ltd. Hall of Fame award for Mr. Ajeet Bajaj for promoting best practices in Adventure Tourism in India in 2010 at annual convention of Adventure Tour Association of India.

Dr. Kelly S. Bricker – Associate Professor, University of Utah

Dr. Bricker is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Utah in Parks, Recreation, and Tourism, with an emphasis on sustainable tourism management. She also works part-time as a Senior Research Scientist – Recreation with HDR|DTA located in Sacramento, California. With her husband Nathan Bricker, and OARS colleague George Wendt, they developed an ecotourism whitewater and sea kayaking operation called Rivers Fiji, which has been operating now since 1998. Since 1986, Kelly has worked in tourism as a guide, manager, and director in international adventure travel with Sobek Expeditions and World Heritage Travel Group.

She is currently the Chair of the Board of The International Ecotourism Society, and serves as Chair of the Board for the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. Kelly completed her Ph.D. research with the Pennsylvania State University, where she specialized in sustainable tourism and natural resource management. She has special research and teaching interest in ecotourism, sense of place, natural resource management, and the environmental and social impacts of tourism. She has conducted research on ecotourism certification and management, tourism and quality of life, heritage tourism, social impacts of tourism, and impacts on natural resource tourism environments. She has presented papers on issues in sustainable tourism certification, ecotourism management, sense of place, and natural resource management. She has published articles on sense of place and whitewater recreationists, perceptions of incentive travelers, ecotourism, certification and policy in tourism, sustainable tourism, and health and tourism in communities.

William L. Bryan, Jr., Ph.D – Co-founder and Chairman, Off the Beaten Path

Bill Bryan holds a Ph.D. in resource planning and conservation from the University of Michigan. He was the Founder and Executive Director of the Northern Rockies Action Group, providing technical organizational assistance for cause-oriented nonprofits in the Rocky Mountain West from 1973-1982.

Currently, Bill is the co-founder and executive director of the Rural Landscape Institute: A Catalyst for Food and Agricultural Integrity in the American West, whose mission is to increase the economic viability of farms and ranches, thereby enhancing the health of the land, open space and rural communities. Creating and implementing a seven-state cooperative marketing association, booking service and resource center for agritourism suppliers and customers is of highest priority for the Institute. They operate as a non-profit support group for agricultural organizations and interests in the region.

Bill is also the Chairman of Off the Beaten Path, LLC, a premier travel planning service specializing in planning highly personalized trips for over 21 years to the Rocky Mountain West, Desert Southwest, Alaska and Patagonia. He is the senior author of Sharing Your Home on the Range, a “how to” book for hospitality providers in farm and recreation (published 1991) and is the author of Montana Indians: Yesterday and Today, published in 1986 and again in 1996.

Bill also is a founding member and presently vice chairman of the Adventure Collection, a ten member marketing and sharing best practices association in adventure travel. Bill is immediate past-President of the Board of the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman and serves on nine boards and planning councils on a regional and national level. For the last eighteen years, he has consulted with over 1,000 family farmers and ranchers in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Arizona on farm and ranch recreation. He also has been a project director for two federally-funded grants related to farm and ranch recreation directed by the Extension Service at the University of Wyoming.

Bill is asked on a regular basis to speak on tourism trends, particularly as they relate to custom travel and adventure travel in rural areas of North America. Bill also acts as a consultant to tourism providers and natural resource organizations specializing in the areas of marketing, pricing, site assessment, and appropriate tourism practices, as well as national tourism trends and how they impact the future in tourism particularly in the regions in which Off the Beaten Path operates.

Tullia Caballero – Director, S-cape Travel

Tullia Caballero began her adventure travel career working in Nepal’s Chitwan National Park as a young traveler, after years of accompanying her Spanish father on business travel to many developing countries, assessing development projects for Rome based UNFAO and the World Bank. With an Italian mother and an Argentinean husband, Tullia’s personal travels have taken her around the world many times. Upon her return from Nepal to Italy in 1991, her adopted home after childhood years in Peru, the U.K., Italy and France, she graduated as an Interpreter and translator.

But, preferring the outdoors, she worked several year as a tour leader and then for a tour operator where she designed some of the first nature and wildlife observation tourism programs for the World Wildlife Fund’s Italian “Nature Reserves” before joining the largest Dutch adventure company, SNP, as Italy product manager. This position with one of the largest European companies led to the creation of an Italian company to manage all of SNP’s Italian travel—S-cape Travel—which today is a leading independent Italian adventure travel tour operator with more than 100 itineraries available throughout Italy.

Instrumental not only in managing her own company, Tullia’s passion for adventure travel and the outdoors has led S-cape Travel to be nominated as one of the tour operator partners in Europe’s “PanParks Foundation,” a network of parks throughout Europe aiming to protect and raise awareness of European wilderness. Her enthusiasm for the adventure travel industry was recently re-ignited by membership in ATTA and participation at Scotland’s ATWS, leading her to be a founder in the new movement to create an association in Italy of active travel tour operators.

Maryann Fernandez – Founder & President – Philanthropy Indaba

Maryann Fernandez leads high net worth individuals and families out of the boardroom and into the field. As Founder & President of Philanthropy Indaba, a unique consultancy that develops customized philanthropic journeys and opportunities for learning and service, Maryann brings donors closer to a deeper exploration and understanding of themselves, each other, and the world in which we live. Through a thoughtful and curated approach to travel and the exploration of nature and humanity, Philanthropy Indaba nurtures its clients’ ability to sharpen the focus of their philanthropy, and strengthen the impact of their engagement at both at home and abroad. Maryann’s signature approach is to focus on individually tailored outcomes, as well as expertly facilitated discussions on the ground. Philanthropy Indaba provides access to thought leaders and multiple stakeholders, as well as unique opportunities to identify synergies with and between NGOs in the field seeking to collaborate with others.

Maryann was a strategic consultant to Educate Girls Globally, an organization which utilizes community empowerment and partnerships with Indian state governments to get and keep girls in school. She has provided consulting services to world-renown non-profit, Ashoka, Innovators for the Public, a 25+ year old organization that has funded over 1,800 social entrepreneurs worldwide. Her primary responsibilities included program development, recruitment of new families through institutional partnerships, and marketing. Events featured prominent speakers including Nobel Peace Laureate Elie Wiesel, Dr. Jeffrey Sachs, The Earth Institute, Queen Noor, Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, and Bill Moyers.

In 2000, Maryann co-founded Shaking the Tree Foundation (STT), whose mission is to use storytelling to positively transform the individual’s relationship to wealth, family and society. She also served as Vice President, Family Education Services and Senior Marketing Representative at the Harris Private Bank, Chicago. Maryann also served as a judge for the 2008, 2009 & 2010 New York University Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation Program in Social Entrepreneurship and is on the Advisory Boards for the Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy Program, American College, and The Global Fellows in Social Enterprise. She is currently a mentor for 2010 Global Teen Leaders at Three Dot Dash. Access Maryann’s full biography.

Lauren Hefferon – Director & Founder, Ciclismo Classico

Director and CEB (Chief Executive Biker) Lauren Hefferon founded Ciclismo Classico in 1988 with a dream to combine her passion for bicycling, her Italian roots, the visual arts and outdoor education into a lifelong, lifestyle business. Since then her dream has soared and Ciclismo Classico has won many awards including National Geographic’s 50 Tours of Lifetime, Outside Magazine Trip of the Year and most recently Boston Business Journal’s prestigious Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts. The 50 magical worldwide bicycle vacations she and her talented team have created consistently reflect her dedication to transforming, educating and entertaining the sophisticated active traveler.

Lauren is involved with all aspects of Ciclismo Classico, from team development and tour leader training to marketing and company strategy. With the talent, experience and knowledge of her R&D team, Lauren helps create all of Ciclismo Classico’s cycling itineraries based on her 30 years of bicycle travel experience that includes leading a seven-week teenage bike camping tour from Rome to London, a three month solo bike tour through Europe and over 15,000 miles of racing and bike touring throughout Italy.

Travel and adventure is in her blood. While studying anthropology at Cornell University, Lauren traveled to the Andes on an 6-week Earthwatch research scholarship. After graduating she continued her world travels on a Rotary Scholarship to study painting and sculpture in Italy. What began as a year abroad, quickly evolved into a three-year sojourn and an incurable passion for a La Bella Italia. While living in Florence, she joined a local cycling club and spent most of her time racing and touring around the Italian countryside. She researched her Italian roots in the Marche region and discovered dozens of her “nonna” Beatrice Fracassini’s clan.

Mamma to 13 year old Lorenzo, 11-year old Valentina and 8 year-old Luca Dante Lauren is a devoted mother, incurable traveler and cycling advocate. Lauren’s life and politics revolve around her passion for two-wheeled travel. She commutes almost everywhere by bike, and generously supports and is actively involved with many cycling organizations including Rails to Trails, Bikes Belong, Safe Routes to School, Cycle Kids and the Pan Mass Challenge. She is on the board of Mass Bike Coalition, Eastern Mass Bill Koch Cross Country Ski Team and East Arlington Livable Streets. In her “free” time she loves yoga, cross country skiing, photography and strumming Paul Simon tunes on the guitar.

Alex Herrmann – Director Americas, Switzerland Tourism

Alex Herrmann is an experienced marketing and communications professional with more than 15 years of professional and leadership experience in the travel industry as well as information technology and IT services.

Responsible for Switzerland Tourism in the U.S. and Canada since 2007, he recently took on the additional responsibility for Brazil as Director Americas. Switzerland Tourism is the national destination marketing organization of and promotes Switzerland as a travel, vacation and convention destination. A strong focus of the marketing activities is on adventure travel, as Switzerland – the original travel destination with 150 years of adventure travel – offers the leisure and adventure traveler a wealth of experiences.

In his role, Alex is a member of the extended Executive Board of Switzerland Tourism. He is also a Board Member of the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce, New York Chapter, and a member of the Executive Committee of the European Travel Commission ETC, U.S. Operations Group.

Prior to joining Switzerland Tourism, Alex spent more than eight years with International Business Machines IBM, where he had a number of positions in Corporate Communications, both in the U.S. and Switzerland.

Alex has a B.A. and M.A. in Business Administration and Economics from the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland, and he’s certified by the Swiss Public Relations Institute. In his spare time, he likes to ride his bicycle in New York and hike in the Swiss mountains.

Andy Levine – President and Founder, DuVine Adventures

A web site, a glass of wine and a passion for adventure – that’s where it all began for Andy Levine, President and Founder of DuVine Adventures. The day after graduating from the University of Denver in 1992, he headed to France to hit the open road with his bike and a desire to live the good life. After leading bike trips in France, Switzerland, and Italy, he decided that he could create his own high-quality bike trip that combined four essential ingredients: biking, drinking, eating, and sleeping.

And so, DuVine Adventures was created in Andy’s kitchen one evening in 1994. The first trip had just two people from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan who he led through Burgundy, France. After that, the phones never stopped ringing. More than 16 years later, with multiple trips operating in more than 16 countries worldwide, a fleet of professional trained guides, accolades and awards from prestigious publications like National Geographic Adventurer and Departures Magazine…the mission has never changed – create trips on memories not margins, and believe in DuVine style. DuVine has offices in Boston, France, Italy and Sao Paolo Brazil. Andy motto is: “figure it out and blow them away! ”

Chris Noble – General Manager, WorldNomads.com

Chris Noble is the General Manager for WorldNomads.com, a leading global travel insurance company for independent and adventurous travellers. He is also the co-founder of The Footprints Network, an alliance of e-commerce businesses working with global NGOs and grassroots organizations to fund community poverty-alleviation projects around the world.

Chris’ passion for adventure travel, marketing, social media, travel philanthropy and customer engagement has helped position WorldNomads.com at the forefront of online travel services companies. 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.

Monica Malpezzi Price – Director of International Operations, ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours

Monica is co-owner and Director of International Operations at ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours, a family business born in 1972 as the first U.S.-based tour operator to offer international bicycle trips, specifically in Italy where Monica’s mother and company co-founder is from. One of the first second-generation adventure travel business owners, Monica has grown up in the adventure travel industry and has been leading bicycle tours in France and Italy since the age of 15.

While most of her schooling (B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Oregon and M.S. in Development Management from American University, Washington D.C.) was in the United States, the family business created opportunities to return to Italy every summer. Monica continues to live a trans-Atlantic life between the U.S. and Europe, although now spends most of her time in the small town of Faenza in north-central Italy near the ExperiencePlus! European headquarters. She has traveled all over the world (by bicycle and not!) and has designed bicycle tours several European countries such as Estonia, Slovakia, France, Croatia, Italy, Scotland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Turkey, and Czech Republic, as well as Argentina and Chile.

Monica also is the co-owner and manager of an Italian bicycle rental and service company, BikesPlus, providing quality bicycle rentals and bicycle-related tourism services to individuals and other tour operators throughout Europe. Since buying ExperiencePlus! Bicycle Tours from their parents with her sister in 2008, Monica has been active in meeting and bringing together the European active travel industry, networking with adventure travel business owners from several European countries and currently working with a few other leaders in Italy to create an Italian active travel association. A passionate advocate of adventure travel, Monica’s studies in International Development at American University confirmed the idea that responsible and ethical tourism is an ideal way to bring different cultures and people together. She sees adventure travel as a perfect example of responsible tourism with its complete immersion in a destination’s culture and nature.

John Sheppard – Director, Outdoor Programs & Outreach, REI – Recreational Equipment Inc.

John Sheppard has been with REI, the nation’s largest consumer co-operative and a leading outdoor retailer, for twenty years and has held several leadership roles across the organization. For the past six years John has led REI’s global adventure travel and outdoor education division. REI Adventures operates over 150 programs across all seven continents and in over 40 countries. REI Outdoor School instructs tens of thousands of would-be adventures every year; giving them the skills and confidence to be active in the outdoors. John also oversees REI’s outreach programs, which work with community organizations and volunteers across the nation to encourage and enable stewardship of our recreation lands and introduce families and youth to the wonders of the outdoors. John earned an MBA from the University of Washington with an emphasis in marketplace strategy and entrepreneurship. He is active in the local community, helping several non-profits through transitions while serving as a board member. He currently sits on the board of directors of Salish Sea Expeditions. John has been an active participant in the ATTA since early 2005.

Ben W. Sherman – President- Medicine Root, Inc.

Ben Sherman is a member of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux) Nation in South Dakota, USA. He was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Sherman is the co-founder and former Chairman of the Western American Indian Chamber in Denver, Colorado, serving for eighteen years. The Chamber is a nonprofit organization supporting Indian business and economic development throughout the United States. The centerpiece project for several years was national American Indian tourism development.

Sherman has been a national leader in the development of American Indian tourism efforts in the United States. He has organized and presided over numerous American Indian tourism development conferences, workshops and trade shows. He started the Native Tourism Alliance, an initiative of American Indian and non-Indian individuals, corporations, American Indian tribes and associations with interests in creating a viable Indigenous tourism industry in the United States. He is a co-founder of the American Indian/Alaska Native Tourism Association.

He developed and published the first-ever online directory of Indigenous tourism attractions in the United States at www.nativetourism.org. The directory was funded and supported by the American Express Company, Business Enterprises for Sustainable Travel (BEST), The Conference Board, World Travel & Tourism Council, and the University of Colorado.

Sherman is a former Vice Chairman of Business Enterprises for Sustainable Tourism (BEST). BEST seeks to encourage the widespread incorporation of sustainable practices into the core business functions of companies in the travel and tourism industry. Sherman is one of the organizers of a worldwide community tourism summit hosted by BEST, with participation from representatives from around the globe.

Sherman has spoken and written on numerous occasions on the subject of American Indian tourism. He has worked to create and promote a set of values for American Indian tourism that include cultural preservation, environmental stewardship and community development. He created the NTA Trust Awards to recognize exemplary Indigenous tourism leaders and enterprises.

Sherman has made presentations and conducted workshops for a variety of groups in the United States and Europe about Indigenous history, culture and art, sustainable tourism development, community planning, incorporating tribal values into business development, natural plants and medicines, traditional star knowledge and other related subjects.

Sherman is the president of Medicine Root, Inc., a private Colorado corporation specializing in Indian business development, tourism and arts projects. The company organized and conducted tours in various regions of the United States, utilizing the services of Native people and enterprises for lodging, food, tours guides, and outdoor recreation.

Jens Thraenhart – Co-founder and President – Dragon Trail

Besides global e-strategy consulting with a focus on social media, online branding, and electronic distribution, Jens is currently the co-founder and President of Dragon Trail, a new digital marketing and travel technology company that assists travel organizations to market to affluent Chinese consumers via innovative influencer and viral marketing techniques leveraging technology, Internet, and social media channels. He also founded ChinaTravelTrends.com, a resource portal to educate the tourism industry about the potential of the Chinese travel market – primarily outbound.

A dual German and Canadian citizen, educated at Cornell University with a Masters of Management in Hospitality, and regarded as a thought-leader and innovator by his peers, he was recognized as one of the travel industry’s top 100 rising stars by Travel Agent Magazine in 2003, and was listed as one of the 25 Most Extraordinary Sales and Marketing Minds in Hospitality and Travel in 2004 and 2005. Most recently Jens was in charge of E-Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, and Campaign Management at the Canadian Tourism Commission, as Executive Director of Marketing Strategy. Previously, he was head of Internet Strategy at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, and Executive Director of Marketing Strategy for Fairmont’s Residence Club division.

Bruno Giesemann Eversbusch – Diversificados Argovia S.A de C.V, Argovia Finca Resort

Born in 1963, German descendant Bruno Giesemann is now the Mexican 4th generation of the family running the coffee business under the roof of Finca Argovia. Spanish as maternal language, German and English as a consequence of blood and schooling, he receives at the age of 25 his degree as an Agronomic Engineer, and begins his journey through the coffee plantation and traditions along with his father.

Due to the fall of the international coffee prices, in the late 80´s, through his vision he started a new line of business: tropical flowers and foliages.

Then in the year 2000, Argovia writes another page in its history by opening a small hotel as another division, with the main purpose of letting people know the hard work involved in coffee production, and to realize the value of it through its conservation importance, creating a special combination.

Always looking on how to add more value and recognition towards sustainable and diversified agriculture, the plantation is certified by Rain Forest Alliance and since 2003 has had the distinction of it. With this certification Mr. Giesemann manages to achieve other certifications like USDA NOP, Organic Farming, JAS, and more recently the bird friendly certification.

The Finca also has a hand craft alimentary business products besides the coffee, like marmalades, chilies, vanilla, cardamom and many others. All this with natural organic products from the finca.
Father of 2 kids, (which by the way are the ones who ignite the most important change of view in farming and managing towards a responsible future), along with his wife, run today one of the most successful business in Tapachula Chiapas, and invite with open hands to experience the celebration of the senses.