See
the Contributors to each of the
Featured Programs
below :::
Chief
Executive Officer, AdventureLink, Inc.
As Chief Executive Officer of
AdventureLink,
Inc., Jeff
oversees corporate strategy, sales, marketing,
technology, product development, operations,
customer care, financial management, human resources
and investor relations.
Jeff joins AdventureLink from Yahoo!, were he was
Senior Vice President, Audience Experiences for
Yahoo! North America. In this role Dossett was
responsible for editorial, content and programming
of all consumer "touch-points" including Yahoo!'s
industry-leading media, communications and community
products and services in the United States and
Canada. Prior to joining Yahoo!, Dossett was
executive producer and general manager of the MSN
Media Network in the United States, providing
overall leadership for audience, content and
programming strategy and execution. Dossett was
recently named to The Hollywood Reporter’s “Digital
Power 2009:
The top 50 executives leading the charge in
new-media content”.
Dossett joined Microsoft in 1991 as Director of
Sales and served in a variety of senior sales and
marketing roles including general manager of
Microsoft’s Canadian subsidiary. In 1997, he
transferred to Microsoft’s Redmond, Washington
headquarters. At this time, he became general
manager of the Internet Customer Unit, leading
business development efforts to establish technology
and service relationships with global network
operators. In 2000, Dossett joined MSN to provide
strategy and business development leadership for
Microsoft’s leading e-commerce services. He then
served as CEO of MSN Carpoint® (now MSN Autos),
DealerPoint® and general manager of MSN HomeAdvisor®
(now MSN Real Estate & MSN Lifestyle).
In 2002, Dossett took two years away from his career
at Microsoft to pursue his passion for adventure
with a goal to climb the highest mountain on each of
the seven continents, known as the “Seven Summits”.
Reaching the summit of Mount Everest on May 24,
2004, Dossett became the third Canadian in history
to successfully complete the Seven Summits. In 2008,
Jeff was expedition leader for Everest Team
INSPI(RED), a personal initiative to build awareness
of (PRODUCT) RED™ and to inspire others to join the
fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa (see
www.teaminspired.com). On May 22nd, 2008, Jeff
became the second Canadian in history to reach the
summit Mount Everest for the second time.
Dossett serves on the Board of Advisors of 1)
VillageReach
(www.villagereach.org),
a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization working to save
lives and improve well-being in Africa by increasing
community access to healthcare and other essential
services, 2)
GOOD Worldwide
Inc. (www.goodmagazine.com),
an integrated media platform for people who want to
live well and do good and 3)
LiveMocha
(www.livemocha.com),
an online language learning service designed to help
people communicate across borders, languages, and
cultures by providing accessible and innovative
language learning services in an engaging,
interactive, social format.
Dossett holds a degree in business administration
with honors from the Richard Ivey School of Business
at the University of Western Ontario in Canada. He
is married and has three children.
Co-founder Cirque du Soleil
President and CEO, Groupe Le Massif
Concerned about
his fellow man and the future of the planet,
young people and the disadvantaged, Daniel
Gauthier long ago decided to remain true to his
passions. From one partnership and project to
the next, his contribution to managing the
companies he develops is based on the values of
respect, fun and reaching for the next level.
His passion for what is both human and extremely
creative was most notably expressed at Cirque du
Soleil, which he co-founded with Guy Laliberté,
where he met the organizational challenge of
managing with an international outlook. He is
currently working on an original concept for a
large-scale recreational tourism project called
Le Massif de Charlevoix, involving a ski resort,
a destination train, signature lodging, spas and
much more. This project, slated for completion
by 2013, spans over a territory of 120 square
kilometres, where creativity and freedom prevail
in a concept that is furthest from artificial.
Founder/Director, Wild Women
Expeditions-Canada's Outdoor Adventure
Company for Women
In Beth's first career as a social worker,
she authored
Actions on Health Barriers
(1988), a popular resource on group
facilitation, as well as
Helping Seniors Mobilize: a handbook on
community organizing
(1991) a text at gerontology and social work
schools across Canada. By the early 1990s,
Beth was considered a leading trainer in
Ontario on community development. In the
90s, she spearheaded the first feminist
conference on breast cancer nationally,
produced the Canadian premiere of Obie award
winning play,
My
Left Breast,
and also worked as a Provincial Co-ordinator
of the newly-formed Ontario Women's Health
Network.
Beth began her exit from social work and the
public sector in 1991 by launching an
all-women canoe tripping business in
Northern Ontario.
WILD
WOMEN EXPEDITIONS
has become Canada's largest outdoor
adventure company for women- currently
hosting adventures for women in
9
provinces plus the Yukon- and has expanded
from canoeing to kayaking, cycling, mountain
biking, hiking and backpacking, fly fishing,
surfing, as well as a range of retreats!
In 2007, Beth was awarded the
Women
of Distinction Award
by YWCA Sudbury. She was also named
Entrepreneur of the Year
and received the
Innovation Award
by Sudbury's Business and Professional
Women's Association. Beth teaches part time
at Laurentian University's School of Human
Kinetics in the Outdoor Adventure Leadership
Programme. Beth brings a unconventional
fusion of old school non-profit values with
sassy, down 'n dirty street smarts.
Director, HM Design
Induction into to the Cricket Hall of Fame may
seem an unlikely start for an
extreme planner,
but Hitesh Mehta has rarely taken the most
obvious path in his career, and its beginning
was no exception. Born in Kenya, Mehta obtained
a degree in Architecture from the University of
Nairobi and then studied Landscape Architecture
at the University of California , Berkeley
between stints as captain of the Kenyan national
cricket team in 1987 and 1993. His life of
adventure travel sparked an interest in the
impact of tourism on both societies and
environments, and he quickly set about defining
— and advocating for — the fledgling "ecotourism
and ecolodge" industry.
He has dedicated his life to the protection of
both faunal and floral species including
Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda and DR Congo;
Chimpanzees in Uganda and Rwanda; Giant Pandas
in China; Tigers in India and Black Rhinos in
Kenya. Mr. Mehta is also a
Professional Photographer
and in July 2006,
National Geographic Adventure magazine
identified Mr. Mehta as one of five Sustainable
Tourism Pioneers in the world. In July 2005 he
was named by
Men’s Journal,
a New York based Magazine as the
"25
Most Powerful People in Adventure"
in the world.
He is about to complete another of his several
books- this one a chai-table book on
Authentic Ecolodges.
Having just visited 46 countries in six
continents within the past 2 years, he is no
stranger to Quebec.
Minister of Tourism
Nicole Ménard is a veteran manager who built a
career at BMO Bank of Montreal over nearly four
decades and held the rank of vice-president for
12 years. Trained in business administration at
the École des hautes études commerciales de
Montréal and in strategic management at the
Centre international de recherche en management,
she also holds an Advanced Executive Program
certificate from Northwestern University in
Chicago.
As a woman who is devoted in mind and spirit,
Ms. Ménard has always been very actively
involved in her community. She was president of
the Chambre de commerce et d’industrie de l’Est
de l’Île de Montréal and was in the Top 25 in
influence of the Réseau des gens d'affaires de
l'Est de l'Île de Montréal in 2004. She also
headed many fundraising drives for various
community organizations and was founding
president of the BMO Employee Charitable
Foundation. A recipient of numerous awards, she
received the Orchid award from the Chambre de
commerce et d’industrie de l’Est de l’île de
Montréal in 2006 and the homage of the Montréal
YMCA Foundation in 2000.
She was first elected to the National Assembly
as the member for Laporte riding in the general
election of March 26, 2007, and became
parliamentary secretary to the minister of
economic development, exports and innovation and
minister of tourism. She also served as a member
of the public finance committee, the economy and
labour committee, and the Office of the National
Assembly.
Re-elected for a second term as member for
Laporte riding in the general election of
December 8, 2008, she was appointed by the
premier of Québec to the positions of minister
of tourism and minister responsible for the
Montérégie region.
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.
 Ellen
Barone, EllenBarone.com
Ellen Barone
did what many of us only dream of doing: at the
age of 35, she traded a successful academic
career for the wild blue yonder and set out to
explore the world and herself. In the decade
since that intrepid decision, she has turned
passion into profession journeying to more than
60 countries in search of evocative images and
life-enriching adventures.
A Fulbright teaching exchange to Scotland in the
early nineties ignited a passionate and
insatiable curiosity about the world, meeting
new people and experiencing the unknown. That
life-changing experience inspired a leap of
faith that has blossomed into an amazing life of
discovery, global connections and creative
pursuits.
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 vivid photography
and honest storytelling that inspires travelers
to pack their bags and experience our blue
planet for themselves.
As a freelance writer and photographer, Ellen
knows travel. Her work has appeared in National
Geographic Adventure, Outside, Condé Nast
Traveler, Islands, The Los Angeles Times Sunday
Travel Section, Spa, and a wide variety of
regional, national and international
publications. In addition, she’s a gifted
workshop teacher, photo tour leader, speaker and
author of several online columns offering advice
and information for travelers.
Together with award-winning travel journalist,
Judith Fein, Ellen co-authors an adventure
travel column,
The Wild Pair, and edits the
website,
YourLifeIsATrip.com
Her website,
EllenBarone.com, takes readers to
Ellen’s favorite places, providing the
in-the-know scoop on where to go, what to see
and the best travel technology to get you there.
 Michael
Behar, Freelance Writer
Michael has
been covering adventure travel, the environment,
and innovations in science for more than 15
years. Most recently he was an articles editor
for National Geographic magazine. He was also a
senior editor at Wired magazine from 1995 -
2000.
Michael has reported on wildfire fighting,
extreme kiteboarding in Brazil, the neuroscience
of fear, uncontacted jungle tribes, big weather,
warrior robots, mountain climbing in Costa Rica,
science at the South Pole, rafting in Alaska,
satellite gorilla tracking in Rwanda, trekking
in Peru, Venezuelan hideaways, illegal cypress
logging, remote private islands, pirate treasure
hunting, the search for Steve Fossett,
zero-gravity sex, Google Earth, and secured an
exclusive interview with an electrical engineer
about to implant a microchip in his forearm.
His articles have appeared in several
publications including Outside, Wired, Men's
Journal, Mother Jones, Best Life, Popular
Science, The Economist, Backpacker, National
Geographic Adventure, Discover, Air & Space, and
Smithsonian.
Born in Seattle, Michael has lived in San
Francisco, Santa Fe, Chicago, London, and
visited more than 50 countries. His latest
assignments have taken Michael throughout the
U.S., and internationally to Venezuela, Peru,
New Zealand, Panama, New Guinea, Costa Rica,
Bali, and the Seychelles. In New Guinea, he
accompanied a group of wealthy tourists into the
jungle in search of uncontacted native tribes.
The New Guinea article—first published in
Outside magazine and later reprinted in the
London Observer—attracted international media
attention. National Public Radio, Boston's WBUR,
and Dublin's NewsTalk 106 interviewed Michael
on-air about the jungle trek. He's also
discussed his writing on Radio New Zealand's
"This Way Up," and appeared on CNN and the CBS
"Early Show."
He is member of the American Society of
Journalists and Authors, and his work has been
nominated for a National Magazine Award and the
Grantham Prize for Excellence in Reporting on
the Environment, and featured in the Best
American Travel Writing and The Best of
Technology Writing anthologies.
 Jon Bowermaster,
Writer, Filmmaker and Adventurer
Writer and filmmaker Jon Bowermaster’s recently
completed high-def film - TERRA ANTARCTICA -
documents a six-week long exploration of the
Antarctic Peninsula by sea kayak. Though
just-finished, it is already garnering awards, a
finalist at the Blue Ocean Film Festival and
winner of the "Ocean Issues" category.
A six-time grantee of the National Geographic
Expeditions Council, his 2007-2008 Antarctic
expedition was the final in his OCEANS 8
project, which over the past decade has taken
him and his teams around the world by sea kayak,
including expeditions to the Aleutian Islands,
Vietnam, French Polynesia,
Chile/Argentina/Bolivia, Gabon, Croatia and
Tasmania. Seeing the world from the seat of a
sea kayak over the past decade has given
Bowermaster a one-of-a-kind look at both the
health of the world's oceans and the lives of
the nearly 3 billion people around the globe who
depend on them.
His reporting on the relationship between man
and the sea continues, with new films on the
Galapagos, Louisiana and the Maldives
in-production. His blog – “Notes From Sea Level”
(www.jonbowermaster.com) - gives him a daily
forum for continuing the conversation with a
growing audience. He is currently finishing two
new films,
"What Would Darwin Think?" about the
relationship between man and the Galapagos and "SoLA"
about Southern Louisianans and the water that
surrounds them – creeks, rivers, bayous, the
Gulf, the Mississippi.
Author of ten books (his most recent,
"Descending the Dragon" about his travels in
Vietnam was published in August by National
Geographic Books & “Wildebeest in a Rainstorm”
published by Menasha Ridge) and producer of a
dozen documentary films, when not on the sea
Bowermaster lives in Stone Ridge, New York.
 Dr.
Kelly S. Bricker, Associate Professor,
University of Utah and Chair, The International
Ecotourism Society
Associate
Professor at the University of Utah and Chair of
the International Ecotourism Society, completed
her Ph.D. research with The Pennsylvania State
University where she specialized in Outdoor
Recreation and Nature-based Tourism within the
program of Recreation, Park, and Tourism
Management. She has special research and
teaching interest in sustainable tourism
development, natural resource management, and
sense of place relative to communities. She has
conducted research on heritage tourism, social
impacts of tourism, and natural resource tourism
environments. She has presented papers on issues
in heritage tourism, sense of place and natural
resource management, ecotourism, and incentive
travel programs. She has written articles on
sense of place and whitewater recreationists
(kayakers and rafters), heritage tourism,
perceptions of incentive travelers, and
ecotourism tourism projects. She has been a
faculty member at the University of the South
Pacific and West Virginia University and from
1999-2001 served as President of the Fiji
Ecotourism Association. With her husband Nathan,
she developed an ecotourism whitewater and sea
kayaking operation called Rivers Fiji, located
on the main island of Viti Levu, which
established the Upper Navua Conservation Area
and Fiji’s first RAMSAR site. Dr. Bricker has
served on the TIES Board since 2001.
 Eric
Brodnax, Vice President, Orbitz Worldwide -
General Manager, Away.com & Outside Online
Eric Brodnax is
a Vice President with OWW and serves as General
Manager of Away.com & Outside Online. 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. He grew up on St. Croix in the
US Virgin Islands where he lived a life of
riding horses, sailing, and scuba diving. He
competed in the 1988 Olympic Games held in
Seoul, Korea, and has a strong personal interest
in whitewater kayaking, biking, hiking, skiing,
and off the beaten path travel.
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 currently serves as a member of the Board
Advisors of the Adventure Travel Trade
Association, 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 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.
 Michael
Brown, President, Serac Adventure Films
When asked what
separates Michael Brown from other adventure
filmmakers, Erik Weihenmayer (the first blind
person to summit Mount Everest) remarks that the
award-winning director has an incomparable level
of focus, skill and commitment. “There are only
a handful of candidates with the athletic
ability and tireless drive to pull off what
Michael accomplishes routinely,” says
Weihenmayer. “The pool of candidates narrows
even further when you consider Michael's eye for
assembling the subtle pieces of a story.”
Brown’s tenacity and upbeat attitude have
brought him to the summit of Mount Everest four
times—once while shooting and directing
Farther Than the Eye Can See
which documented Weihenmayer’s historic ascent.
The acclaimed film marked the first time a
high-definition (HD) video camera was brought to
the mountain’s peak. On Brown’s most recent
summit in 2007 he co-directed MacGillivray
Freeman Films'
Return to Everest
in 3D IMAX. Outside the Himalaya, he’s made
first kayak descents of wild rivers in places
like Bhutan and Chile and summited remote peaks
on all seven continents, all with the camera
rolling.
Brown, a pioneer of adventure filmmaking,
founded Serac Adventure Films in 1992 both to
make original documentaries and to lend his
production and adventuring skills to filmmakers
like MacGillivray Freeman Films, for whom he was
Director of Mountain Photography on the
award-winning IMAX film
Alps: Giants of Nature.
Brown was also a specialty cameraman on the
critically-acclaimed film
BLINDSIGHT;
on A&E’s show “Touch the Top;” and on a number
of feature films.
Since starting Serac, Brown has received over 40
international film festival and industry awards,
including three national Emmys from five
nominations. But making films is about more than
winning awards and exploring uncharted
territories. Serac is committed to “giving back”
to their subjects in some profound way while
capturing the intense emotion that make their
films so powerful. Few who have seen them forget
the poignant moment in
Light of the Himalaya
after the bandages are removed from the eyes of
a Nepalese woman once blind with cataracts; or
the elated exhaustion of 10 women in
3
Peaks 3 Weeks
as they push beyond pain to achieve their goal.
While Brown has always loved telling stories (he
grew up in family of adventure filmmakers), he
also has a passion for science–especially
climate, weather and geography, all of which he
studied at the University of Colorado at Boulder
while working at the National Snow and Ice Data
Center. He’s put that knowledge into practice
during productions for National Geographic
Television, NBC, CBS, ABC, ESPN, OLN, the BBC,
Rush HD, and the Discovery Channel.
With camera in hand, Brown goes into some of the
world’s most hostile environments—where there’s
little room for error—and comes away with
stunning visual footage and stirring stories
that remind us of our shared humanity. He
believes that if you can imagine a goal, you can
achieve it, and he brings that spirit,
intensity, and invaluable expertise, to every
project that Serac takes on.
He's the only guy I know who can tell a funny
joke at 26,000 feet, beat all of his teammates
in chess, carry a 25-pound camera to the summit
of Mount Everest, create an award-winning
documentary, and through it all, remain just one
of the guys, pouring every bit of his heart and
soul into getting his team to the top,” says
Weihenmayer. “[He] is the most accomplished
filmmaker with whom I've ever worked.”
 Mark
Campbell, Solaia Consulting
A traveler all
his life, Mark’s career working in the actual
business of travel began when he joined Mountain
Travel Sobek as their Director of Marketing in
the mid 1990’s. While at MTS, he helped to
launch the Adventure Collection consortium. He
and his family then moved to Seattle when Mark
took the position of Director of Supplier
Relations with Virtuoso, where he managed three
lines of preferred suppliers: active/adventure
tour operators, tourism boards and 120+ inbound
ground operators, located in dozens of
countries. While at Virtuoso, he helped co-found
VAST (Virtuoso Active & Specialty Travel), a
collective designed to showcase the tremendous
depth and variety of Virtuoso suppliers in the
active & adventure sector. In early 2004, Mark
was hired as President of TCS Expeditions, the
premier private jet adventure tour operator. In
December 2006, Mark was awarded the Leader in
Luxury award in the Tour Operator category at
the 2006 Luxury Travel Expo, sponsored by
Questex Media.
After leaving TCS in June of 2007, he enjoyed a
six-month sabbatical during which he took his
teenage son to Costa Rica and performed pro bono
marketing work Seattle-based non-profit Bridges
to Understanding. In late 2007, Mark was
recruited by Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, the
nation’s leading boutique hotel operator. As
Senior Vice President of Branding and
Communications, he completed a major branding
initiative and headed up their public relations
and restaurant marketing functions. At the
beginning of 2009, Mark moved back to his main
passion – adventure & specialty travel– with the
founding of Solaia (meaning “the sunny one” in
Italian) his own marketing & branding practice
in Seattle.
 John
Canning, MediaSherpa, LLC.
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.
 Costas
Christ, Global Travel Editor, National
Geographic Adventure
Costas Christ
is the Global Travel Editor for National
Geographic Adventure. He is one of the world’s
pioneers of ecotourism (he helped to officially
define the term) and is an internationally
renowned expert in sustainable tourism,
traveling to 127 countries (at last count),
including some of the most remote wilderness
areas and archeological sites on Earth, home to
vanishing cultures and endangered species. He
believes that tourism, properly planned and
managed, can be a powerful opportunity for
protecting nature and sustaining the well being
of local communities. It is a message that is
helping to transform travel and tourism
globally.
He appears frequently on television and radio,
with appearances on NBC Today Show, Good Morning
America, National Public Radio, Travel Channel,
CNN, and BBC, to share his insights on places to
go and how to have the trip of a lifetime while
also helping to protect the planet. When not
exploring the world, he spends his time at home
in Maine on an organic blueberry farm, where he
can still watch wild ducks land in the water
near his house.
 Susan
Cosier, Senior Editor, Audubon Magazine
Susan Cosier is
a senior editor at Audubon Magazine where she
listens for the rumblings of the newest
environmental trends and covers subjects from
politics to tourism. She is also the magazine’s
Green Guru, advising readers on everything from
how to deice their front steps without killing
plants to what eco-friendly insulations can keep
out the cold. Her work has also appeared in
Scientific American Mind, the Utne Reader, E,
the Environmental Magazine, and Scholastic’s
Science World.
Before taking her position at Audubon, she
worked as an editor at Plenty, an environmental
lifestyle publication, editing, blogging, and
writing regularly about critical environmental
issues like carbon sequestration, over fishing,
and advances in wind turbine technology.
Cosier received her undergraduate degree from
Wesleyan University in Earth and Environmental
Science and later entered New York University’s
prestigious master’s program in Science, Health,
and Environmental Reporting.
 Michael
Culhane, President, Adventurelink
Born in Cape
Town, my travels began courtesy of the South
African Army at age 17. Before turning 18 I
“traveled” to Namibia, Angola and Mozambique.
(No passport required.) Over the next two years
I “became” African, a status derived not simply
by being born on the continent, but by seeing
Africa, as the Zulu people say, “with African
eyes”.
Following a degree in Economics at the
University of Cape Town I toiled for three years
as an Economist in South Africa’s largest
insurance company. I then went back to UCT to
complete an MBA and started to look at the vast
(and back then untapped) opportunities that the
region provided in tourism. I was fortunate
enough to team up with an entrepreneur with
similar interests and for the next 13 years
concentrated on building Gametrackers into the
“fly-in safari” model that has since been
successfully emulated in over 100 lodges in
Botswana and in many other wildlife and
naturalistic havens throughout the world. The
company was sold to Orient Express Hotels in
1993.
Over the years my travels in the adventure space
have taken me to over 100 countries on six
continents. Many, if not most, of these trips
could not have been sourced with commonly
available information to travelers in a market
like the U.S. Now, anyone using AdventureLink
can find these operators directly without the
layers of intermediation, and information slant,
that defined the market before we came along.
It’s great to think that travelers now have a
whole new set of tools to find, and experience,
the places and people that make us think
differently about our world.
 Anne
Dimon - Publisher/Editor, Travel to Wellness
The e-publisher
and editor of
Traveltowellness.com and Traveltowellness
Canada (the first editorial online travel guide
to Canada as a spa and wellness destination) is
travel writer and international spa industry
journalist Anne Dimon. A professional magazine
and newspaper writer/columnist for the last 18
years, she has travelled the world for a variety
of publications.
In additional to being the editor of
traveltowellness.com, she currently
contributes to other publications including
Clean Eating Magazine, Spa Business (published
in the U.K.), Spa Asia, Metro Toronto News (one
of Toronto's largest dailies), Hotelier Magazine
and others. She was a travel columnist with the
Toronto Star for close to nine years; as well as
a travel columnist for the Calgary Herald and
Halifax Herald. She compiled the annual Best
Spas in Canada for Glow Magazine for three years
and now publishes her annual list in numerous
categories at Best Spas Canada .
Dimon has also contributed to Michelin
Publications and is the writer of Michelin's
2004 Must Sees of Toronto guide book. Prior to
her life as a journalist, she was president of
her own public relations company. In her early
career, she worked in broadcasting - radio and
television - both on-camera and behind the
scenes.
Anne is also the creator of a line of
multi-functional travel fashions called Arrivez
which loosely translates to "you've arrived."
A member of the Society of American Travel
Writers (SATW), she was the 2003 recipient of
the Travel Media Association of Canada's (TMAC)
Professional Integrity Award presented by
Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and in 2004 she
received TMAC's Business Travel Award presented
by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. In a former
television campaign, she was an anti-smoking
spokesperson for Ontario's Heart & Stroke
Foundation, and is a former media spokesperson
for Ontario Blue Cross. She is included in the
Ontario Free-Tobacco Network for her
contribution to the implementation of the
Smoke-Free Ontario Act on May 31, 2006. She just
completed her first Half Marathon, coming in
"second" in her age category.
 Dr.
Rachel Dodds, Founding Member, The Icarus
Foundation
Rachel is a
founding member and Board Member of The Icarus
Foundation, Canada's only NGO focusing on
addressing the effects climate change on the
tourism industry. She is also the Director of
Sustaining Tourism, a consultancy firm as well
as an Assistant Professor at Ryerson University
in Toronto.
Rachel has more than 17 years of experience in
the tourism industry and is a recognized expert
in sustainable tourism, having published
articles, editorials and books on the subject.
With a PhD from the UK and a Masters degree from
Australia both focusing on sustainable tourism
management and policy, Rachel is passionate
about facilitating change in the tourism
industry.
She has worked in all facets of the tourism
industry including tour operators, hotels,
governments, NGO's and small businesses. Her
experience includes working with the World Bank,
European Union, Caribbean Tourism Organization,
International Business Leaders Forum's
International Tourism Partnership, World
Wildlife Fund, as well as tour operators
including ElderTreks, BikeHike Adventures and
Kuoni.
Rachel sits on the Sustainability Advisory Board
of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada,
is a Board Member of Green Motion Express, SCI
Index and Canada's Travel and Tourism Research
Association. She has travelled to over 70
countries.
 Christopher Doyle
Chris Doyle has contributed more than 20 years of public
relations, marketing and business expertise to
the retail, technology, outdoors and adventure
travel industries. Since 2004, he has served as
the vice president of the Adventure Travel Trade
Association (www.adventuretravel.biz) and
director of the 2005-2008 Adventure Travel World
Summit (www.adventuretravelworldsummit.com)
events. He’s also the editor of the ATTA’s AdventureTravelNews™. An active (trail)
marathoner, adventure traveler and guest
speaker, Chris has managed corporate
reputations, developed extensive national
consumer awareness campaigns, supported the
launch of six Internet concerns, and has enjoyed
success with Doyle Public Relations, a PR
consultancy he started in 2001.
 Kathy
Dragon, Traveler
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.
She 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 with over
1 million registered
members) as well as
growing well
established
Adventure Travel
Companies: Vermont
Country Cyclers and
Country Walkers. Her
own site,
www.traveldragon.com
(in private beta),
is a currated source
of over 5,000 unique
itineraries offered
by the top
small/mediums size
tour operators in
the world.
Kathy is a frequent
national speaker and
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, Social
Media,Technology,
Sustainability,
Green, Outdoor, and
Natural Foods
Industries.
 Paul
Easto, Managing Director, Wilderness Scotland
Following an
early career in property and environmental
consultancy, Paul switched to the travel
industry in 2001. Recognizing 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 National
Geographic Adventure Ratings, Wilderness
Scotland was the highest ranked 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. Paul continues to
champion these issues at a strategic level,
acting as the sustainability chair of the
Scottish Tourism Innovation Group and
contributing to national policy debate and
formulation. 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.
 Richard
G. Edwards,
Director, Gap
Adventures/Planeterra.org
Richard is the
Director of
Planeterra (www.planeterra.org),
a non-profit
dedicated to
supporting
sustainable
community
development through
travel, where he is
responsible for the
overall direction of
the organization and
creating ways to
better link
travelers and local
communities around
the globe.
Planeterra was
founded by G.A.P
Adventures, the
largest independent
adventure travel
company in the
world. Richard is
also a member of
G.A.P’s executive
management team,
where he helps
oversee the
company’s rapid
growth.
Richard has worked
in key management
positions and as a
consultant with
several
award-winning
adventure companies,
where he has been
responsible for
exponential
increases in sales
and online presence.
He's also assisted
large travel
industry veterans,
such as Hilton,
Wyndham, Harrah's
and American Express
in developing their
green and carbon
management
strategies. With
over 20 years of
experience in
marketing,
ecotourism and
community
development in Latin
America, he is
quoted regularly on
CNN.com, MSNBC.com,
National Geographic
Adventure, Fast
Company and numerous
trade and consumer
publications, and
has spoken around
the world on the
topic of green
travel. Condé Nast
Traveler magazine
lists Richard as a
Top Travel
Specialist, an honor
he’s received for
several years,
consistently citing
his travel creations
as “Trips of a
Lifetime”.
 Megan
Epler Wood, Founder, The International
Ecotourism Society (TIES)
Megan Epler
Wood founded The International Ecotourism
Society in 1990 and led the creation of its
website (www.ecotourism.org)
in 1995. Under her leadership TIES built a
membership program in over 100 countries;
published best selling text books, led workshops
and stakeholder meetings that reached tens of
thousands; and an international communications
and public awareness program that reached
millions.
Megan was named by Conde Nast Traveler Magazine
as a “Trailblazer” in the September 2008 World
Savers issue and in 2009 was profiled in
Emirates First and Business Class Magazine for
her pioneering work developing ecotourism
destinations in lesser developed countries.
Since 2003, Megan’s firm EplerWood International
(www.eplerwood.com)
has devoted itself to aiding some of the poorest
countries in the world with sustainable tourism
development, including the nations of Sri Lanka,
Cambodia, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, Mexico, El
Salvador, Brazil, and Honduras.
Her published works includes;
Ecotourism: Principles, Practices and Policies
for Sustainability
for UNEP in 2002. She has lectured at Columbia
Business School, Harvard University, Wellesley,
Duke University, University of Vermont, and The
George Washington University.
SUMMIT EMCEE
Francis
X. Farrell, Former Publisher, Men's Journal and National Geographic Adventure
Fran Farrell will act as Emcee for the 2009 ATTA World Summit.
Fran has spent most of his career in the communications industry, most
recently as the publisher of multimedia brands such as
Men’s Journal and
National Geographic Adventure.
Farrell has been a featured speaker on marketing sustainable tourism and
adventure travel at BITE Travel Conference in Cuenca, Ecuador, The First
National Conference on Ecotourism in Bar Harbor, Maine, and The
Adventure Travel World Summits in Seattle, Washington and in Whistler,
B.C. He has delivered keynote addresses for events such as the Alaska
Wilderness Recreation and Tourism Ecotourism Conference in Seward,
Alaska and the Adventure Travel Professional Symposium (ATPRO) in
Orlando, Florida. He served as a judge for the 2008 World Tourism &
Travel Council’s prestigious Tourism for Tomorrow Awards in Dubai,
United Arab Emirates.
Prior to joining National Geographic in 2002, Farrell was general
manager/senior vice president of
The Sporting News. He represented Times
Mirror Magazines in its sale of The Sporting News
and Sportingnews.com
to Paul Allen’s Vulcan Ventures. Previously, Farrell held a variety of
management positions at American Express Publishing with
Food & Wine and
Travel & Leisure magazines. He began his publishing career in ad sales
with Country Living and
Southern Living magazines.
Farrell is a member of the Leadership Council for Harlem RBI (former
board member) and has served on boards for the Adventure Travel Trade
Association, The Adventure Council and Sustainable Travel International.
He conceived and continues to support The Conservation Alliance’s media
auctions which just completed their third successful year.
Farrell is an avid hiker, cyclist and nordic skier. He lives with his
wife, Denise, and their five children in Yorktown Heights, N.Y.
 Sarah
Fazendin, President, The Fazendin Portfolio, LLC
Travel is truly
a passion and a way of life for Sarah Fazendin.
After a successful career in advertising, she
managed all marketing and representation
activity in North America for the Kenya Tourist
Board. Despite significant market challenges,
Sarah led Kenya to a North American market
rebound with year-on-year growth at nearly 50%
in 2004 and 2005. With this impressive record,
she developed key relationships and great
respect in the travel and tourism industry.
Since founding The Fazendin Portfolio in 2006,
Sarah has worked tirelessly to generate
critical, long-term relationships with top
travel agents, tour operators and members of the
media for the company’s clients. She values
efficiency and sincerity in business and strives
to open as many doors as possible for her
African partners while implementing
cost-effective, results-oriented integrated
marketing programs on their behalf.
Active in her community, Sarah is president of
the Rocky Mountain Association for the Promotion
of Travel to Africa (APTA) chapter and is
further dedicated to her profession as a member
of the Adventure Travel Trade Association
(ATTA), the International EcoTourism Society
(TIES) and the Public Relations Society of
America (PRSA). Sarah is a guest lecturer for
the Hospitality, Meeting and Travel
Administration undergraduate program at
Metropolitan State College of Denver and sits on
their Curriculum Advisory Board.
Sarah promotes the idea that travel fosters
global understanding as well as personal growth,
and strives to bring the power of African travel
to the American market. /span>
 Judith
Fein, International Travel Journalist
Judith Fein 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 80 magazines and newspapers
including
The L.A. Times, National Geographic
Traveler, The Boston Globe, Sierra, Hemispheres,
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. She
was a regular reporter for
"The Savvy Traveler"
on national public radio for 6 years and writes
a regular column for Spirituality and Health
magazine called "Transformative Travel." 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. 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. Her website is:
www.GlobalAdventure.us and she helms
www.YourLifeisATrip.com and
www.thewildpair.wordpress.com with partner
Ellen Barone.
 Jeanie
Fundora, Africa Product Manager, Cox & Kings
Jeanie Fundora is an insatiable world traveler,
lover of languages and photographer with a
passion for culture and wildlife. Joining Cox &
Kings, the world’s oldest travel company
entering its 251st year of operations to select
destinations around the world, in 1999 was the
beginning of what she refers to as her second
education.
Jeanie is the Africa Product Manager for Cox &
Kings USA, overseeing all sub-Saharan Africa
destinations for the past 10 years. As a result
of her extensive travels in Africa and the
Indian Ocean, Jeanie affectionately refers to
Africa as her “second home,” as this is truly
what it has become.
With 10 years of experience overseeing Product
Development, Marketing, Sales, PR, Operations
and Customer Service to deliver high-end
photographic safaris and luxury travel journeys
for a high-profile, demanding clientele;
Jeanie’s insider travel industry knowledge,
passion and enthusiasm has been key to the
success of Cox & Kings’ safaris.
Extremely passionate and experienced in all
aspects of the promotion of high-quality,
eco-conscious photographic safaris in
sub-Saharan Africa, as well as nature
conservation and the upliftment of local
communities through tourism, Jeanie is a
self-proclaimed safari junkie.
Jeanie considers it a true privilege to enter
into the world of disappearing cultures that are
so different from ours and to see wildlife that
she only dreamed of encountering up close.
Whether it’s witnessing a trance dance by the
light of a fire and the full moon in the Western
Kalahari with the Ju’hoansi Bushmen of Xai Xai
or coming face-to-face with Africa’s
charistmatic meerkats and commando crawling to
photograph them at eye level or having a
majestic mountain gorilla brush past her in the
Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park, her encounters
with the people and wildlife of Africa have left
an indelible mark on her soul and have changed
her forever.
Jeanie has led many familiarization trips to
East and Southern Africa with top agents from
all over the Americas, as well as attended many
travel industry trade shows over the years
including: Indaba in Durban, South Africa every
May since 2002; Virtuoso TravelMart in Las Vegas
and ILTM in Cannes.
Her travels have also taken her to Cuba, where
her father is originally from; the Dominican
Republic, where her mother is originally from;
Jamaica, the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Venezuela,
Costa Rica, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Italy, the
Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and Germany.
Jeanie is fluent in Spanish, her first language,
and also has basic knowledge of French, Italian,
Portuguese and Swahili.
 Jeff
Gayduk, Founded, Premier Tourism Marketing
When he
recognized that the rapidly changing group
travel industry wasn’t being addressed by
conventional group travel publications, Jeff
Gayduk founded Premier Tourism Marketing in
1999. It was through his own company Jeff was
able to specifically address the challenges
facing the group travel industry, as well as the
opportunities that lie ahead.
He started the company out of his spare bedroom,
with a black & white magazine titled “Senior
Group Travel.” Like anything people favor, word
spread fast about the “industry news” readers
were devouring on a regular basis and the
magazine quickly gained in page counts,
readership and popularity.
Since then, the vision to keep group traveler
organizers informed on “industry news” has taken
on new meaning. With five print publications and
over a dozen websites and online directories, we
are the trusted resource to deliver the “who,
what, where, when and how” on all facets of the
group travel industry. Premier Tourism Marketing
has become the leading print and online
publisher in the group travel industry.
 Caren
Osten Gerszberg, Writer
Caren Osten Gerszberg writes about travel,
education and women's issues for a variety of
publications. An avid adventure traveler who has
schlepped her husband and children around the
world--from rappelling in Israel's Judean desert
and rock climbing in the Dolomites to rafting in
the Canadian Rockies and hiking in the
rainforests of Belize and Nicaragua--Caren lives
for her next adventure. Her latest focus is rock
climbing and adventure courses, which she has
recently experienced in Yosemite, the Gunks,
Corsica and the Berkshire mountains.
Caren’s travel articles appear regularly in
The New York Times
Travel and Escapes sections, and her work has
been published in
Travel
& Leisure, National Geographic Traveler, Town &
Country Travel, Cosmopolitan, Time Out NY,
Child, Parents, Cookie, The International Herald
Tribune
and others. She has also written for a number of
website publications, including
Family
Fun and Family Travel Forum.
When she's not traveling, Caren writes a column
for the New York Times blog, "The Choice," about
the college application experience, teaches
non-fiction writing, and is a co-editor and
founder of a blog called "The Drinking Diaries"
about women's relationship with alcohol.
 Regina
Fraser and Pat Johnson -
Grannies on Safari
The
Grannies have traveled to more than 100
countries over the last three decades. In 2003,
they came together for this television series
which brings their extraordinary travel
adventures to a national viewing audience. Both
Pat and Regina have grown children and are proud
grandmothers – Pat, a grandmother of two and,
Regina, grandmother of one.
Regina
Fraser, Marketing, Media
and Communications Strategist
Regina is a marketing, media and communications
strategist. She held management positions in
corporate communications, video production,
advertising and marketing during her 31 years
with United Airlines, and is the president of
the Art Explorers, Inc.
As a loaned executive to the Americans for the
Arts and the White House Millennium Council in
1999, she developed a cultural exchange program
for the 50 largest cities in the United States.
Regina is an energetic traveler, and her
interest in the arts has taken her to more than
35 countries. Currently, she is a member of the
City of Chicago Durban, South Africa
International Sister City Program and chairs the
sub-committee on Arts & Culture.
Pat
Johnson, Arts
Administrator
Pat is a career arts administrator who comes to
the Grannies on Safari television series from
San Francisco where she was the Founding
Director of the new Museum of the African
Diaspora. Prior to that assignment, she was an
Assistant Commissioner and Director of the City
of Chicago Artists International Program (CAIP),
a division of the Chicago Department of Cultural
Affairs.
Her career also includes tenure as Executive
Director of the Jamaica Center for the Arts in
New York and Founding Director of the South
Dallas Cultural Center in Texas. She has been a
nationally recognized leader in
multi-disciplinary arts management for
organizations such as UNESCO and the U.S.
Department of State.
Pat has traveled to more than 70 countries on
six continents and is an avid collector of
international folk art as well as supporting
artists in cooperatives in Latin America and
West Africa.
 Jeff
Greenwald, Co-Founder and Executive Director,
Ethical Traveler
Jeff Greenwald
is a bestselling travel and science writer with
five books and hundreds of magazine, radio, and
Internet features to his credit. His writing
career began in 1979, when he reported on his
experiences as a water engineer in the Khao-I-Dang
refugee camp on the Thai/Cambodian border. Since
that time he has traveled throughout the world,
writing about female circumcision in Africa,
prison labor in China, human rights in Tibet,
Nepal's environmental progress, dogsled racing
in Alaska, and coral reef health in Asia and the
Pacific.
His books include the bestselling Shopping for
Buddhas, The Size of the World, and Scratching
the Surface: Impressions of Planet Earth from
Hollywood to Shiraz.
 Rogier
Gruys, Manager of Experiences at the Canadian
Tourism Commission (CTC)
Rogier Gruys is
the manager of Experiences at the Canadian
Tourism Commission (CTC) in Vancouver, BC. His
team gathers the unique Canadian travel
experiences that bring Canada’s tourism brand to
life, and distributes the information to the
CTC’s marketing, sales and media teams. He also
manages the organization’s outreach programs on
Canada’s tourism brand and experiential travel
to Canada’s tourism industry.
Previously, Gruys worked in the CTC’s
e-marketing unit, managing the organization’s
consumer website. Before joining the CTC, he
managed the main website at the University of
Victoria, and taught web design at a Victoria
college. Earlier, Gruys worked on various United
Nations and Canadian aid projects in Bhutan,
Mongolia, Indonesia and Malaysia. In Mongolia,
he also worked as a tour leader and an adventure
tourism product consultant. In his spare time,
Gruys is an avid travel and outdoor
photographer. His work has appeared in several
magazines and books.
Gruys has an M.Sc. from the University of
Alberta.
 Christina
Heyniger
Christina is
the president of Xola Consulting, Inc and an
associate with the Adventure Travel Trade
Association. In collaboration with The George
Washington University and the ATTA, Christina
has been a driving force behind the creation of
the Adventure Tourism Development Index, a tool
supporting entrepreneurs and governments in
developing and marketing sustainable adventure
tourism products and services.
Christina has ten years experience in business
management consulting, specializing since 2004
in marketing and development work for individual
adventure tour companies. In cooperation with
ATTA and the rest of the Xola team, Christina’s
current focus is on supporting public and
private sector initiatives which seek to create
adventure tourism markets as a means of driving
overall human and environmental development.
Christina’s work has supported adventure travel
tour operators and governments around the world
including Africa, Asia (particularly SE Asia),
South America and North America. She speaks
regularly at industry and academic conferences
on topics ranging from small business management
to humanitarian aid and international
development through responsible tourism.
Christina earned her Bachelor of Science from
Cornell University in 1993; her Master of Arts
from Georgetown University in its Communication,
Culture and Technology program; and her Master
of Business Administration from American
University specializing in Entrepreneurship in
2004.
Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, Christina now
lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
 Annika
Hipple - Writer, Editor, Travel Photographer
A dual citizen of the U.S. and Sweden, Annika
Hipple grew up bilingual and bicultural. She
took her first plane trip before the age of six
months and has been traveling ever since. She
has backpacked alone through much of East and
Southern Africa, Latin America, and South Asia,
and has led trips throughout the world as a
freelance tour manager. She continues to lead
several trips a year for museum, nonprofit, and
alumni travel programs. Recent adventures have
taken her to such destinations as Mongolia,
Egypt, Patagonia, Easter Island, the Galapagos,
Italy, and Japan.
As a freelance writer, editor, and photographer,
Annika specializes in travel, the environment,
and international development. Her work has
appeared in numerous print publications
including
The
Christian Science Monitor, Trip Magazine
(a
Seattle
Times publication),
Northwest Meetings + Events Magazine, and
Conscious Choice Magazine.
She is the international travel columnist for
the Seattle edition of Examiner.com and has
contributed to a variety of other online
publications. In addition, Annika has written
for a wide range of nonprofit and business
clients including Expedia and Travel Channel
Media.
Annika also writes two blogs, Crossing Time
Zones: Where Travel and Global Issues Meet (www.crossingtimezones.com)
and Real Scandinavia: Travel, News, and Culture
in the Five Nordic Countries (www.realscandinavia.com).
Annika holds a B.A. in environmental studies
from Middlebury College and spent a semester in
Ecuador on a comparative ecology program run by
the School for International Training. Fluent in
Spanish, she fell in love
with Latin America and went on to earn an M.A.
in Latin American studies from the University of
Arizona. Her master’s thesis examined the
relationship between environmental groups and
the media in Mexico. She also studied
international development as a Fulbright grantee
at Uppsala University in Sweden.
She currently lives in Seattle, Washington. Her
website is
www.annikahipple.com.
 Tom
Holm, Executive Producer, Endangered
Destinations
Tom Holm’s career is a unique blend of public
service, world-wide adventure and automotive
achievement. He is described as, “a champion for
the automobile industry who is awakening mankind
to alternatives in living and new methods to
preserve our natural resources.” – General
Motors. “Mr. Holm sets an amazingly high
standard of integrity and performance.” -
Mitsubishi.
While still in college, Tom founded Transcom, a
company that builds and operates medical
vehicles that bring health care to thousands of
people unable to reach hospitals. Transcom has
also executed mobile promotions for Disney,
Pepsi, GM, Ford, Mitsubishi Paramount Pictures
and many other movie studios and television
networks. Tom has worked with the auto, marine,
motorcycle, RV and trucking industries to build
award-winning “excursion-style” vehicles that
are both powerful and
“environmentally-considerate.” He has designed
mobile medical units, first response vehicles,
research vessels, 4x4s, hot rods, RVs and
big-rigs, all of which set the highest standard
of eco-considerate vehicles.
Tom used his degree in journalism to write, host
and produce the
Adventure Highway TV series that took him
to the Maldives, Micronesia, Indonesia, Mexico,
Hawaii and all over America documenting
adventure sports worldwide. Adventure Highway
always included the importance of sustainable
travel and was one of the most acclaimed series
on the Outdoor Life Network (OLN) for three
years.
TTom dual careers in the transportation and media
industries inspired him to become the founder
and executive director of the EcoTrek
Foundation, a non-profit that promotes
sustainable travel and eco-tourism through
worldwide media programs. Through the EcoTrek
Foundation, Tom currently produces and hosts the
Endangered Destinations TV series that
highlights locations, cultures and wildlife that
face the pressures of a modern world. This
series will be broadcast world-wide through
various broadcast partners and on the
endangereddestinations.com website. Home video
versions are also being distributed globally.
Tom volunteers his time and vehicles for
eco-tourism, disaster relief, environmental
clean-up and eco-reclamation activities
throughout the world.
 K.C.
Hoppe, Director - Destination Sales, Tour &
Specialty Operators, Virtuoso, Ltd.
K.C. Hoppe
joined Virtuoso in January 2007 as the director
of their tour operator program, currently
consisting of 70 suppliers. She also manages
VAST (Virtuoso Active & Specialty Travel) – a
collection of 43 active and specialty travel
companies who collaborate on joint marketing and
sales initiatives to maximize their exposure
within the Virtuoso network and with consumers.
Prior to joining Virtuoso, K.C. worked with
Backroads as Marketing Partnerships Manager for
10 years. In this role, KC oversaw their travel
industry program including their Virtuoso
relationship and organized partnerships and
promotions with internationally recognized
organizations, foundations and publications.
K.C. was instrumental in the launch of
Virtuoso’s VAST program, having served as
advisory board chairperson for three years. She
also worked as a Concierge at the Ritz-Carlton
Hotel, San Francisco and in Paris, France as a
Sales Assistant for Hotel Information Systems.
KC enjoys biking, yoga, running and swimming and
of course international travel. She works from
her home office in Alameda, CA (a small island
south of Oakland) where she lives with her
husband, Ted, and 9-year old son, Jack.
 Sheree
Johnson, Founder and Principal,
StoryTellings™ Consulting
Sheree’s
story has taken her from her childhood in
the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to an
international speaker, author and
consultant. Sheree has 30 years of industry
and consulting experience in marketing,
sales, finance, strategy development, and
planning. She has applied her experience and
skills to helping clients with their
Customer-Driven Strategy Development and
Organizational Alignment.
In addition to founding StoryTellings™ with
her husband, Edward Wachtman, Sheree played
a critical roles building two successful
market research companies. She has worked
with clients in the United States, Canada,
South America, Europe, and Asia. Specific
engagements have included: defining market
scope; positioning and communications
strategy; developing business plans for
strategy alignment and implementation;
evaluating and designing customer
satisfaction measurement and customer
loyalty programs; defining balanced
scorecard measurement systems; designing,
developing and delivering custom workshops
for change management and leadership
development.
Sheree is a nationally recognized speaker on
customer-focused business strategies and has
been quoted in
Business Week
and
Fortune
magazines. She co-authored “Customer
Satisfaction Measurement: A Management
Information System for Total Quality” in the
McGraw-Hill
Handbook of Marketing Research.
Her published articles include “From
Commodity to Value-Add: Reinventing
Strategy,” “Customer Intimacy Drives
Success,” and “Customer Relationship
Management: What to Do Before Going 1-to-1.”
For seven years she co-authored a bi-monthly
column on customer relationship marketing
and management for the AMA’s
Marketing Management
magazine.
Sheree’s “happy ever after” story ending has
her now living back near mountains on Bowen
Island, BC. Sheree loves to travel to new
places, she is an accomplished chef, and
enjoys gardening, hiking, and boating with
friends.
 Stephen
Joyce, President, Sentias Software Corporation
Stephen Joyce
has been working as a travel & tourism
technology consultant since 1995. In 2005
Stephen and his company, Sentias Software Corp.,
began development on Rezgo.com, a next
generation Web 2.0 tour and activity booking
engine for SME travel suppliers and adventure
tour operators. In June of 2007, Rezgo.com was
officially released and now boasts a user base
of 900+ companies. Stephen is also President of
the North American Chapter of the International
Federation for IT and Travel & Tourism (IFITT
North America) and sits on the Board of the
OpenTravel Alliance. He is the publisher of the
Tips from the T-List books, a series of
ground-breaking books that bring together travel
industry bloggers from around the World. The
success of the book has resulted in workshops
and speaking engagements on Social media and
User generated content around the World.
Stephen is an avid outdoor enthusiast and enjoys
snowboarding, hiking, and mountain biking. He is
also a volunteer instructor with the Air Cadet
program where he teaches outdoor survival and
aviation. Stephen is a graduate of Capilano
University, is a certified Commercial Pilot, and
holds a certificate in IT Management.
 Judy
Karwacki, President, Small Planet Consulting and
Vice President, Jubilee Travel and Cruises
Judy Karwacki
is president of Small Planet Consulting
www.smallplanet.travel and vice president of
Jubilee Travel and Cruises
www.jubileetravel.travel, and has more than two
decades of tourism industry experience. She is a
strong supporter and long time member of ATTA,
and is thrilled to be a Summit contributor for
the third time.
Judy’s key interest is tourism that provides
communities with sustainable long-term economic,
social and cultural benefits while protecting in
their natural and cultural heritage. She has
worked around the world on sustainable tourism
development projects. In recent years,
assignments have taken her to Guyana, Brazil,
Jamaica, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Barbados,
Guatemala and Fiji. Indigenous tourism is one of
her specialties and she is considered an
international expert in this unique market.
For almost four years, Judy has been the
director of the Guyana Sustainable Tourism
Initiative, a USAID-Guyana Tourism Authority
joint project which was recently given an award
by the Guyana Ministry of Tourism and extended
until 2012. At the moment, she is also working
on a three-year USAID tourism destination
development project in Palestine in addition to
other sustainable tourism projects in Guyana and
elsewhere in the Latin America-Caribbean region.
When she isn’t travelling, Judy lives and works
in beautiful North Vancouver, Canada.
 Stirling
Kelso, Assistant Editor, Travel + Leisure
Magazine
Stirling Kelso
is an assistant editor at
Travel
+ Leisure,
where she edits T+L’s annual Design Awards, the
T+L 500, America’s Favorite Cities, and a range
of editorial packages. She contributes regularly
to the magazine’s Strategies and Insider
sections. Kelso also helped create and edit
T+L’s Responsible Travel issues.
Prior to this, Kelso was a contributing writer
for
Fast
Company
magazine and
Austin
Monthly
magazine. She interned at
Texas
Monthly, New York,
and at the National Geographic Society in the
Television and Film department. She also worked
as a production assistant on MTV’s Road Rules
and Real World Challenge,
the
Gauntlet.
Kelso has appeared on a variety of television
outlets including CNN, Fox, WNBC, WCBS, and New
York 1.
Kelso is a graduate of The University of Texas
and currently resides Brooklyn, New York.
Originally from Arlington, Virginia, she has
also lived in Austin, Texas, Seville, Spain, and
London.
 Kurt
Kutay, Founding Director and President, Wildland
Adventures, Inc.
Kurt Kutay is the founding Director and
President of Wildland Adventures, Inc. and the
non-profit Travelers Conservation Trust. He 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.
 Elisabeth
Kwak-Hefferan, Assistant Editor, Backpacker
Magazine
Elisabeth
Kwak-Hefferan edits the Skills department,
writes features and packages, and heads up a
weekly blog for Backpacker Magazine, a five-time
National Magazine Award-winning publication
(including a win for General Excellence in
2008). She also writes the “Love on the Rocks”
column for Women’s Adventure Magazine and has
contributed to Trail & Timberline, Nation’s
Restaurant News, and Chicago’s Daily Herald.
Prior to Backpacker, Kwak-Hefferan covered
small-town athletics for a rural Colorado
newspaper, gave ranger presentations on wildlife
at Rocky Mountain National Park, and taught kids
about ecology in the Smokies.
Kwak-Hefferan has an undergraduate degree from
the University of Pennsylvania (where she was
also an All-American volleyball player) and a
master’s degree from Northwestern University’s
Medill School of Journalism.
 Dr.
Douglas Layton, General Manager, The Other Iraq
Tours
Dr. Douglas Layton (Erbil (Ainkawa), Iraq) has a
doctorate in Islamic Studies and has spent much
of his last 17 years in Kurdistan. He helped
organize and testified at the US Senate hearings
on Saddam’s genocide against the Kurds in 1993
and prepared the Documentary Film shown at those
hearings. He is considered an expert on current
and past political issues in the region. Over
the years he has become close friends with many
of Kurdistan’s top leaders including the current
President and Prime Minister as well as many
other high level officials. He is the author of
“The Other Iraq” PR Campaign which can be viewed
on
www.theotheriraqtours.com.
Dr. Layton has lived and worked in many
countries around the world (over 50) including
Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, etc.
and has a world view approach to his teaching.
He is the author of several books and has
traveled throughout Kurdistan and become a
recognized expert on known historical and
archeological sites in the region as well as
Kurdistan’s ancient history.
Having lived many years in the region, Dr.
Layton is also intimately familiar with the
culture of Kurdistan. During his time with the
tour he will share many fascinating insights
into the daily life of Kurdish families.
 Nadia Billia Le Bon, Mountain Lodges of Peru
Nadia Billia Le Bon was born in Italy. During
her college years, she pursued hiking and
climbing in the Alps, and started her world
travels in Afghanistan in the 70s. She
eventually got her dream job as a trekking guide
in the Himalayas. In 1983 she organized the
first Italian women climbing expedition to the
Indian Himalaya. The following year, she moved
to California, and joined Mountain Travel Sobek.
For 25 years, Nadia has held senior management
positions in operations, and trip development.
She also handled the company's "Giving Back" and
sustainable tourism programs. In 2008, she
joined her husband Leo Le Bon at Wanderlust
Consulting which represents Mountain Lodges of
Peru and their non-profit organization Yanapana
in North America. Nadia has traveled to all seven
continents, explored remote mountain regions,
kayaked and rafted from Alaska to Antarctica.
She is a member of the Society of Woman
Geographers. Her favorite activities
include hiking, kayaking, sailing, and making
new friends through travel.
 Christian
Levesque, Editor, Espaces Magazine
Christian
"Chris" Levesque is the Editor of
Espaces
Magazine, Quebec's
biggest outdoor and adventure media
(www.espaces.qc.ca | 60 000
copies | 6x per year). Recently, he became in
charge of two new
magazines:
Parabolik
(for ski enthusiasts:
www.parabolik.ca | 130 000
copies | 3x per year) and
Adventura (the English
cousin of Espaces:
www.adventuramag.ca | 60 000 copies | 4x per
year). Chris is also a
freelance photographer/videographer and just
loves to go on adventures
for work and for the fun of it. Climbing or
kiteboarding during his free
time, he helped build a Web-based university
radio in 2001. For more,
visit his website:
www.christianlevesque.com.
 Perry
Lungmus, Vice President - Sales & Marketing,
Travcoa
A 25-year
veteran of the travel industry, Perry Lungmus
literally grew up in the business. His family
owned a travel agency in suburban Chicago. He
worked there during summers, eventually managing
it and helping it grow. Lungmus' family ties to
travel enabled him to see the much of the world
at a young age.
His resulting career choice solidly in place,
Lungmus has since worked as an executive and
consultant for some of the country's leading
travel companies including Abercrombie & Kent,
International, travel agency consortium,
Virtuoso, and small-ship cruise operator Cruise
West. Lungmus currently leads sales and
marketing for the tour operator and expedition
provider, Travcoa.
Thus far, Lungmus has logged personal journeys
through more than 60+ countries, including
travel deep into off-the-beaten-path
destinations.
Lungmus resides in Seattle, Washington with his
wife Cynthia, daughter Kara and son Jamie. An
avid skier and hiker, Lungmus enjoys time in the
mountains with friends and family.
 Casey Marker, Director - Marketing & Sales,
Zegrahm Expeditions
As Director of
Marketing & Sales at Zegrahm & Eco Expeditions,
Casey is responsible for the development and
execution of strategic marketing initiatives
utilizing direct marketing, web, social media,
advertising, and public relations. She joined
Zegrahm in 1997 and has over ten years of
experience in marketing, internet project
management, and customer relationship
development. A graduate of the University of New
Hampshire with degrees in English and Spanish,
Casey has been interested in international
travel and cultures from an early age. From
diving with whale sharks in the Galapagos and
cavorting with penguins in Antarctica to
cosmonaut training in Star City, Russia and a
six-week Spanish immersion program in
Guatemala—Casey's travels have taken her to
remote destinations across the globe. She brings
with her knowledge of how to effectively sell to
the affluent market, retain clients (Zegrahm has
a 75 percent repeat client rate), broaden a
client base, and build a brand. Casey lives in
Seattle where, as a mother of two young
children, she runs, scuba dives, reads, hikes,
gardens, and relaxes—when not enjoying her
family.
 Jamie
Martin, Senior Editor, Experience Life
Jamie Martin is a senior editor with
Experience Life, a whole-person,
whole-life health and fitness publication based
in St. Paul, Minn.
Experience Life — which enjoys a
circulation of 600,000 plus — aims to empower
readers to become their best, most authentic
selves and to support their enjoyment of a
healthy, balanced, deeply satisfying way of
life. No gimmicks, no hype. Just in-depth and
articulate coverage of health, fitness and
quality-of-life topics.
Originally hired as an editorial intern in 2005,
Jamie has held many hats since first joining the
magazine: researcher, fact checker, associate
editor. Her current role as senior editor leaves
her responsible for both editorial and online
initiatives: She’s the assigning editor for
several regular departments, including Head Out
(travel and adventure), and the Web lead, which
which includes day-to-day maintenance of the
magazine’s Web site, ExperienceLifemag.com, and
long-term strategic development and planning.
She lives in St. Paul, Minn., with her husband
and their German shepard, Velo.
 Rafael
Mael, Marketing Strategist, Brand Launcher
Rafael Mael is
a marketing strategist for Brand Launcher, an
unconventional marketing company dedicated to
retooling businesses to generate maximum
revenue. Using proven marketing strategies, his
company has helped its clients get outrageous
results—like a 27% response rate for Häagen-Dazs
and nearly 50% for the NBA. Because of results
like these, their campaigns have been featured
on NBC and CBS, and in
The
Wall Street Journal
and
BusinessWeek.
With “in the trenches” experience across
numerous industries, Rafael will show you the
same techniques that helped one client boost
revenues by $250,000 within 12 months, and
increased sales by 65% for another. He is a
dynamic and exciting speaker who has been called
“magnetic” for his engaging presentation style.
Listen to Rafael speak and you’ll discover how
to put these powerful strategies to work in your
own business.
 Don
Mankin, Writer
Don Mankin is
the co-author with Shannon Stowell of the
National Geographic book, Riding the Hulahula to
the Arctic Ocean: A Guide to 50 Extraordinary
Adventures for the Seasoned Traveler, a
collection of personal, psychologically-rich
descriptions of exotic, remote trips for
adventure-hungry baby boomers. He is also the
president and founder of Adventure
Transformations, Inc.
(www.adventuretransformations.com), and
regularly writes travel articles for the on-line adventure travel site,
AdventureUs.com, and for the on-line and print editions of the quarterly magazine for active seniors, ActiveOver50. Don has
filled many different roles in his professional
life – aero space engineer, psychologist,
educator, futurist, writer, executive coach and
management consultant. After working for 35
years in these roles, he decided to chuck it all
about three years ago for his new career as
travel writer and “adventure psychologist.”His
most recent work focuses on the “transformative
power of adventure travel.” In this project, which he has been
conducting in collaboration with Shannon Stowell, he has been interviewing
people whose lives, work and relationships have been impacted, changed or
transformed by adventure travel (several ATTA members have
already been interviewed for this project). The goal of the project is to
identify the ways in which travelers have been changed by their
experiences, the kinds of conditions that helped produce these
experiences, and how this can be applied to trip design and marketing in the
travel industry, as well as to how people in general live and work.
When he isn’t traveling, Don lives with his wife
in the heart of Venice Beach, an urban adventure Mecca where he spends
many hours observing the behavior of travelers from around the world.
 Brad
Nahill, Director, SEE Turtles
Brad Nahill is
Director of the SEE Turtles Program, a
conservation project with the aim of inspiring
people to visit sea turtle conservation projects
around the world. He has spent the last decade
working to protect sea turtles through nesting
beach conservation, education, fundraising, and
ecotourism. He has spoken about sea turtles at
dozens of schools, nature centers, and other
venues around the country and has recruited or
guided more than 200 people to see turtles in
the wild. Brad has worked in sea turtle
conservation and ecotourism with organizations
including Ocean Conservancy, Rare, and
Asociacion ANAI (Costa Rica). He has also worked
with or consulted for several ecotourism
companies, including EcoTeach and Costa Rican
Adventures. A co-founder of SEE Turtles, he
leads project implementation, including working
with tour operators and conservation partners,
giving educational presentations, fundraising,
and developing promotional materials. In
addition, he has co-authored several papers on
turtle conservation in Costa Rica and turtle
watching best practices. Brad has a BS in
Environmental Economics from Pennsylvania State
University and is currently pursuing a
certificate in Sustainable Tourism Development
from George Washington University.
 Alexia
Nestora
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 practices (voluntourismgal.com).
Alexia has volunteered in Ecuador, South Africa,
Thailand, Costa Rica, New Zealand and Switzerland
but her favorite place these days is at home in
Littleton, CO.
 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.
 Helen
Nodland - Founder, Nodland Travel Enterprises
Helen Nodland
is a traveler. In 1990 Nodland Travel
Enterprises came into being as a marketing and
education company dedicated to introducing
exotic, adventure, active and eco-friendly
travel products whose stated mission is "to be a
doorway to extraordinary, life changing travel
experiences." Helen's travel industry experience
has ranged from behind, in front of, and on top
of the international leisure travel desk as
agent, expedition leader, tour director, sales
and marketing director, plus serving on Industry
boards and committees. She presently serves as
the Strategic Development Director in North
America for the explora, the remote luxury
lodges of Chile. She is called upon by media and
industry to share her engaging expertise on
adventure travel topics and trends. Helen was
chosen as one of Chicago’s outstanding business
women with the “100 Women Making a Difference”
award. The recently published Adventure Travel
Specialist, published by The Travel Institute in
their Lifestyle Specialist series, was authored
by Helen. She co-chairs the VAST network within
the Virtuoso Travel Network. Helen proudly
serves on the Board for ATTA. Helen lives high
above and flies to and from her home in Chicago.
Oh, and by the way, Helen knows how to throw a
good party!
 David
O’Connor, President, Aid to Artisans
David O'Connor was appointed President of Aid to
Artisans in September 2005. He previously served
as Director of Craft Programs at Save the
Children, where he created a mail order
catalogue and established several retail shops
to help build export markets for the
organization's field-based small business
developed activities. He also founded and
directed the Jordan Design and Trade Center, a
product development, training, and market
development service organization for artisans
based in Amman, under the umbrella of the Noor
Al Hussein Foundation. While in Jordan, he
served as a Special Advisor to the Minister of
Tourism & Antiquities and Acting Executive
Director of the Jordan Tourism Board. David also
has previous experience with the UNDP, USAID,
the World Bank and the Ford Foundation.
Immediately prior to his appointment to Aid to
Artisans, David served as the Peace Corps
Country Director in Moldova, Nepal and China.
 James O'Leonard, Founder & CEO, PEAK 15 Systems
James O'Leonard is the founder and CEO of PEAK
15 Systems, which provides the tour operator and
outfitter industry with online tools to manage,
strengthen and grow their business. James spent
more than 10 years in product strategy and
marketing positions with Silicon Valley firms
such as Sun Microsystems. He holds an MBA from
UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business and has a
passion for travel, born in part by his
experiences growing up in Kenya.
 Daniela
Papi, Director, PEPY
Daniela Papi is the director of PEPY, an educational non-profit organization which is funded through volunteer and adventure tours of Cambodia. PEPY's tagline, "Adventurous Living. Responsible Giving." highlights the dual mission of the organization.
PEPYTours has won the University of Notre Dame's Social Venture Business Plan competition, CIMPA Humanitarian Travel Award, and was a finalist for the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards. Driven by a young group of social entrepreneurs, in the past four years PEPY has grown from a one-off bike ride which funded the construction of a rural school to a non-governmental organization working in over 10 schools and employing over 40 local staff. Recently, PEPY was chosen as a winner in the Ashoka and National Geographic Geotourism Challenge.
Daniela is active in the "Voluntourism" sector speaking regularly on the both the negative and positive impacts of this growing trend and encouraging industry players to be self-reflective and proactive in measuring their impact. The team at PEPY Tours worked with a range of industry professionals to create internal monitoring guidelines for voluntourism which was just launched on
www.voluntourism101.com. Daniela grew up in New York but has spent the last seven years in Asia working in education and tourism. She currently manages PEPY from her home in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
 Everett
Potter
Everett Potter
is a columnist for
USA Weekend magazine,
Diversion and Laptop magazines, a contributing
editor to
Ski, and publishes Everett Potter's
Travel Report.com. He is a frequent contributor
to
National Geographic Traveler, New York
Magazine, Travel &Leisure online,
ForbesTraveler.com, Forbes Life, Virtuoso Life
and Culture & Travel. Potter wrote a weekly,
nationally syndicated column for The New York
Times Syndicate for nearly two decades and was a
founding contributing editor at
SmartMoney: The
Wall Street Journal Magazine of Personal
Business. The Society of American Travel Writers
awarded Potter the Lowell Thomas Gold Award in
1993, 1994, 1995 and the Bronze Award in 1998
for his travel journalism. Potter is the author
of The Best of Brazil (Crown) and serves on the
board of the ATTA.
 Gigi
Ragland, Freelance Travel & Food Writer
Gigi Ragland specializes in travel and food
writing. Her path began when she worked as a
catering manager for a premier caterer in the
Napa/Sonoma Wine Valley where her appreciation
for all things gourmand was cultivated. She then
followed her heart to San Francisco where she
worked for the legendary Kimpton Hotel and
Restaurant Group. Her enthusiasm for hospitality
and travel culminated into her desire to write
about the great experiences she encountered. She
then began writing lively, energetic articles
describing her adventures abroad and at home.
After moving to Colorado in 2002, Gigi was
offered a job at a travel agency consortium as
senior writer for their monthly themed editorial
newsletter/magazine. Writing towards a travel
agent audience helped hone her skills
considerably by understanding not only what
hotels and vendors offer the client but
ultimately what information serves both the
agent and the client. Since her tenure with them
the publication has won several awards.
Her passion for travel, adventure and the
culinary arts has always directed her career.
She now enjoys freelance writing on a fulltime
basis. Gigi Ragland has published numerous
feature, destination and profile articles. She
has written for regional, national and
international publications on a variety of
subjects from culinary getaways to
llama-trekking to green hotel design. Recently,
in addition to her travel writing, Gigi has
taken on a new project. She is penning a
children’s book series which involves food and
travel.
 John
Rasmus, Editor in chief, National Geographic
Adventure
National Geographic Adventure
Editor in Chief John Rasmus has been
instrumental in shaping the direction of
contemporary adventure journalism. Formerly the
editor of
Outside
and
Men’s
Journal,
Rasmus led the launch of
National Geographic Adventure
in April 1999. As founding Editor in Chief of
Adventure, he has continued to help define the
genre, publishing articles that have surprised
readers, stirred debates, and made headlines.
Since its launch and under John’s watch,
National Geographic Adventure
has amassed a remarkable twelve National
Magazine Award nominations and has won the Award
four times, including General Excellence in
2002. This year, Adventure was recognized as
Best Travel Magazine by the Lowell Thomas Travel
Journalism Competition. It won the same award in
2002. The magazine has also won gold for Best
Consumer Sports & Leisure Magazine at Folio’s
Editorial Excellence Awards. John leads an
active lifestyle and has trekked in the
Himalayas, white-water rafted in South America,
and hiked extensively in the U.S. and Europe.
 Paul
Ross, Filmmaker, Freelance Journalist
Paul Ross is an
award-winning travel journalist and photographer
whose specialty is travel as seen through the
lens of anything funny, exotic or edible
(preferably all three together!). He has
contributed to sixty publications including
Men's Journal,
the
LA
Times, New Mexico Magazine, the Boston Globe,
Fiery Foods and Barbecue Magazine, the Sun
Monthly, the Fortean Times, Robb Report,
Intermezzo, Organic Spa, the Dallas Morning News.
Paul has a strong background in advertising,
voice-over and filmmaking and currently makes
films and gives travel talks with wife Judith
Fein. Based in Santa Fe, he's schlepped gear
from Cape Horn to Cappadocia, and teaches travel
photography along the way.
 Gouhar
Shemdin, Minister of Tourism and Heritage,
Kurdish Regional Government
Gouhar Shemdin is a Conservation Architect, a
native of Iraqi Kurdistan; her career was with
the Canadian Federal Government in the
Conservation of Cultural Property. She
contributed to the review and application of the
national policy on heritage conservation for
cultural heritage. She was also a preservation
Planner and an adviser on the Museum Assistant
Program.
Gouhar Shemdin has served on the boards of
international heritage organizations under the
umbrella of UNESCO like the Council of Monuments
and Sites (ICOMOS), and contributed to the
training programs of international
organizations, such as the World Monument Fund
(WMF), the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI),
and the International Centre for Conservation of
Rome (ICCROM) training professionals including
Iraqi conservationists from the State Board of
Antiquities and Heritage (SBAH.
Gouhar Shemdin holds the Ontario Volunteer Award
and the recognitions award of the Association
for Preservation Technology International (APTI)
for 20 years of active contribution. She is a
supporter of Scouts Canada and served on the
executive of its 26th Troup Committee. At
present she is the Chairman of the Martin Weaver
Memorial Fund (MWMF), a voting member of the
International Scientific Committee on Earthen
Architecture (ISCEAH), an active member of
ICOMOS Canada. She is now a Private Consultant,
and a Senior Heritage Adviser to her native
Iraqi Kurdistan.
 Heidi
Siefkas-Cassemiro, Vice
President of Marketing & PR, .travel
With
over ten years in the hospitality and travel
industry, Heidi is currently the Vice President
of Marketing and Public Relations of .travel. As
an international ambassador for .travel, Heidi
builds strategic alliances with travel and
technology organizations and creates marketing
campaigns and initiatives that increase the
awareness and usage of .travel.
Heidi has previously held key leadership roles
in various hospitality and travel related
companies in the Fort Lauderdale area.
Originally from the Midwest, Heidi graduated
from the University of Wisconsin and earned a
Masters from the University of Massachusetts in
Boston.
 Daniel
Spinelli, Vice President, ABETA
Daniel Spinelli
has served as the ABETA (Brazilian Adventure
Travel Trade Association) Vice President since
august 2008. Since ABETA’s formation in 2004, he
has been working as volunteer for its
development. He´s also the founder and general
director of an adventure travel business in the
south of Brazil (Praia Secreta) which he started
in 1996. A graduate in Marketing, Daniel has
dedicated the last five years studing human
development in organizations, with a special
emphasis on training fundamentals concerning
outdoor adventures. A speaker, group facilitator
and consultant specialized in adventure travel
and human development Daniel’s primary work is
dedicated to helping the Brazil grow and develop
its adventure and nature-based tourism segment.
He´s strongly committed with the adventure
travel standardization in Brazil and in the
appliance of this standards in the ABETA members
products. Recently Daniel was chosen as Convenor
at adventure travel Work Group which will
develop ISO (International Organization for
Standardization) standards for the segment.
 Anna
Stancioff, Vice
President, Hawkins International PR
Anna
Stancioff is a Vice President at Hawkins
International PR. With more than 11 years of
travel PR experience, she is well-versed in the
tourism and hospitality industries. Over the
years, Anna has promoted brands ranging from
active travel company Country Walkers to
international brands such as Singapore Airlines.
Her ability to think like a journalist and her
strong media contacts have resulted in coverage
for her clients in publications as varied as
New
York Times, Food + Wine, Forbes
and
DailyCandy.com to name a few.
Anna joined Hawkins International PR in June
2005. Her responsibilities include pitching and
securing media placements, conceptualizing and
executing media events and working closely with
each client to craft a strategic public
relations plan.
Prior to working with Hawkins International PR,
Anna worked for three years at Weber Shandwick
Worldwide, assisting with the Celebrity Cruises
and Central Park accounts. As part of her work
on the Singapore Airlines account, Anna was
among the team that coordinated the PR campaign
surrounding the launch of the record-breaking
A345 aircrafts in February and June 2004. The
campaign results included feature stories in the
New
York Times, USA Today,
and the
Los
Angeles Times,
among others, as well as more than 650
television segments, including The TODAY Show
and The Tonight Show.
Previously, Anna worked as a senior account
executive at KWE Associates in New York. Anna
started her travel PR career working with
Jennifer Hawkins at Hawkins & Widness Public
Relations.
Anna received a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology
and Hispanic Studies from Connecticut College in
New London, Connecticut. A Washington D.C.
native, Anna knows how to pack light and find an
adventure anywhere in the world.
 Veronica
Stoddart, Deputy Managing Editor for Travel, USA
TODAY
Veronica
Stoddart is USA TODAY's Deputy Managing Editor
for Travel. Previously, she was founding editor
of Caribbean Travel & Life magazine, which she
edited for 10 years. She has worked as a
contract editor for the National Geographic
Society, as travel editor of Americas magazine,
and has contributed to numerous publications
during 25 years in travel journalism. She is
also on the faculty of the SATW Institute for
Travel Writing & Photography.
She has received the Marcia Vickery-Wallace
Award for Excellence in Travel Journalism, the
Westin Award from the North American Travel
Journalists Association, and seven Lowell Thomas
Awards from the Society of American Travel
Writers.
Veronica is a graduate of Wellesley College.
 Theresa Storm, Travel Journalist and
Photographer
An award-winning travel writer and photographer,
Theresa Storm’s passions are adventure,
ecotourism and sustainable travel, culture, and
journeys off-the-beaten-path. Based in Calgary,
Alberta, her adventures take her around the
world. She is a recognized Caribbean and Mexican
specialist and is currently exploring Central
and South America, most recently Guyana and soon
Ecuador.
She also loves to tell the stories of people and
their communities in words and photos, giving
those who need so a voice. Her most memorable
project was volunteering in Thailand after the
tsunami documenting the work of international
volunteers and the people they helped. A
text/photo feature followed in
Reader’s Digest
Canadian, Thai, and Spanish editions. Theresa’s
work also became an audiovisual presentation for
Calgary schoolchildren, who raised thousands to
help Thai children impacted by the tsunami.
Theresa welcomes similar opportunities with
non-profit nature and humanitarian organizations
and tour operators contributing to the people
and places in which they work.
For 14 years, since ditching her
PR/communications power suit to pursue her
dream, Theresa has been penning and shooting
travel features for CanWest newspapers, the
largest Canadian news chain. For more than three
years (until the budget was axed), she wrote a
monthly adventure column about trying something
new – from learning to scuba dive and snorkeling
with sharks to fly fishing and caving. Her fun,
down-to-earth point-of-view targeted the average
Joe/Jane, intending to convey anyone can embrace
adventure with proper guidance, not just the
kamikaze few. More than 42 Canadian newspapers
have published her tales, including national
dailies the
Globe and Mail and the
National
Post, as well as papers internationally. Her
travel blog for
The Calgary Herald/CanWest
commences later this fall.
Her articles and photographs have been published
in numerous magazines including
Reader’s Digest,
Islands, Dreamscapes, Today’s Parent, Sunquest
Good to Go, Open, Passport to Travel, Travel
Canada, Specialty Travel Index, Travel & More —
Your Airmiles Magazine, and
Common Ground. She
has also written for travel websites
SearsTravel.ca, Canada.com and
AOL Canada and
for trades
Travelweek, GSA, and
OpenJaw.com. She
is author of the
Marco Polo Calgary guidebook
and contributor to
DK Eyewitness Caribbean
(November 2009), coffee table book
Caribbean
Escapes, and
The Fun Also Rises Travel Guide
North America.
She has won seven travel writing awards
including four for excellence in Caribbean
writing, best Canadian article, best article
written for a website, and excellence in
ecotourism reporting.
She is a member of the Travel Media Association
of Canada and the Society of American Travel
Writers.
 Shannon
Stowell, President, Adventure Travel Trade
Association
Shannon’s
personal and professional background is well
suited for the adventure travel industry. He’s
lived in Fiji, trekked Indonesia, Thailand,
Burma and China, and has spent time in many
places around the world including Taiwan, South
Africa, Korea, Hong Kong, Japan, Brazil, Qatar,
Norway, Mexico and Canada. Among the diverse
adventures he’s enjoyed: summiting Mount Rainier
& Mount Hood, diving in Mexico, sitting out a
riot in Jakarta, being involved in Fijian kava
ceremonies, caving in Thailand, and many more.
Shannon is an active traveler, trail runner,
swimmer, mountaineer, skier and fly-fisher. He
brings a special passion to this industry borne
of experience and a desire to see others
experience the world in a richer way. His 17+
years of business experience, connections,
marketing insight, environmental science, vision
and passion for adventure travel have prepared
him well to serve and lead as the president of
the Adventure Travel Trade Association. Early in
his career, with a B.S. Biology from Seattle
Pacific University, Shannon worked as a
fisheries observer on ships in Alaska for the
National Marine Fisheries Service. After a stint
on the Bering Sea, and work with the Colorado
Division of Wildlife, he spent eight years at an
environmental testing laboratory as a
biologist/chemist. He was promoted into
management to develop and spearhead the
company’s international vision and Asian
presence with the President of North Creek
Analytical International.
Shannon then engaged in the dot-com revolution
as a co-founder of Altrec.com, a successful
outdoor and adventure travel gear retailer
(www.altrec.com). He directed the company’s
business development, affiliate marketing and
non-profit relations for six years. Despite the
dotcom boom and bust, Altrec survived, then
thrived. During his time at Altrec.com, he
struck deals with Amazon.com, CBS Sportsline,
National Geographic and National Geographic
Adventure, Backpacker Magazine, Virtuoso, Nike,
Gore-Tex, Outward Bound, Virtuoso and Mountain
Travel Sobek among many others. He wore many
other hats during his tenure, overseeing aspects
of marketing, PR, affiliate programs, ad sales,
advertising program development and development
of Altrec’s sister site, www.Greatoutdoors.com.
Under his leadership as president of the ATTA,
the organization has grown into the largest
international association of adventure travel
companies with nearly 500 members and dozens of
tourism boards, major corporations and
influential individuals helping propel industry
initiatives forward. The ATTA also hosts the
Adventure Travel World Summits. Shannon also
co-authored a book in 2008, published by
National Geographic: Riding the Hulahula to the
Arctic Ocean- A guide to 50 Extraordinary
Adventures.
Committed to non-profit endeavors, Shannon
served for four years on the Board of the
American Hiking Society. He has also directed
several community plays, been the vice-chairman
in a community political group, serves with his
local church and served on the Library Board at
his local library. Raised on the Arkansas River
in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, Shannon today
lives with his wife, Shelly, and two children in
the Seattle area.
 Abe
Streep, Senior Editor, Outside magazine
Abe Streep is a senior editor at
Outside
magazine, where he covers travel and media. For
Outside,
he has reported features, traveled throughout
the American West and British Columbia, and sat
through all twelve hours of Ken Burns's
The
National Parks: America's Best Idea
in one sitting. He has also worked as an editor
at
Men's
Journal.
His writing has appeared in
The New
York Times, Mother Jones, Popular Science, The
San Francisco Chronicle,
and elsewhere. Before taking up journalism, he
played music for a traveling circus.
 Greg
Sullivan, CEO and Editorial Director, AFAR Media
Greg started his career as a corporate
securities attorney and later an investment
banker before launching a series of successful
entrepreneurial ventures. In 1989, he started a
business designing and manufacturing
international arcade games, including the
world’s largest selling coin-operated basketball
game. After selling that company, Greg led a car
retailing and finance company, growing it into a
$750-million operation with 76 dealerships
across the country. After selling his interest
in that business in 2006, Greg began traveling
the globe, searching for his next
entrepreneurial opportunity.
While on a trip to India, Greg and AFAR's
co-founder Joe Diaz realized that there was no
media voice for cultural explorers, those
seeking to broaden themselves by going beyond
the typical tourist haunts and connecting deeply
with local people and places. Thus was born the
inspiration to launch AFAR Media, a media
company focused on experiential travel that
helps people experience every destination as
local residents do.
Gustavo
Fraga Timo, Executive Manager, Brazilian
Ecotourism and Adventure Travel Trade
Association (ABETA)
Gustavo Timo,
Executive Manager Brazilian Ecotourism and
Adventure Travel Trade Association – ABETA. Timo
is involved with adventure and nature travel for
13 years. He is one of the first founders and
Leaders of ABETA, the Brazilian Adventure Travel
Trade Association, has served as an elected
member of the board of Directors, as Technical
Director, and now works as ABETA executive
manager. He is also an advisory board member at
the Adventure Travel Trade Association - ATTA.
At ABETA his energy is focus on developing,
organizing and converging the adventure travel
industry of Brazil in a movement that involves
establishing standards, building qualifications
and certifications systems and implementing
search and rescue teams in main adventure travel
destinations in Brazil, as well as turning
Brazil an international adventure travel
destination.
All this getting the attention and resources
from the Brazilian Minister of Tourism, that
have identified the Adventure Travel as a
priority and strategic segment for the
development of Brazil's Travel Industry and
other organizations that are able to invest
funds on the development of Adventure Travel.
Gustavo has an extensive experience as a
Adventure Travel Tour operator, he was Executive
Director of Brasil Aventuras Expedições for 8
years, a leading company in Brazil and
experienced developing new destinations,
marketing, establishing strategic partnerships,
development distributions channels in Brazil and
internationally and training adventures travel
guides. He have also worked as a consultant in
planning, developing and marketing destinations,
training entrepreneurs to manage nature based
tourism in many projects in Brazil. His
experience as an expedition leader and guide
involves mountaineering, backpacking,
canyoneering and overland expeditions all over
Brazil for more than seven years.
He is an experienced traveler and have visit
most countries of South America, including the
bioms of Patagonia, Andes, Pantanal, Amazon and
Gran Sabana, have also being to other continents
searching for adventure travel experiences . An
outdoorsman and family man, Gustavo is and
active diver, canyoneer, mountaineer and
mountain biker, and now enjoy his time
introducing his two daughters together with his
wife Gisela to the outdoor world.
 Steve
Trautman, Author
Steve
Trautman literally wrote the book on one of
the key issues in talent management today.
He is the author of,
“Teach What You Know: A Practical Leader’s
Guide to Knowledge Transfer.”
This book
is based on his highly successful Peer
Mentoring Workshop, which for more than 15
years has helped thousands of employees,
business leaders, and managers improve how
they communicate, transfer knowledge and
deliver on-the-job training.
In recent years, Steve has been invited to
work on strategic talent management issues
with executives at a diverse array of
companies such as Qualcomm, Kodak,
Electronic Arts, Activision/Blizzard, BAE
Systems, Overlake Hospital, EMC Corporation,
FMI Mining, Bonneville Power, Boeing, US
Army, and Capital Group. In each instance,
these companies are responding to a rapidly
changing landscape and have valued Steve’s
practical tools and straightforward approach
to problem solving.
Steve’s expertise was born during his years
at Microsoft in the early 90s. While with
Microsoft and, later as the General Manager
for the Advertising Business Unit at
Expedia.com, Steve walked in his clients’
shoes. As a result, he understands
first-hand the everyday realities of
building a capable workforce. His subsequent
consulting work, which exposed him to many
industries, has allowed Steve to see and
understand the challenges faced by
organizations from the front lines and
factory floor, to the sales desk and on up
to the chief executive’s office.
 Christina
Margarita Tunnah, VP of Business Development,
World Nomads
Christina Margarita Tunnah is the VP of Business
Development (The Americas) for World Nomads, a
global provider of travel safety products and
services to travelers from over 150 countries
around the world. Prior to joining World Nomads,
Christina was the Director of Marketing for
Lonely Planet (Americas), where she managed PR,
market research, and all consumer, online and
trade marketing. Christina was also a partner
and Director of Sales and Marketing for a
Berkeley-based green manufacturer of recycled
glass architectural material. She received her
MBA from Cornell University, where she was also
a Park Foundation Fellow, and her BA(Hons) in
Modern Chinese Studies and Asian Development
Economics from Leeds University, England. With
over 12 years experience in sales, marketing,
corporate strategy, branding and business
development, Christina’s industry experience
includes publishing, sustainable design &
construction, multi-media, enterprise software,
IT consulting and telecommunications. Born and
raised (mostly) in England, Christina is a keen
world traveller, outdoor adventurer and natural
hot spring seeker, and is fluent in Spanish,
Mandarin Chinese, and French.
 Michael
Valkevich, Director, Global Customers IT
Solutions, Amadeus
Michael joined
Amadeus in 2006 in his native Boston, and
recently relocated for a new role within the
company at the Chicago Amadeus office. He
manages relationships with some of the world's
leading multinational travel agencies, who take
advantage of the company's Global Distribution
System and many other innovative software
applications suited to the business of travel.
Finding solution-oriented ways to help these
companies optimize their business and stay ahead
of the ever-changing landscape dominated by air
carriers, the hotel industry, international
travel's governing bodies, and many others is
the crux of the challenge in this field.
Amadeus is the world leader in provision of
solutions to the travel industry to manage the
distribution and selling of travel services. Its
solutions and services are used by our customer
groups in different ways. Many of the industry's
other leading travel service providers use our
modular technology to optimise their
distribution and internal operational
requirements.
Michael resides in Chicago with his wife.
Outside of work, he enjoys skiing, fly-fishing,
cycling, and guitar playing.
 Edward Wachtman, Storytellings
Edward Wachtman specializes in the design
and delivery of innovative qualitative
research. He has developed numerous
methodologies based on stories and story
telling. Edward first detailed the notion of
stories and their narrative structure as
being a valuable research tool in his
groundbreaking doctorial dissertation:
Evaluation as Story: the Narrative
Structure of Evaluation (Communication
Strategies in Evaluation. Ed. Nick L.
Smith, Beverly Hill: Sage Publications,
1982).
He has used stories and story telling to
collect and interpret data in the
development of innovative marketing
strategies and in understanding points of
conflict and synergy within organizations. A
management consultant, practicing
for 25 years, Edward has worked with Fortune
500 and multi-national
organizations in North America, Europe, and
Asia.
StoryTellings™ is a proprietary research
process that helps clients discover
their story and communicate it in the most
compelling way. It seeks to identify
the deep emotions that drive human behavior.
StoryTellings™ is effective in
new product development, brand positioning,
and understanding corporate
culture. It is a useful tool for exploring
latent concepts and ideas that are
difficult to articulate by more traditional
means.
Current and recent StoryTellings™ clients
include: Australian Tourist
Commission, Intrawest, TD-Canada Trust,
Boeing, Ford (Mustang, The Ford
Brand Essence), the Loyalty Group (Air Miles
brand), Mars (M&Ms Candies
brand), Procter and Gamble, and the TD Bank
Financial Group.
Edward is also a professional business
writer and the author of over 45
case studies, papers, and business articles.
His most recent published article is: “The
Persuasive Power of Story”, Marketing
Management (a publication of the American
Marketing Association), January-February,
2009.
 Alistair
Wearmouth, Senior Editor, Away.com
Alistair Wearmouth is a senior editor at Away.com, where
he develops content and products for sites
including Away.com, GORP.com, GORPTravel.com,
Outside Online, and Orbitz.com. He is
responsible for Away.com’s social-media
strategy, including blogging, outreach on
social-networking sites like Facebook and
Twitter, and expansion of the site’s
user-generated content base. Prior to joining
Away.com in 2002, Alistair lived and worked in
London and Japan. A Scot born in Hong Kong, a
lifetime of travel has taken him through
countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Middle
East, and North America. In particular, he
enjoys exploring the outdoors on foot or by
bike, though a masochistic streak would land him
back in the rain-soaked Scottish Highlands if he
had the choice. In addition to his work for the
Away.com family of sites, Alistair has also
written for online and print publications
including Backpacker, The Washington Post, and
Smithsonian.com. He lives in the Washington,
D.C., area with his wife and two young children.
 Dave
Wiggins, Widness & Wiggin
PR
Dave brings 30 years of adventure travel
industry experience to Widness & Wiggins PR.
Formerly he held the position of Marketing
Director for Austin-Lehman Adventures. Prior to
that, Dave served as Vice President of Supplier
Relations and Marketing Communications for
Away.com and GORPtravel. For 22 years he was the
owner and President of American Wilderness
Experience (AWE!). Under his direction, AWE!
pioneered the wholesale and retail brokering of
adventure travel becoming one of the industry's
most recognized brand names in the promotion and
sale of active and exotic vacations.
 Anne
"Kat" Yates, Independent Editor/Filmmaker
Anne "Kat" Yates is an energetic and passionate
independent editor/filmmaker with 19 years of
experience. In 1990, she began her NYC editing
career at Backstreet Edit, a boutique commercial
editing company. The relationships she
established during her six years at Backstreet
felt more like a cherished family than a 'just a
job' and she values the opportunities it
provided.
When it was time to face new challenges, Anne
pursued freelance editing with numerous
television and commercial editing companies. In
2000, an opening at the Smith Barney/Citigroup
Media Resources Department presented itself and
she decided to accept. It was there that she
developed an appreciation for the art of finance
and whole-heartedly agreed with the company's
motto "Lead by Example." In 2004, she joined the
"Never Generic" video team at Cline Davis Mann,
a pharmaceutical ad agency, as the Post
Production Supervisor. During 2007, her
Grandparents in Ohio became housebound and she
decided to take a six week personal leave of
absence from CDM. Those six weeks provided time
for reflection about life and what new roads
were out there to be traveled.
After leaving CDM, favorable circumstances led
Anne to take an educational trip to China in
which she brought her video camera. It was on
that trip she that she discovered a new career
path - the travel video documentary. Currently,
she is in post production with her personal
documentary, "Finding Myself in China."
Anne continues her freelance editing career and
loves the fact she can edit 'just about
anywhere' !!! She is honored to be a part of the
ATTA and is thankful for the new partnerships,
contacts and colleagues in this community of
adventure travelers.
 Jamen
Yeaton-Masi, Director of Operations, Country
Walkers
Jamen oversees
new tour development, operations, and sales for
Country Walkers, an international tour operator
in the Green Mountains of Vermont. With over 20
years experience in international tourism,
student exchange programs, and human resources,
Jamen guides the company’s initiatives in
offering amazing small-group walking and
trekking tours around the globe. Recently
nominated as one of Outside magazine’s “Best
Places to Work,” Jamen strives to create a work
environment which is stimulating, fun and makes
being “green” part of the company’s DNA. Her
passion for exploration and cross-cultural
exchange emerged from years of traveling and
living abroad. When possible, she still loves to
hit the trails and recently returned from
escorting the company’s Anniversary VIP tour to
Egypt.
Jamen looks forward to sharing her experiences
as well as the company’s recognized commitment
to working with local guides to foster
worldwide, sustainable partnerships at the ATTA
Conference in Quebec.
 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 was inspired to start her
own business in 2000 while serving as a
consultant to The Nature Conservancy in China.
Applying the knowledge and skills from her
consulting years at McKinsey & Company, Mei has
transformed WildChina into a successful business
with over 30 employees and offices in both
Beijing and the United States. Her passion for
travel and familiarity with the consulting
industry means that she is acutely aware of the
needs of the business and educational travel
community. Mei holds an MBA from Harvard
Business School.
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Jeff
Dossett
Hitesh Mehta
Dr.
Wallace J. Nichols
