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Nimrud Baito - Minister of
Tourism, Kurdistan
Minister for Tourism of Kurdistan and elected general
secretary for the Assyrian Patriotic Party in 2006, of
which he’s be associated with since its 1973 founding, Mr.
Baito represents the autonomous northern Iraqi region of
Kurdistan. During his early involvement in the APP, his
activism on behalf of the Assyrians landed him in charge
of Assyrian student’s activities and the Assyrian Culture
Club in Baghdad, and saw him arrested twice by the
Department of the State Security in 1978-1979. Fluent in
English and trained as an electrical engineer, he spent 10
years as an IT specialist with Hewlett Packard, and now
spends energy on adventure tourism development in the
mountainous, lake-filled, river-flowing region outside the
more visible region of Iraq. More information available at
www.tourismkurdistan.com. |
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Jim Benson - CEO, Benson
Space Company
James William (Jim) Benson is Benson Space Company (BSC)
founder, chairman and president.
Until recently, Jim Benson was the Founding Chairman and
Chief Executive Officer of SpaceDev, a publicly traded
space technology development company. Jim started the
trend of successful computer entrepreneurs moving into the
space sector when he founded SpaceDev in 1997. Prior to
founding SpaceDev, Jim was founder and President of
Compusearch Software Systems and ImageFast of McLean,
Virginia.
SpaceDev specializes in affordable, high-performance small
satellites, safe, affordable hybrid-based propulsion
systems, and space mechanisms. SpaceDev has over 200
employees in three states. SpaceDev developed the highly
successful CHIPSat microsatellite for NASA, the rocket
motors for Paul Allen's SpaceShipOne, and has successfully
flown 2,000 mechanisms on over 200 missions.
Jim holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the
University of Missouri, where he was 2005 Alumnus of the
Year. Jim founded the non-profit Space Development
Institute, and is a founding Board member of the Personal
Spaceflight Federation. |
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Erik
Blachford - CEO,
TerraPass (formerly, CEO, Expedia)
Currently the Chief Executive Officer of
Terrapass, Inc., Erik Blachford was formerly
President and CEO of Expedia, Inc. and CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp’s
travel division, IAC Travel, including online travel
businesses Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, Classic
Custom Vacations and Interval International.
Previous positions include President, Expedia North
America and Expedia Senior Vice President, Marketing
& Programming. Erik serves as a board director at
Terrapass, Inc., Sharebuilder, Inc. (Bellevue, WA),
Zillow, Inc. (Seattle, WA), Farecast, Inc. (Seattle,
WA) and Surfparks, LLC (NY, NY). Erik holds a
bachelor’s degree in English and certificate in
theater from Princeton University and a Masters in
Business Administration from Columbia University’s
Graduate School of Business. |
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Richard Bowden-Doyle -
Executive Chairman, CC Africa
Richard’s early career was in the world of
commercial market research. From there he moved into
the world of FMCG marketing, in a series of brand
management roles with companies such as Gillette and
Cadbury. A desire to work in the retail world
brought him into the travel industry. He was
Marketing Director of the UK’s biggest chain of
travel agents, Lunn Poly and went on to become
Marketing and then Managing Director of its sister
company, Europe’s largest tour operator, Thomson
Holidays. After 10 years with the Thomson group,
including a hugely successful stock-market listing
in 1998, Richard continued to broaden his
experience. He was briefly Chief Operating Officer
of the on-line rail ticket retailer TheTrainline.com,
during the first dotcom boom but subsequently went
back to the holiday business, running a
joint-venture for British Airways and Thomas Cook
and looking after all of their tailor-made tour
operations. More recently he was Managing Director
of the well-known on-line travel company,
Lastminute.com and then, just over a year ago was
lured away from the UK to take on the role of
Executive Chairman of CC Africa, to help develop and
implement a future growth strategy. After more than
a decade in general management, marketing remains
his focus but he has gained considerable knowledge
and experience in the areas of pricing and yield
management and the use of technology to drive
profitability in the travel business. |
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Eric Brodnax - VP, Orbitz
Worldwide and General Manager, Away.com & Outside
Online
Serves as vice president and general
manager of The Away Network, an online travel
content company under Orbitz Worldwide, a brand of
Travelport, Inc. The Away Network includes sites
like Away.com, GORP.com and OutsideOnline.com.
Brodnax joined the Away Network in 1999 as vice
president of marketing and business development. In
2000, he was appointed senior vice president of
marketing and site operations where he managed all
aspects of the consumer experience and built an
audience of over 3 million website users per month
and 1 million active email subscribers. His focus on
bottom-line costs resulted in the Away.com website
having one of the lowest documented cost per user in
the travel industry. Prior to joining the Away
Network, Brodnax served as vice president of
marketing and business development for Customer
Insites, Inc., director of marketing for PowerDigm
Systems, and founder and general manager of Harvest
Wine Imports, Inc. Brodnax holds a Bachelor of Arts
degree from Princeton University and a Masters in
Business Administration in Entrepreneurial
Management from the Wharton School of Business. He
is an active kayaker and biker, and competed in the
1988 Olympic Games, held in Seoul, Korea, as a
member of the Equestrian team. |
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Moe Carrick - Founder &
Principal, Moementum
Moementum Founder and
Principal Moe Carrick has woven a cohesive and
provocative tapestry of personal leadership experiences,
Fortune 100 consulting, academic and institutional
learning, keynote addresses, authorship, strategic
partnering, and masterful facilitation. Her diverse
background, which spans more than two decades, makes Moe
an ideal partner for those who possess the power and
desire to achieve concrete and lasting change for
themselves and their organizations. Moe grounds
her approach in a unifying and undeniable truth:
successful work is dependent upon human
relationships. Moe believes that people and human
relationships can stand between our successes and
failures when not managed well. Her work begins and ends
at the critical juncture where people and organizations
must solve root issues while simultaneously sustaining
the motivation to become better. Counted as one of the nation’s foremost leaders in
adventure learning, one of Moe’s on-river forays with
senior executives on the nation’s most threatening
white-water rapid were recorded in Fast Company’s,
“Extreme Off-Site” feature story (1999). Straddling
mainstream organizational consulting with best-of-the
best wilderness education as faculty for the National
Outdoor Leadership School, Outward Bound, and Project
Adventure, Moe’s varied contributions to people and
organizations have consistently stimulated positive
ripple effects with direct and favorable impact to the
bottom line. Her lifelong adventurous spirit and story-telling
prowess coupled with her inspirational, witty, and
humorous style, earn Moe rave reviews following keynote
addresses, training events, and consulting experiences.
Her visionary mind allows her to translate her
experiences into engaging and interactive presentations,
which both predict and reflect emerging trends.
Moe holds a BA from the University of New Hampshire, an
MS in Organizational Development from Antioch
University, and numerous relevant certifications. |
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Sandra Carvao - Deputy Head
of the Department of Mercado and Promotion
Techniques of the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
Sandra joined the UNWTO in 2003 and
her main fields of work, in the area of
market studies, are the statistical
analysis of worldwide and regional
trends of the markets, particularly the
UNWTO’s World Tourism Barometer project,
and investigation into the sending
markets, especially emerging markets
such as China. In the area of promotion
of the tourism, her field of work
includes among other things assessing
the marketing activities of the national
tourism organizations, an area in which
she has run projects in various member
countries of the UNWTO. Before joining
the UNWTO Sandra Carvão held the post of
markets manager in the Portuguese
National Tourism Office based in Lisbon,
where she began her career and where she
was in charge of the external markets,
the United Kingdom and Ireland and the
Central and Eastern European markets.
Sandra has a degree in International
Relations, in the branch of Economics,
from the Instituto de Ciências Sociais e
Políticas of the Universidade Técnica in
Lisbon. Sandra also has a postgraduate
degree in Marketing from the
Complutensian University of Madrid. |
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Costas Christ, President,
Adventure Council
Costas Christ is an internationally recognized
expert on sustainable tourism and serves as Chairman
of the World Travel and Tourism Council - Tourism
for Tomorrow Awards that promote global tourism best
practices. He is a contributing editor and columnist
for National Geographic Adventure magazine and
Chairman of the Adventures in Travel Expo
Conferences. Costas works with Big Five Tours and
Expeditions on their "Spirit of Big Five" travel
philanthropy program that helps to protect the
cultural and natural heritage of our planet. His
travels and sustainable tourism work have taken him
to more than 100 countries and six continents. He is
a founding member and former Chairman of the Board
of The International Ecotourism Society and served
as a Senior Director for Ecotourism at Conservation
International in Washington DC, where he supervised
sustainable tourism development projects in 22
countries. In addition to his monthly column in
National Geographic Adventure, Costas' articles and
essays on travel and tourism have appeared in
numerous publications, including the New York Times,
Boston Globe, International Herald Tribune, and
Times of London. He is the lead author of Tourism
and Biodiversity: Mapping Tourism Global Footprint
and a contributing author in Wilderness: Earth's
Last Wild Places and has appeared many times on
television and radio, including CNN, BBC, National
Public Radio, CBS, ABC, and NBC. He is a frequent
keynote speaker at international tourism conferences
and has designed and led sustainable tourism
training programs and workshops worldwide. |
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Richard Cope - Senior
Insights Manager, Mintel’s UK Leisure Intelligence
Richard Cope was educated at Hertford
College, University of Oxford. After graduating with
a degree in Modern History, he worked for a
mentoring charity. Richard joined the editorial team
at Mintel’s Travel & Tourism Intelligence in 2001,
writing for the International Travel series. Richard
is currently the Senior Insights Manager for
Mintel’s UK Leisure Intelligence, and makes regular
appearances on CNN, and BBC TV and Radio as a
spokesperson. He has recently worked alongside
clients such as JWT, the Ingram Partnership and ILM
Portugal on ad hoc tourism related projects. He
regularly represents Mintel as a speaker at events
such as World Travel Market and the Caribbean
Tourism Conference and will be presenting our latest
findings at the Mintel Leisure Forum in March. |
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Ian
Cross - Executive
Producer, Pilot Film & Television Productions
(producer of GlobeTrekker)
Ian is the Managing Director of Pilot
Productions, the television company he founded in
1991. Its award winning Globe Trekker series (also
known as Pilot Guides), broadcasts to 30 million
viewers in over 40 countries, including PBS in the
United States, Travel Channel in the UK, Voyage
France and Discovery Networks. Ian has been the
executive producer of more than 300 hours of quality
television, including 11 series of the multi-award
winning adventure travel series Globe Trekker
— the most-watched travel program in the world — and
the food and travel series Planet Food. Pilot
Productions now has offices in Los Angeles, London
and Singapore. Ian was born in Melbourne, Australia
and grew up in Canberra where he began his sporting
interests as a junior tennis and cricket champ. He
began his professional career as a cadet journalist
for the Canberra Times. Ian’s media career in
newspapers, radio and television spans 30 years and
three continents: the United States, his native
Australia and the United Kingdom, where he now lives
with his wife and two children. He was European
correspondent for ABC-TV for three years. Then, in
1988, he produced the Beyond Tomorrow science
series for Fox Networks. |
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Michael Culhane - President
& Co-Founder, AdventureLink
Michael has 24 years of experience in the
wholesale/inbound tour operating business and
hospitality industry. Prior to AdventureLink,
Culhane and his partners developed Gametrackers into
the first premier fly-in safari company in Botswana
in the early 80’s, at a time when there was minimal
international tourism to Botswana. The Gametrackers
model became hugely successful and the “fly-in”
concept in Northern Botswana now supports over 120
high-end lodges operating on a low impact, high
revenue basis. To support the Botswana mission,
Culhane built an international marketing operation
selling travel all across Africa in conjunction with
the top operators in North, Southern and East
Africa. Michael has extensive experience working
within the wholesale, DMC and inbound tour operating
space, in Africa, Europe and the US. Currently, he
serves as the President of AdventureLink, the
world’s most comprehensive adventure travel
marketplace, where he leads the development of
supplier, travel partner and market-centric
strategies for the company. Michael grew up in South
Africa. He holds a BA (Econ) (Hons) and an MBA, from
the University of Cape Town. He is a member of many
wildlife and conservation organizations, including
WWF and the Kalahari Conservation Society. Outside
of Africa, Michael will travel to kite-surf,
windsurf and play/watch tennis. |
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Jeff D'Urso - Founder,
Conversion Associates
After successfully launching DestinationWeddings.com
from startup in 2003 to leadership of the wedding
travel industry and top .1% of all websites (Source:
Alexa) in less than a year; Jeff founded Conversion
Associates to replicate this success for other
clients and industries. Jeff has been intimately
involved in launching profitable eBusiness ventures
since early in 1994 when the web was in its infancy.
After working at Sapient and Arthur D. Little, Jeff
founded Open Enterprise Corporation in 1995 with MIT
colleague Raj Chakraborty and Sam D'Urso. With
absolutely no outside funding, OEC grew to $3
million in revenue by 2000 - and was successfully
acquired by C-bridge for $10 million in June of
2000. OEC's clients included Thomson Financial,
State Street, and Wilmington Trust - and many of the
firm's projects launched multi-million dollar
business units literally from scratch. |
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Richard G. Edwards -
Partner, NativeEnergy Travel Offsets
A founding partner of NativeEnergy Travel Offsets,
the travel industry-focused division of NativeEnergy,
Richard is working to bring travel to the forefront
of the effort to solve the climate crisis. After
spending years working in sustainable development
and as a marketing specialist in Latin America for
the Organization of American States, his more recent
work is focused on the private sector. He headed the
sales of a pioneering ecotourism operator and has
consulted with operators, hotels and ecolodges to
market effectively in a technology-driven world. He
works with clients in the adventure travel sector to
bolster their online market presence, such as the
Trusted Adventures alliance of companies. Richard is
a Top Travel Specialist for Condé Nast Traveler,
recognizing his efforts in sustainable tourism in
Central America. |
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Annie Ellicott - President,
LeapUp Marketing Solutions
In 2002, Annie Ellicott founded LeapUp with the goal of combining her longstanding career marketing
and managing consumer entertainment, apparel and internet publishing
businesses with a lifelong passion for adventure travel. A joint
project working with ATTA Advisory Board member Richard Bangs
resulted in the launch of LeapUp, a strategic marketing consultancy
which provides strategic marketing and business development services
to consumer businesses both in, and outside of, the travel category.
LeapUp now assists adventure operators worldwide increase their
brand awareness and differentiation to achieve stronger returns
on their marketing investments through improvement in customer
acquisition, relationship-building, conversion and retention.
Annie's professional background includes over 25
years of experience developing consumer marketing and business
strategies including brand launches and turnarounds across categories
and business models. Her tenures at both fortune 500 and startups
have involved senior level roles in marketing, sales planning and
merchandising where she received company awards and senior management
recognition while at the Walt Disney Company, Levi Strauss & Company,
Women.com (now part of NBC's interactive group) and American Medical
International.
Annie
has guest lectured at the Adventure Travel Trade Association, America
Outdoors, IATOS, Adventures in Travel Expos, the Marketing Executive
Network Group, The Princeton Club, San Francisco State University
and numerous other venues. She holds a BA degree in Economics from
Princeton University and an Masters of Science degree in Health
Policy and Management from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Annie is former Board Chair of Under One Roof, a Bay Area fundraiser
for 30 HIV/AIDS service organizations. Her passion for adventure
travel has taken her all over the world from rafting first-descents
of rivers to hiking up 14,000+ peaks and multi-day horseback riding
treks. Annie is also an aspiring photographer, connector and change
agent who enjoys giving her time to organizations like ATTA who
share her passion for the transformational experience of adventure
travel. |
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Francis X. Farrell - Vice
President and Publisher, National Geographic
Adventure
Francis X. Farrell was named publisher of National
Geographic Adventure magazine in June 2003 and was
promoted to vice president in January 2006. 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 Summit in Seattle. 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. Before joining National Geographic
Adventure, Farrell was general manager/senior vice
president/publisher of The Sporting News. He
represented Times Mirror Magazines in its sale of
The Sporting News 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 serves on the boards of the
Adventure Travel Trade Association, The Adventure
Council and Sustainable Travel International. He
organized the first Conservation Alliance Benefit
Auction in January of 2007. Farrell is an avid
hiker, cyclist and cross-country skier. He lives
with his wife, Denise, and their five children in
Yorktown Heights, N.Y. |
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Alfredo Ferreyros -
President, Explorandes
President of Explorandes, founded 30 years ago, a
pioneering adventure travel and ecotourism tour
operator in the Andes. In Explorandes he has led an
environmental certification process which has made
Explorandes the first tour operator to receive such
as certification in Latin America. The company works
with partners in various markets worldwide that have
pioneered adventure travel over time in their
countries. He has been a Board member of various
tourism organizations in the late eighties and early
nineties having been a founding member of the
Peruvian Association of Adventure Travel and
Ecotourism (APTAE). He has also been active in
conservation and the environment having been a
founder of five conservation NGO’s on the national,
regional and local level in the past two decades. He
was also co-founder of the first environmental
consulting firm and was a member of a team designing
the social and environmental management plan for an
important hydrocarbon project in southeastern Peru.
Apart from acting as a Consultant, he has been
advisor to the government in various areas since the
late eighties. He was a founding member of the board
of the National Council of the Environment (CONAM)
from 1995 – 2000 representing the private sector,
and has been on the board of various private sector
corporations. President of the following NGO’s: IBC
(Instituto del Bien Comun) institution dedicated to
work in the Peruvian Amazon with indigenous people,
CATTCO (Centro Andino de Tecnología Tradicional de
las Comunidades Campesinas de Ollantaytambo)
dedicated to preserving local traditions, and
installation of a museum in the village of
Ollantaytambo, and lastly Instituto Machu Picchu (IMAPI),
dedicated to the conservation of natural and
cultural resources in the Machu Picchu Sanctuary and
Cusco region. He was also appointed Director of
Institutional Relations of The Amazon Conservation
Association, an NGO based on Washington DC and
Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios, Peru. Responsible
for the management of a private conservation
concession granted by the government for 40 years
under a special contract, it includes the Los Amigos
River Watershed, with an area of 290,000 under
stewardships of this organization. A research
facility with various ongoing research projects
sponsored by universities and other leading
conservation NGO’s is in progress and it has become
an example of a private conservation effort. Since
January 2006 he served as the Executive Director of
Conservation International – Peru where he leads a
staff of twelve plus technical personnel hired to
implement specific projects in Northern and Southern
Peru, areas where the two most important
Conservation Corridors are located,
Abiseo-Condor-Kutuku and Vilcabamba-Amboro. The
latter is an area where CI started working almost
twenty years ago. |
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Nicky Fitzgerald -
Marketing Director, Conservation Corporation Africa
(CC Africa)
Nicky Fitzgerald is the Marketing
Director of Conservation Corporation Africa (CC
Africa), one of Africa’s leading luxury safari
ecotourism companies deeply committed to delivering
guest delight and its core ethic of “Care of the
Land, Care of the Wildlife, Care of the People.”
Nicky is responsible for global marketing and
branding of CC Africa, as well as all lodge
development and guest experiences. The company had
only three lodges when she joined it as Director of
Operations in 1994. Now it has more than 40
exclusive safari camps and lodges in breathtaking
wilderness locations across Africa and more recently
India too. CC Africa has received numerous
prestigious ecotourism awards, including recognition
as global winner of the British Airways Tourism for
Tomorrow Award. For her work, Nicky was recognised
as Relais & Chateaux Woman of the Year in 2005. CC
Africa has one Relais & Chateaux and two Small
Luxury Hotels of the World properties in its
portfolio. Prior to joining CC Africa in 1994, Nicky
– along with her husband and CC Africa CEO Steve –
operated Halcyon Hotels – a hotel and restaurant
group they founded in 1983. Besides its two hotels,
the group eventually included five restaurants in
the Cape region of South Africa – with Blues
restaurant and The Bay Hotel as the flagships. |
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Steve Fitzgerald - Chief
Executive Officer, CC Africa
Steve trained as a Chartered Accountant at the
University of Cape Town after completing his
schooling as a border at Michaelhouse in the Natal
Midlands of South Africa. Steve left the profession
at the first opportunity to open the Arniston Hotel
on the southern tip of Africa with his wife Nicky.
This adventure into the hospitality industry
expanded with the addition of two more hotels and
five restaurants in the Cape – the most renowned
being the Bay Hotel and Blues Restaurant in Camps
Bay. A massive heart attack at age 40 led Steve to
change direction and in 1994 he joined the founders
of Conservation Corporation Africa (CC Africa) in
the role of Managing Director. CC Africa is a
company dedicated to proving a sustainable
ecotourism model. Steve’s initial role was
operational but quite quickly expanded to that of
CEO. He is now responsible for growing the business
and expanding the viable commercial environmental
model across the world. The first step that Steve
pioneered was taking the CC Africa game lodge
business model to the tiger-rich parks of Madhya
Pradesh in India. Steve considers that his greatest
achievement has been the successful marriage of CC
Africa’s lodge business and tour operations – this
has been achieved in both Africa and India. CC
Africa has received numerous prestigious ecotourism
awards, including recognition as global winner of
the British Airways Tourism for Tomorrow Award. CC
Africa has one Relais & Chateaux and two Small
Luxury Hotels of the World properties in its
portfolio and is constantly recognised by the
world’s leading travel publications as one of the
finest luxury safari operators in the world. The
position of CEO of CC Africa allows Steve to pursue
many of his passions simultaneously – namely service
excellence and commercial viability, whilst having a
clear focus on both wildlife and community
development. Being able to run a company with a
philosophy of “doing well by doing good” makes it
easy to get up every day. |
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Jerre Fuqua - President,
First Choice Expeditions
Jerre Fuqua is President of First Choice Expeditions
based in the U.S. A 23-year veteran of travel
marketing and management, Fuqua oversees the
strategic development and brand positioning of the
subsidiary companies including Travcoa, Intrav,
Country Walkers, TCS Expeditions, International
Expeditions, Park East, Caradonna Dive Adventures
and iExplore Travel. A fifth-generation Colorado
native Fuqua has been active in the outdoors from an
early age. He moved to Alaska after college in the
mid 1980s and was dedicated to responsible growth of
the Alaska travel industry for more than 20 years.
As an executive for Glacier Bay Tours and Cruises,
the concessionaire for Glacier Bay National Park, he
helped to create a small-ship and adventure travel
niche by incorporating naturalist led sea kayaking,
hiking, and cruising by inflatable landing craft in
Alaska's backcountry waterways. He also developed
the "School of Adventurology" and "Certified
Adventurist" training curriculum, adopted by The
Travel Institute to help travel sellers better
understand the adventure traveler. |
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Don George – Web Editor in
Chief, Adventure Collection
Don George is the Adventure Collection’s
Web Editor in Chief. In this role he creates and
hosts Don’s Place (http://donsplace.adventurecollection.com),
a site that focuses on adventure travel destinations
and issues. Sponsored by the ten members of the
Adventure Collection (www.adventurecollection.com),
all of whom are dedicated to providing extraordinary
travel experiences while preserving and cultivating
the riches of our planet, Don’s Place offers the AC
a showcase to explore both the exhilarations and the
responsibilities of adventure travel. Don’s Place
presents Feature Destination articles on Don’s
travels around the world with Adventure Collection
members, a Don’s Blog column focusing on
illuminating on-the-road encounters and compelling
issues in the world of adventure travel, a
Responsible Travel section spotlighting news and
commentary relating to responsible and sustainable
travel, an Interview section presenting provocative
conversations with industry leaders, an Ask Don Q&A
section offering adventure travel advice, and
Bookshelf reviews of books illuminating Adventure
Collection member destinations. Prior to joining the
Adventure Collection, Don was travel editor for the
San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle, the founder and
editor of Salon.com’s travel site Wanderlust, and
the Global Travel Editor for Lonely Planet
Publications. |
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Robin Goldberg - SVP
Marketing & Business Development, Blurb
Robin Goldberg is SVP Marketing and Business
Development for Blurb, the creative publishing
platform that enables anyone to make a book. Prior
to joining Blurb, Robin held the role of Senior Vice
President, Global Marketing for Lonely Planet, the
world’s largest independent travel content provider.
Prior to joining Lonely Planet, Robin served as SVP
Marketing at ClickAction, helping direct marketers
build consumer relationships leveraging the power of
the internet and email. Robin also has extensive
experience in traditional consumer brand companies
having spent many years at Nestle and Clorox. Robin
obtained her MBA at The Wharton School at the
University of Pennsylvania and her undergrad degree
from the University of California, Berkeley.
Like everyone here at ATTA, Robin is passionate
about travel and reflects fondly on trips taken
through Europe, the Middle East, Australia and
Central America. Her most recent travels took her to
explore the treasures of Costa Rica and Thailand.
Robin resides in San Mateo with her husband and her
two young sons—all who can not wait to embark on
their next journey. |
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Anupam
Gupta - President,
Mixpo
Anupam’s passion is building and growing simple, yet
powerful web services, meeting real customer needs.
He spends his time setting the company strategy,
visiting with customers and partners, and thinking
hard about the end-to-end experience. He has a
strong background in technology and consumer online
services. Before Mixpo, he spent 8 years as a senior
business leader in Microsoft’s Online Services
Group. Most notably, he led the Product Management
teams for MSN Messenger, the largest instant
messaging service in the world, and MSN Spaces, one
of the largest blogging services. Over the years he
led many other major global initiatives for MSN
including product management for the initial
releases of MSN Mobile, and customer acquisition for
Internet Access and other subscription services. He
moved to London for 1 year to expand the
subscriptions business across Europe, bringing
together deep business insights with the unique
geographical perspectives from the region.
He holds a MBA from Cornell University and an
undergraduate engineering degree in computer science
from BITS Pilani, India. |
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Christina Heyniger
-Founder, Xola Consulting
Christina Heyniger is the founder of Xola
Consulting. Xola provides consulting and research
services to adventure tour operators and to tourism
boards seeking adventure tourism market development.
With a specialty in working with organizations
blending adventure tourism and volunteer service,
Xola has in-depth experience in emerging markets
around the world including Latin America, North
Africa and Asia, particularly Cambodia, Myanmar,
India and Nepal. Christina speaks regularly at
industry events on topics ranging from small
business management to humanitarian aid and
international development through responsible
tourism, and in 2007 spoke at the Business
Enterprises for Sustainable Tourism conference. In
2005 she created Off the Radar (www.travelofftheradar.com)
an online newsletter featuring the best small
adventure tours for responsible adventure travelers
around the world. Christina is an Associate with the
Adventure Travel Trade Association and serves on the
board of directors for Sustainable Travel
International, and Protect the Earth, Protect
Yourself - an adventure travel/ volunteer tourism
organization. She also serves as an advisor to the
National Geographic Center for Sustainable
Development. She holds a BA in Communication from
Cornell University, an MA in Communication, Culture
and Technology from Georgetown University, and an
MBA with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from
American University. Originally from Alaska,
Christina now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. |
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Cathy Holler - Managing
Director, Destination Sales, Virtuoso, Ltd
Cathy Holler is Managing Director, Destination Sales for
Virtuoso, Ltd, the world’s most powerful luxury network of
travel agencies. She and her Seattle-based team are
responsible for Virtuoso’s preferred relationships
globally with Tour Operators, On-Sites (inbound
operators), as well as Virtuoso’s marketing partnerships
with Tourism Boards. She is also responsible for
Virtuoso’s role with VAST!, Virtuoso’s marketing
collective of active and specialty operators. Cathy’s
tourism career spans over 25 years and includes in-depth
experience working with the retail and wholesale tourism
sectors in the U.S.A., Canada, Asia Pacific and Europe. In
addition to owning her own tourism marketing firm for the
5 years prior to joining Virtuoso, she spent 10 years as
Vice President, Marketing & Business Development for one
of Canada’s leading inbound tour operators. She has
extensive experience with product development in the
traditional and specialty travel sectors, sales and
marketing, branding, sponsorships and the creation and
implementation of innovative marketing & packaging
partnerships with tourism boards, tour operators and
retail agency groups in North America. Cathy has served on
various advisory committees, including the National Tour
Association (NTA) International Expansion Committee, NTA’s
Canada Council, the Canadian Tourism Commission’s U.S.
Leisure Executive Committee, and was a Founder and
Executive Director for the Learning & Enrichment Travel
Alliance (LETA) in Canada. In recent years through her
consulting work, she has been involved in a variety of
tourism development and training projects with Tourism
British Columbia, the Aboriginal Tourism Association in
British Columbia, CPEC in Dominica and USAID in Grenada
and Guyana. |
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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 65 suppliers. She also
manages VAST (Virtuoso Active & Specialty Travel) –
a collection of 29 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 and swimming and of course international
travel. She works from her home office in Alameda,
CA (a small island south of Oakland) with her
husband, Ted, and 7-year old son, Jack. |
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Hugh Hough - President,
Green Team
Hugh Hough began his advertising career as an art
director in Madrid in 1980. For 13 years, he worked
in around the globe (Madrid, Colombia, New York) in
big, international agencies (Ogilvy, Grey) for big,
international clients (Panasonic, Ralston-Purina).
Hugh loved the creativity and vitality of
advertising, but longed to apply his talents toward
a higher purpose. In 1993, Hugh walked away from
mainstream Madison Avenue, and opened Green Team,
New York’s first (and only) environmental
advertising agency. In the subsequent years, Hugh
expanded Green Team’s core capabilities to include
social and cause related marketing, progressive
brands and travel. Today Green Team has grown to
eighteen full-time staff with alliances around the
globe. Green Team has worked for numerous
non-profits, including WWF, Environmental Defense,
Conservation International, National Geographic and
the Smithsonian Institute. Green Team travel clients
include Scotland, Ecuador, Dominica and Lindblad
Expeditions. Green Team also works with a number of
major corporations, helping them with their
environmental and cause campaign. These include
Johnson & Johnson, BP and Coca-Cola. Hugh was
recently selected by Al Gore and The Climate Project
to be one of 1,000 individuals chosen to present a
modified version of Gore’s presentation about global
warming, chronicled in the film, An Inconvenient
Truth. |
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Gordon Janow - Director of
Programs, Alpine Ascents International
Gordon Janow – A founding member and Director of
Programs of Alpine Ascents International, Gordon has
been wondering the globe much of the last twenty
years, ( though much less in recent times as he and
his wife dawn attempt to raise kids August and
Cordelia). Much of his interest has been on the
Indian subcontinent where has spent four years
roaming greater Hindustan/Pakistan. His recent
interests are in remote areas of India such as
Nagaland. Other special places in the this travelers
heart include Yemen, Iran and Mongolia. Gordon is
also a board member of the Sherpa Education Fund.
Gordon has spoken at may venues throughout the years
and taught a few semesters of writing – looking at
the intersections of travel and fiction. He has
published fiction and travel essay in the US and
India. Gordon wrote eastern time, a compilation of
prose, poetry and photographs based on travels in
India. He has published works in such places as
MSNBC, The Times of India , Outpost magazine, The
Himalayan Explorers Journal the Raven Chronicles and
on numerous travel websites. |
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Kevin Johnson - President,
Deluxe Digital Media, Inc.
As President of
Deluxe Digital Media, Inc.,
Kevin is an industry expert with over 11 years of
experience in Web Technology, Design, Strategy, and
Online Marketing. Applying his expertise to a wide
range of industries, Kevin's clients have included
Birkenstock, Scharffen Berger Chocolate, and The San
Francisco Zoo, as well as many premier Adventure
Travel Outfitters such as Backroads, Canadian
Mountain Holidays, and Mountain Travel Sobek to name
a few. He also served as the Curriculum Director of
San Francisco State University Multimedia Studies
Program from where he helped to create one of the
world's first online training programs. Kevin has
contributed his time and expertise as a judge for
the Web Marketing Association for the past 4 years. |
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Simon
Jones - Vice
President of Operations, Solimar International
Simon Jones has over 8 years of
experience in tourism development, tourism market
access, strategic planning, business development,
and marketing. Simon is a principle and Vice
President of Operations for Solimar International.
His other professional experience includes work as a
tourism consultant for the National Geographic
Society – Center for Sustainable Destinations, US
Agency for International Development, the US
Department of State, The Conservation Fund, George
Washington University (GWU) and Lewa Wildlife
Conservancy (Kenya). He has also worked as a
researcher at the International Institute of Tourism
Studies (GWU), as Ecotourism Coordinator for The
Conservation Fund (a national conservation
organization), a Safari Guide in Kenya and Tanzania,
and a Ranger in the North Carolina Zoo. Simon holds
a Master’s degree in Tourism Administration -
Sustainable Destination Management form the George
Washington University School of Business. |
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Judy
Karwacki -
President, Small Planet Consulting
Judy Karwacki is an international tourism
consultant, with more than 20 years of industry
experience. She has also owned a retail travel
agency for more than 20 years. Her project portfolio
reaches from North America to the Caribbean, Central
America, South America and Asia. She has worked on
projects for the US Agency for International
Development, Canadian International Development
Agency, Organization of American States, The
International Ecotourism Society and International
Institute for Peace through Tourism. Judy is a
sustainable and niche tourism expert, and has worked
throughout much of the Caribbean in the development
of nature/eco-tourism, birding tourism, cultural
tourism, agri-tourism, horticultural tourism, and
community tourism,. Her key interest is tourism that
provides communities with sustainable long-term
economic, social and cultural benefits while
protecting in their natural and cultural heritage. |
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Michael Kaye - President,
Costa Rica/Nicaragua Expeditions
Born December 11, 1941, is not only the CEO and
President of CRE but also a pioneer in eco-tourism
and adventure travel. In 1978, Michael started the first rafting
company in Costa Rica. Since that time his vision and focus have
created a company that is known the world around for its high quality
of service and it's dedication to sustainable development. Michael's
writings include the ecotourism essay for the 15th anniversary
issue of CONDENAST TRAVELER, and the forward on eco-lodge design
for JUNGLE LUXE, a coffee table book on, "Indigenous-Style
Hotel and Remote Resort Design Around the World," by Justin
Henderson. When he is not at work (rarely) or pounding out emails
(always) you will find him and his wife of 28 years, Yolanda, cruising
the roads and trails of Costa Rica on their tandem mountain bike. Michael
was also a guest speaker at the ATTA's 2005 Adventure Travel World
Summit. |
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Karen
Kefauver -
Freelance Journalist
Karen Kefauver is a freelance journalist who
specializes in writing stories on adventure travel
and endurance sports. After a stint as an editor at
a weekly entertainment guide, Karen launched her
freelance writing career 11 years ago with a story
on the challenges of learning to surf. She became a
regular contributor to the San Jose Mercury News’
Outside section and later wrote for Triathlete, Yogi
Times, South Bay Accent and Velo News Cycling.
Currently, she serves as an outdoors writer for the
travel website
Away.com and
contributes to Her Sports, Adventure Travel and
Singletrack. She captures her passion for roadside
trapezes, backcountry kayaking, mountain biking,
cenote-swimming and other offbeat adventures with
both stories and photos – her digital images have
been published with her stories in The San Francisco
Chronicle Magazine and The San Jose Mercury News,
among others. Based in Santa Cruz, CA, Karen enjoys
an active yoga practice and also competes in
cross-country mountain biking and cyclocross bike
racing. Although she never mastered surfing, Karen
is always eager to try new sports, eat exotic foods
and bridge cultural divides in a quest to satisfy
her natural curiosity. For more information, visit
www.karenkefauver.com. |
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Kurt Kutay - Founding
Director & 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. |
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Nandini Lahe-Thapa -
Director-Tourism Marketing & Promotion, Nepal
Tourism Board
Nandini Lahe-Thapa, Director – Tourism
Marketing & Promotion joined Nepal Tourism Board in
1999. With more than 18 years experience in
marketing and promoting Nepal globally, Ms. Thapa
has a substantial knowledge and expertise in the
tourism field. Friendly, sunny natured, Nandini is
fluent in 6 languages including German and French.
Widely traveled and global, Nandini has participated
in all major tourism events world-wide and has made
tourism related presentations at major forums
nationally and internationally. Nandini also served
as a PATA Board of Director for the years 2001-2003.
In addition to the present assignment, Nandini is
also the focal person for the UNEP aided Marketing
Assistance for Sustainable Tourism , MAST-Nepal
project. |
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Kristin
Lamoureux -
Director, Int'l Institute of Tourism Studies, The
George Washington University
Kristin Lamoureux is the Director of the
International Institute of Tourism Studies at The
George Washington University, as well as an adjunct
faculty member of the Department of Tourism and
Hospitality Management, specializing in the planning
and development of sustainable tourism. Currently,
her duties include the oversight of all IITS
activities including the Career Education Program
and the administration of all grants/contracts such
as the Potomac Heritage National Scenic Trail
Interactive Guide project with the US National Park
Service and a USAID project focused on Sustainable
Tourism Development in Rural Areas of Mozambique.
Additionally, she is involved in several projects
focusing on the development of tourism competitive
clusters as a means for economic development in
various destinations including Bulgaria, Dominican
Republic and others. Ms Lamoureux served as a
consultant on a World Bank funded project entitled
"Honduras: Sustainable Coastal Tourism Project"
intended to lessen poverty in the Northern Coastal
regions of Honduras. She has also worked as tourism
consultant to the United States Environmental
Protection Agency, the Ecotourism Society, and
Conservation International, among others.
Ms. Lamoureux has been involved in tourism projects
within the United States as well as abroad beginning
with Ecuador where she lived for several years. She
has an A.S. from La Universidad Catolica del
Ecuador, a B.S. from Johnson and Wales University in
Rhode Island and a M.T.A. (Master of Tourism
Administration) from The George Washington
University in Washington, DC. She is presently
completing a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a
focus on Strategic Management and Tourism
Development at the same university. |
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Nadia Billia LeBon -
Director of Polar and Special Programs, Mountain
Travel Sobek
Nadia has been involved in trekking and adventure
travel since 1978. She started leading treks to Asia
for an Italian trekking company while still living
in her home country, and later moved to California
in the early ‘80s. She has worked with Mountain
Travel Sobek since 1985 in different functions
including supervising all field operations. She has
traveled extensively on Mountain Travel Sobek’s
trips and private expeditions to remote corners of
the world. She is currently managing the polar
program, as well as media relations & special
projects. Her most recent trips in 2007 have been to
Fiji, Japan, Peru, and a climb of Mt Shasta to raise
funds for The Breast Cancer Fund. In the next few
months, she will be visiting family in Italy, and
later travel to South Georgia and Antarctica. Nadia
LeBon is a member of the Society of Woman
Geographers and has a strong interest in travel
books, and poetry. On weekends, she can be found
hiking, sailing and kayaking in San Francisco Bay. |
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Thornton May - World Bank
Futurist
Thornton May is one of the world’s most respected and best
connected practitioners of the science of man [a.k.a. -
anthropology] chronicling the frequently pre-hysteric
tribal behaviors of urban cave dwellers as they try to
come to grips with an over-connected, over-caffeinated,
over-accelerated, over-teched, and under-adventured world.
Thornton is a trusted advisor assisting organizations as
diverse as Toyota, Mattel, Cisco Systems, Burlington
Northern Railroad, the FBI, the World Bank, Motorola,
Liberty Mutual, General Electric and Dreamworks S.K.G.
figure out ‘what comes after what comes next.’ Thornton
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