DO AUS Speaker Announcement 005
March 13, 2014 Category: Bulletin Follow DO AUS
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The DO Australia team are hitting the ground running with only mere weeks to go before their inaugural event this April. They have two more speakers locked in and confirmed, get to know them here.
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1. Geoff Manchester / Intrepid Co-Founder
It was while Geoff was on a cycling tour in China in 1987 that he began to wonder why group tours needed to stay in luxurious hotels and have organised banquets for every meal. Surely there must be another way to travel, with the advantages of a group, but living and travelling more like independent travellers do?
Two years later Geoff was leading the first Intrepid trip to Thailand and before long Intrepid was running trips all over Asia, with passengers from all around the world. Intrepid is now recognised as a world leader in adventure travel and especially in ‘responsible travel’, with over 350 local leaders working in 110 countries, introducing travellers to the ‘real life experiences’ of the Intrepid style of travel.
Since the early days Intrepid has continually supported people and communities in need. Now, through The Intrepid Foundation, it supports 45 small on-the-ground NGO projects as well as 10 international NGO’s. Intrepid is happy to stand out on issues of importance, such as global warming, protecting the north-west shelf or the benefit of girls’ education.
Try asking Geoff about the Intrepid culture. Chances are he will not mention something important as he sees it as normal, when it is in fact at the forefront of company practice.
2. Mark Reeves / Mayor of East Gippsland Shire Council and Founding Principal Alpine School
Mark Reeves has always had a keen interest in and passion for leadership, physical and outdoor education and health and wellbeing – an interest he lives and breathes. His particular leadership focus is mentoring, surrounding oneself with great people and leadership as a verb. Not a position but an action!
He has undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate degrees from Melbourne University and in Outdoor Pursuits from Plas-Y-Brennin in North Wales, UK. They were tough days in Wales at a demanding training centre – this was where Shipton and Mallory of early Everest fame undertook their training! Ghosts abounded in those hallowed halls and crags.
In 1999 he established the Alpine School, Dinner Plain. The school now has three campuses with the Snowy River Campus at Marlo and the Gnurad-Gundidj Campus at Glenormiston. It is the only school of its type in a government system in the world.
Mark has always been active in the local community – he is a volunteer firefighter (Lieutenant) with the CFA and has chaired the Dinner Plain Community Centre. He coached hockey for Orbost and East Gippsland, is a volunteer for Marlo Coast Guard, is on the Curlip Paddle Steamer committee and was elected Mayor in November 2013.
Mark lives in Marlo at the mouth of the Snowy River and loves "things and people that go!"