Director and Co-founder

Growing up in a part of England that is mostly below sea level, it was perhaps understandable that Adele wanted to grow up to become an air hostess (so 1980s...). She spent her creative hours playing various musical instruments and singing, before studying Spanish and Russian at university. She managed to avoid a career as a frozen-fish-packer after a summer job went on a bit too long, and entered the travel industry in order to, well, "travel". Despite being deported from China to Russia as a student after being given some slightly hazy visa advice, she has generally made a success of it, and has been asked to do presentations and webinars on various continents about group travel. When not working, she lives with her children and a puppy. Given that Adele is genuinely able to chop a plank of wood in half with her bare hands, she has no trouble keeping the above in order... (she wishes...).

Director and Co-founder

Although she's British, Kate spent her early childhood in leafy Connecticut. She was practically perfect and demonstrated this by wanting to be Mary Poppins when she grew up. The love of musicals and dancing has never left her and she has even been known to strut her stuff on tables, although her fear of heights means that these are quite often low - think "coffee" rather than "dining". Her musical accompaniment of choice would be 1950s swing or, if feeling a little more daring, 1980s pop. She started her working life temping in a bank before being pushed to try travel and use her fluent Spanish, French and Italian language skills. Now part of her role is to keep an eye on our company figures, from which she relaxes by making lists and dreaming of sleeping on beaches, preferably in Australia. Her secret vice is Nutella - to paraphrase Julie Andrews, "just a spoonful of chocolate spread makes the workload go down..."

Global Business Development Manager / London International Music Festival Executive Director

Shannan hails from near Sydney, Australia, but has lived in seven different countries around the world with ancestors coming from Irish brewing stock (although she prefers champagne!). She dreamt of one day becoming Director-General of the UN. Sadly, it wasn't to be and so instead she turned her talents for peacekeeping and diplomacy to a career where they would actually be effective - teaching. She combined her degree with French and Mandarin and, whilst living in China for a while, she taught English at a top secret military facility for the Chinese elite (shhh - don't tell anyone). She moved to the travel industry after answering a small ad in between teaching jobs, and her proudest moment was becoming SYTA President and committing to the Student & Youth Travel Digest industry research project. She spent her 40th birthday in a rambling villa in Tuscany with friends from all over the world...many of whom are already saving up for her next milestone birthday!