Leadership and Management |
Chris Seek, President |
 Chris Seek is president of Solimar International and has over 10 years of experience in marketing and sustainable tourism development. Chris founded Solimar in 2002 after traveling 6 months through Latin America providing digital marketing services to more then 200 small tourism enterprises in 11 different countries. Over the last 7 years with Solimar, Chris has applied his professional background in marketing and corporate social responsibility with his own personal travel experiences (more then 45 countries) to design sustainable tourism development strategies that provide tangible results to both our clients and targeted beneficiaries. Prior to working in tourism, Chris worked as a marketing professional for Fortune 500 clients including Heineken, Sony, Perrier, GE, and others. Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in Communications form Wake Forest University and a Masters of Business Administration from American University with concentrations in Sustainable Destination Management and Marketing.
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Simon Jones, Vice President |
 Simon has over 10 years of experience in tourism development and operations and has a Masters of Tourism Administration from the School of Business at George Washington University, Washington DC. His areas of expertise include business and strategic planning, market access, product development, training and tourism operations. In addition to working with small and micro-enterprises, Simon has experience developing and implementing action-oriented strategies for destinations, parks, and tourism associations in various countries. Simon’s professional experience includes work directly with government tourism boards, USAID, The National Geographic Society – Center for Sustainable Destinations, The Conservation Fund, George Washington University, and the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy (Kenya). He has also worked as a researcher at the International Institute of Tourism Studies, as Ecotourism Coordinator for The Conservation Fund, a Safari Guide in Kenya and Tanzania, and a Ranger in the North Carolina Zoo.
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Dr. Don Hawkins, Principal |
 Dr. Don Hawkins is an expert in tourism policy, strategic planning, workforce development and management education with 40 years of international experience. In 2003, he received the first World Tourism Organization (WTO) Ulysses Prize for individual accomplishments in the creation and dissemination of knowledge in the area of tourism policy and strategic management. Don holds the endowed Eisenhower Professor of Tourism Policy Chair at the George Washington University School of Business. Don has consulted all over the world including North American, Caribbean, Latin American, European, African, Middle East, and Asia/Pacific Regions. His doctoral degree was in Park Management, awarded by New York University in 1967. He is credited with over 110 publications, including books, journal articles, monographs, project reports and educational materials.
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Jim Phillips, Principal |
 Jim Phillips has 20 years of experience in international tourism consulting, including strategic planning for tourism development, small business and microenterprise development, hotel and tourism-related investment promotion, marketing and promotion, feasibility studies and economic impact analyzes. Prior to becoming an independent consultant, Jim worked for Arthur Andersen LLP and Arthur Consulting Group International, completing assignments in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, Russia, and the Middle East. Jim also served as Director of Tourism Development Programs for the U.S. Department of Commerce, Office of Latin America and the Caribbean, where he conducted programs and events for more than 30 countries in the LA/C region. Programs included hotel investment missions and conferences, investment promotion strategy development, tourism planning, and product development and assessment missions. Work at the Commerce Department also included providing technical assistance to entrepreneurs and small businesses to establish and operate a range of tourism and export-oriented enterprises. Jim holds a Bachelor's degree in economics from Eckerd College and a Master's degree in International Business from the American Graduate School of International Management, Thunderbird campus.
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Matthew Humke, Director of Enterprise Development |
 Over the last fifteen years, Matt Humke has pioneered an approach to building community-based tourism enterprises that directly support biodiversity conservation and poverty alleviation efforts in protected areas throughout the developing world. First working with Native American communities such as the White Mountain Apache Tribe in Arizona, next as Rare Conservation’s Senior Manager of Enterprises in Latin America & the Caribbean, and now managing Solimar’s small business development projects around the world.
The community-based tourism enterprises Matt has helped to establish, such as “La Ruta Moskitia” in Honduras, have generated more than $5 million for local economies over the last ten years. The success of these enterprises in conservation and poverty alleviation has resulted in a number of the industry’s top honors, including a Tourism for Tomorrow award, a Responsible Tourism award, and inclusion on both Condé Nast Traveler’s “Green List” and National Geographic Adventure’s “Best Adventure Travel Companies on Earth”.
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Natalie Sellier, Director of Finance and Operations |
 Natalie has more than six years of professional experience in business planning, accounting, and project management. In 2007, she left the capital markets industry to serve as a tourism consultant for Istanbul’s Ministry of Tourism—assessing the city’s tourism product, analyzing its sustainable tourism practices, and making recommendations for future development. Since then, Natalie has been managing sustainable tourism projects throughout Latin America and Africa. She utilizes her business background to assist small tourism enterprises and destination management organizations achieve financial sustainability by way of strategic business planning, public-private partnerships, and market linkages. Natalie recently facilitated the creation of a destination management organization and tourism information center in Bocas del Toro, Panama. She also helped establish the “Amigos de las Areas Protegidas” program—a marketing platform and Web site encouraging visitation to—and conservation of—Ecuador’s protected areas. Natalie holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from James Madison University and a Master’s in Business Administration from The George Washington University with a degree focus in sustainable destination management.
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David Brown, Program Manager |
 David C. Brown is a tourism consultant specializing in sustainable destination development. He has worked on assignments in southeast Europe and the Caribbean focusing on business linkage development, public-private partnership, tourism planning, destination management, online marketing, and workforce development. David has also participated in research projects, marketing initiatives, and PR campaigns for the Travel Industry Association, The Republic of Georgia, US Department of Commerce Office of Travel and Tourism Industries, and the International Institute of Tourism Studies. David holds a Masters of Tourism Administration and a Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.
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Jennifer Park, Program Manager |
 Jennifer is a tourism consultant specializing in sustainable destination development. She has worked on assignments in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Middle East focusing on business linkage development, public-private partnerships, tourism planning, destination management, and workforce development. Jennifer's professional experience includes six years of project management for USAID contracts.
She designed the winning $28 million tourism program for USAID/Jordan, including the technical strategy, work plan, and performance management plan, and wrote the project’s community assessment, institutional framework assessment, training assessment, and small grants plan for activities in Petra, one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Jennifer holds a Masters of Tourism Administration from the George Washington University in Washington, DC, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY.
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Maria Lucia Prinz, Product Development and Training Specialist |
 Maria Lucia Prinz has worked in the ecotourism industry for 12 years, developing community based tourism enterprises and linking theses enterprises to support conservation. Lucia has helped develop a number of ecotourism enterprises in Central America and the Caribbean, and specializes in training staff in tourism operations and nature guide training through a proven methodology. Lucia also has expertise in the areas of business planning, product development, sales and marketing.
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Laura Ell, Marketing and Public Relations Specialist |
 Laura has over 12 years of tourism experience working for the private and non-profit sectors, academia, development agencies and governmental organizations. Her qualifications are focused in the area of niche tourism marketing and public relations for sustainable tourism products and destinations. Laura’s experience includes representing award-winning Jungle Bay Resort & Spa in Dominica, as well as being advisor to destination marketing organizations such as the Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau and Travel Alberta in Canada. She is also past Director of Communications and Membership for The International Ecotourism Society (TIES). Laura has lived in 7 countries and traveled or worked in 35 giving her a comprehensive understanding of cultural, socio-economic and environmental issues relevant to sustainable tourism development. She is Canadian and holds a Degree in Ecotourism and Outdoor Leadership.
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Katie Hardin, Office Administrator |
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 Katie comes to Solimar with several years of office management experience, primarily in the energy sector. Before joining Solimar, Katie worked with Murphy USA as a recruiting, training, and communication specialist where she managed a community sponsorship program and planned corporate recruiting and training events.
Katie, a native North Dakotan, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science and history from Ouachita Baptist University. She lives with her husband in Washington, D.C.
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Technical Advisors |
Juan J. Luna-Kelser, Sustainable Tourism Specialist |
 Mr. Luna-Kelser has farreaching international experience in preparing and managing large-scale projects as a result of thirty years at the Inter-American Development Bank, with special emphasis in tourism policy, planning and development and related issues to build capacity and improve the competitiveness of the tourism sector in several countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Since 2007, he has worked on the development of global baseline criteria for sustainable tourism in the lodging and tour operator sectors and on the assessment and development of sustainable tourism projects in Bolivia, Panama and India for the World Bank. Other recent assignments include completion of a Geotourism assessment of the ecological, economic and social issues--on a regional scale, affecting the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca for National Geographic Society’s Center for Sustainable Destinations and the World Bank. Fluent in English, Spanish and Portuguese, he has also provided training courses in rural and community based tourism and is currently both an Ambassador for National Geographic’s Center for Sustainable Destinations that promotes Geotourism and evaluates international tourism destinations and an Adjunct Professor at George Washington University's Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management, School of Business, teaching community-based tourism.
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Milena S. Nikolova, Managing Director of Solimar Europe |
 Milena S. Nikolova holds a Doctoral degree in Marketing and Tourism from The George Washington University School of Business. She has professional experience as a consultant, professional trainer and academic instructor. Milena has worked on programs in a number of countries, including Armenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Jordan, Macedonia, Montenegro, Panama, Serbia, the United States and Turkey. She has experience with projects focused on destination management, marketing and positioning; travel trends and behavior; sustainable tourism development; capacity building and workforce development. During her career, she has worked on programs supported by USAID, the European Union, UNDP and others. Milena holds a Masters degree in Social and Organizational Psychology from Sofia University. She speaks English, Russian, German and Bulgarian. Milena is based in Southeast Europe and currently heads Solimar Europe in Sofia, Bulgaria.
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Pascal Languillon |
 Pascal is an expert in sustainable tourism development and ecotourism with over 7 years of experience. He holds a Masters degree in Environmental Science from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He started his career doing research for the Tourism Research Institute in New Zealand, before relocating to the Ecuadorian Amazon where he crafted and implemented an ecotourism project. He then developed and implemented the Regional Ecotourism Strategy of the Moheli Island in the Comoros, before working on several sustainable tourism related projects for the European Union & several French regional councils. He is currently working for Solimar on a USAID-funded project in Mali.Pascal has extensive travel experience, having traveled to forty-five countries in the last ten years and visited dozens of ecotourism projects throughout the world. He is the founder of the French Ecotourism Association, the director of www.voyagespourlaplanete.com, France's leading ecotravel portal. He recently wrote a responsible travel guidebook for Lonely Planet, Le Guide du Routard, and he is currently working with The Chic Collection.
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Costas Christ |
 Costas Christ is an internationally renowned expert on sustainable tourism and an award-wining travel writer. His portfolio includes Global Travel Editor for National Geographic Adventure, Green Travel Columnist for Virtuoso Life Magazine and his many articles and essays on travel and tourism have appeared in numerous leading publications, including the New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Boston Globe and Sunday Times of London. Costas also serves as the Chairman for the World Travel and Tourism Council - Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, which recognizes best practices in sustainable tourism. He is one of the pioneers of sustainable tourism, serving as a founding member and former Chairman of the Board of The International Ecotourism Society. He serves on the Advisory Board of WTM World Responsible Tourism Day, is a Special Advisor to The Leading Travel Companies Conservation Foundation, and is an Executive Board member of Sustainable Travel International. His work has taken him to more than 100 countries across six continents to support tourism as opportunity for protecting the environment and sustaining the social and economic well being of local communities. He has appeared many times on television and radio, including The Today Show, National Public Radio, Good Morning America, CNN, BBC, CBS, and PBS, to discuss sustainable tourism. A dynamic speaker, Costas was also honored in 2008 as travel and tourism ‘Visionary of the Year’ by the International Hotel and Restaurant Awards.
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Field Staff |
Kaddu K. Sebunya, Chief of Party STAR Uganda Program |
Mr. Kaddu Sebunya is the Chief of Party for STAR Uganda Program.
Kaddu is country Team Leader of the STAR-Uganda program supported by the USAID-Uganda Mission. This program is intended to support conservation of biodiversity through reduction of constraints for local entrepreneurs in developing sustainable tourism businesses and connecting them to the value chain by providing support to facilitate local entrepreneurs—especially women. Kaddu is responsible for in country technical and managerial aspects of this program. . He also provides technical design support to Solimar programs in Africa.
Prior to joining Solimar, Kaddu had over 20 years of professional experience at different levels of work, ranging from grassroots to national and regional technical support in USA, Africa, South America and Asia. He had worked with Oxfam UK, the World Conservation Union - IUCN, USA Peace Corps, Conservation International, and the African Wildlife Foundation.
His technical area of expertise included strategic planning and analysis, program feasibility assessments and design, and community-based strategy program development in different sectors, such as tourism planning, rural development, relief and emergency refugee programs, water and environmental sanitation programs, program monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, and in peace mediation and negotiations.
Kaddu has a bachelor’s degree in Social Development, Makerere University, Uganda, a Master of Arts degree in Law and Diplomacy, the Fletcher School, Tufts University (USA); and a Master of Science in Sustainable Resource Management and Policy Imperial College Wye, London University (UK).
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Brad Weiss, Ethiopia Sustainable Tourism Alliance |
 Brad is leading the product development, market access, and investment promotion efforts in Ethiopia for the USAID-ESTA project. Previously, he led the identification of product development opportunities in Ecuador.
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Hamilton McNutt, Ecuador Sustainable Tourism Alliance |
 Hamilton is a member of the USAID-Ecuador Sustainable Tourism Alliance implementation team and has been working within Ecuador’s protected areas to develop and promote three new product development opportunities. This has included assisting in the delivery of intensive training programs in both operations and guiding.
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Jascivan Carvalho, Ecuador Sustainable Tourism Alliance |
 Jascivan has worked in Ecuador for over 5 years helping communities develop ecotourism enterprises and programs. He is currently supporting Solimar’s work on the development of four community tourism enterprises in and around Ecuador’s protected areas with the Ecuadorian Sustainable Tourism Alliance.
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Olivier Messmer, Dominican Republic Sustainable Tourism Alliance |
 Olivier Messmer joined Solimar in September 2008 to work on DSTA program. With a strong knowledge of the Dominican Eco-tourism sector , Olivier is responsible for community tourism product development, including helping to promote and link these new enterprises to the market.
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Pilar Constanzo, Dominican Republic Sustainable Tourism Alliance |
 Pilar has over 12 years of experience teaching hospitatlity and tourism at the University UNIBE in the Dominican Republic. She began working for the Dominican Republic Sustainable Tourism Alliance in October 2008 and is responsible for assisting each of the sustainable tourism clusters transition into self-sustainable destination management organizations through participatory business planning.
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Ashley Silver, Dominican Republic Sustainable Tourism Alliance |
 Ashley is Solimar’s Product Development and Training Coordinator for the Domincan Sustainable Tourism Alliance. Based in Santo Domingo, Ashley coordinates a small grants program of the USAID-DSTA that helps communities develop tourism businesses that support conservation and social programs. In her role, she administers technical assistance for community businesses, monitors the grant process, develops communication materials, conducts “train the trainer” and direct community training workshops, authors community business planning materials and helps develop sales and marketing strategies. In 2009 she will help launch 5 sustainable community tourism businesses throughout the country.
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Vicki Brown, USAID-Conservation of Central American Watersheds Program (Bocas del Toro, Panama) and the Ecuador Sustainable Tourism Alliance |
 Vicki began working with the USAID-Ecuador Sustainable Tourism Alliance as a travel writer through recruiting businesses to join the Amigos de las Areas Protegidas Program and collecting content for the initiative’s web site. She also utilizes her graphic design background to help design logo concepts for the community-based enterprises under development through the GSTA-Ecuador program. Vicki is now working for the USAID-CCAW program in Bocas del Toro, Panama—designing logos and sales sheets, writing content for web sites and printed materials, recruiting members to join the Bocas Sustainable Tourism Alliance, and assisting this newly established destination management organization open a tourism information center in Isla Colon.
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Eric Lin, Dominican Republic Sustainable Tourism Alliance |
 Eric is a member of the USAID-Dominican Sustainable Tourism Alliance product development team based in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Eric is currently working to develop new products in the Natural Monument, La Loma Isabel de Torres, and to strengthen the Puerto Plata Cluster.
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Mitzy Campeseco, USAID-Conservation of Central American Watersheds Program (Izabal, Guatemala) |
 Mitzy is the program coordinator for the USAID-CCAW Program in the Gulf of Honduras and is assisting local stakeholders establish local and regional Geotourism Stewardship Councils to strengthen business linkages among diverse stakeholder groups and facilitate a dialogue for destination stewardship. Mitzy will also help develop a travelers philanthropy fund that will encourage travelers to give donations in support of conservation.
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Francisco Cabanas, USAID-Conservation of Central American Watersheds Program (Roatan, Honduras) |
 Francisco is the program coordinator for the USAID-CCAW Program in the Gulf of Honduras and is assisting local stakeholders establish local and regional Geotourism Stewardship Councils to strengthen business linkages among diverse stakeholder groups and facilitate a dialogue for destination stewardship. Francisco is also an experienced guide trainer.
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Laura Burns, USAID-Conservation of Central American Watersheds Program (Izabal, Guatemala) |
 Laura is the Izabal Marketing Coordinator for the USAID Sustainable Tourism Initiative in the Gulf of Honduras Region. Based in Livingston, Guatemala, she is putting her journalistic background to use creating witty destination content to promote the unique culture and attractions of the Rio Dulce area. She is also working to recruit members of the community to serve on geotourism stewardship councils. Laura has experience in grant writing, project development, investigative reporting, and has also traveled extensively throughout Asia, South America and Mexico.
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Daniel Fridman, Ecuador Sustainable Tourism Alliance |
 Daniel is a Community Enterprise Specialist assisting the tourism enterprises created under the Ecuador Sustainable Tourism Alliance. His work will include helping the enterprises achieve economic, social, and environmental sustainability as well as assist in promotion, marketing and sales.
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Our Team
