Journeys With Purpose provides immersive Hosted Experiences with inspirational leaders, extraordinary “People With Purpose”. Our mission: to catalyse the celebration and advancement of nature conservation projects across the world by facilitating access to the world’s wildest corners during inspirational journeys of hope.
People
with Purpose
OUR IMPACT AMBASSADORS
Our Impact Ambassadors are men and women who share our mission to celebrate and advance nature restoration through connection with the natural world. We are thrilled to have their support and for their advocacy to help champion the remarkable people, places and projects we are fortunate enough to work alongside.
Professor Alastair Driver
Director of Rewilding Britain
Prof Alastair Driver has been immersed in nature and nature conservation since he was a toddler clinging onto his naturalist father’s coat-tails on birding trips in the early 1960s.
He was privileged to be appointed as the first conservationist for the Thames catchment in 1984 and went on to become the national Head of Conservation of the Environment Agency in the UK for 15 years, before taking “early retirement” from public service in 2016 and almost immediately becoming the Director of the newly established charity Rewilding Britain. Since then he has been thoroughly enjoying the challenge of mainstreaming rewilding as a crucially important part of the solution to nature recovery in Britain.
In his “spare time”, Alastair has had the privilege of visiting over 50 countries around the world for public speaking, advisory and exploration purposes and he has been hugely inspired by the many conservation success stories he has encountered in the process. He is therefore delighted to become an Ambassador for Journeys with Purpose and he is particularly excited by the prospect of visiting rewilding sites around the world with like-minded individuals passionate about the large-scale restoration of nature.
Lorna Buchanan-Jardine
Photographer & Conservationist
Building on her career as a photographer, Lorna moved to Kenya and spent seven years living in the Masai Mara. There she managed and built high-end safari camps for Great Plains Conservation, taught photographic safaris for ‘Wild Studios’, and worked in community conservation for The Maa Trust, helping to establish Maa Beadwork cooperative to empower five hundred local women to support their families across the greater Mara ecosystem.
Following this chapter, Lorna moved to Indonesia and worked for the founders of The Green School in Bali managing their hotel, Bambu Indah, during which time she also photographed for many organisations around the archipelago, including the Environmental Bamboo Foundation. She currently lives between Costa Rica and the UK.
Sam Sutaria
CEO of WaterBear
Sam is the CEO of the WaterBear Network: a B Corp-certified interactive streaming platform, learning academy and content studio dedicated to the future of our planet.
WaterBear transforms documentaries into popcorn worthy entertainment; turns people into active doers from passive viewers; and, ultimately cares more about measuring real-world impact than collecting awards. From pioneering storytelling training workshops across the Sahel in Africa, to spearheading global impact campaigns with NGOs across the world, WaterBear – and its partner, the Resilient Foundation – are innovating a new definition of success for the global media industry.
Prior to roles at WaterBear, Sam was the GM of The European Nature Trust (TENT), produced content and campaigns at Nice and Serious, and trained with the BBC’s Natural History Unit in Bristol. Sam is also the Founder of social enterprise DrawFor, and a Trustee of the Hartswood Trust and London Breeze Film Festival (re-launching 2024). He is a passionate conservationist and photographer, and is deeply committed to providing opportunities for the next generation of creative storytellers. He fundamentally believes that if you want to change human behaviour, the only thing that beats impactful storytelling is a transformative travel experience.
Sarah Woodhead
Co-founder of the Leuser Ecosystem Action Fund
Sarah’s passion focuses on preserving wild, intact land and forests for the keystone species that depend on their habitat conservation.
She works closely with Space for Giants, and is an Ambassador for Panama Wildlife Conservation. Sarah co-founded the Leuser Ecosystem Action Fund (LEAF) alongside partners Ben Goldsmith and Leonardo Di Caprio Foundation, to protect 2.4 million hectares of pristine rainforest in Northern Sumatra where the last of Sumatra’s remaining orangutans, tigers, rhinos, and elephants can be found.
She has additionally helped to redesign and rebrand the islands of Islas Secas in Panama, a luxury desert island offering with sustainability and community at the forefront of its vision, as well as being a Journeys With Purpose Ambassador.
Sarah is thrilled to be an Ambassador for Journeys With Purpose because she believes both that seeing with your own eyes is the best way to understand these conservation efforts, and that making these experiences into an informative holiday is both pleasurable and rewarding. These journeys are eco tourism at its best!
Sophie Gandet
Board Member, Conservationist & Philanthropy Consultant
Sophie carries a profound commitment to rewilding, wildlife conservation and fostering biodiversity. With a background in hospitality management and enriched by her experiences in the South African bush, she has developed a deep passion for building bridges between people and nature.
Having explored all seven continents, Sophie’s firsthand encounters with diverse ecosystems have fuelled her dedication to wildlife conservation. As a conference speaker, she advocates passionately for the preservation of our planet’s natural heritage, drawing from her rich experiences and insights.
Her extensive experience as a board member, coupled with her innate love for wildlife, has led Sophie to embark on a journey dedicated to rewilding and conservation. Her aim is to utilize her hospitality management skills and her firsthand experiences from time in the South African bush to support initiatives that facilitate connections between communities and their natural environments.
With a unique blend of expertise in hospitality management, education, health coaching and leadership, Sophie, stemming from a long line of Swedish industrialists, is poised to make significant contributions to conservation and biodiversity efforts. She is committed to fostering collaborations on the ground and pioneering new initiatives aimed at preserving our planet’s rich ecosystems.
Taran Gehlot
Founder & Director of Soul Safaris
Taran Kaur Gehlot has a profound love for nature and a deep commitment to the protection of our planet’s biodiversity. Growing up in Kenya, she developed a deep appreciation for wildlife and the interconnectedness of all living beings. Her passion for conservation led her to actively contribute as a board member of the Zeitz Foundation. She also serves as the Regional Daughter for Kenya for Daughters for Earth, a commendable campaign which is dedicated to revealing the power of women on the frontlines of conservation and environmental protection, and that aims to raise a staggering $100 million to directly support these impactful women.
Realising the importance of fostering personal connections between individuals and the natural world, Taran founded Soul Safaris. By facilitating transformative experiences in nature, Soul Safaris not only allows individuals to reconnect with their wild-primordial selves and our incredible Planet Earth but also instills them with a profound sense of responsibility towards its protection. Her purpose is clear: to champion the cause of Earth’s preservation, protecting biodiversity and inspiring others to do the same! She is thrilled to join as a JWP Ambassador and is excited to fulfil more of her purpose through this beautiful collaboration.
PARTNER PROJECT FOUNDERS
Paul Lister
Belize | The European Nature Trust
For the last 20+ years TENT has continued to support conservation and wildlife foundations across Scotland, Mediterranean and east European countries, whilst Alladale has been transformed into a pioneering Wilderness Reserve where nature restoration and green tourism are central to its mission.
For the past decade, Paul has spent many winter weeks exploring Belize and discovering its incredible nature and wonderful people. TENT’s remit now spans from the Atlantic to Belize, where the Unknown Belize film series has become the charity’s largest and most recent endeavor in the country.
Zainab Salbi & Rachel Rivera
Kenya | Daughters For Earth
At the age of 23, Zainab founded Women for Women International, a humanitarian organisation dedicated to women survivors of wars. Under her leadership (1993–2011), Women for Women International grew from helping 30 women upon its inception to helping more than 420,000 women and distributing more than 100 million dollars in aid. She has frequently been named as one of the women changing the world by leading publications ranging from Newsweek to The Guardian. Oprah Winfrey identified her as one of the women changing the world to People Magazine and President Bill Clinton identified her as one of the 21st-century heroes to Harper’s Bazaar.
Rachel Rivera is the Chief Operating Officer of Wild Lives Foundation, a nonprofit organisation launched by Jody Allen and focused on climate, marine and wildlife conservation, arts and culture and other philanthropic initiatives. She serves on the board of One Earth Philanthropy, an organisation dedicated to accelerate collective action to solve the climate crisis through groundbreaking science, inspiring media, & an innovative approach to climate philanthropy. Previously, Rachel worked directly with Jody Allen in her role as the trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust and Chair of Vulcan Inc. on philanthropic initiatives.
Christoph & Barbara Promberger
Carpathia | Foundation Conservation Carpathia
Christoph and Barbara Promberger first came to Romania in 1993 as biologists working on a project to study and protect the large carnivores in the Carpathian forests. When this project ended in 2003, the couple were so encaptivated by the Carpathians’ incredible wilderness that they decided to stay in the region and set up Equus Silvania, an equestrian centre and small guest house near the national park.
After witnessing the devastating destruction of illegal logging on a hike through the forest in 2007, the Prombergers then started their passionate mission to protect and conserve the biodiversity of Europe’s last remaining virgin forest wilderness. By 2009, the Prombergers had founded Foundation Conservation Carpathia (FCC) together with a group of 12 philanthropists and conservationists.
Sofía Heinonen
Argentina | Fundación Rewilding Argentina
A lifelong activist, Sofía Heinonen led some of the first efforts to bring rewilding to South America more than 15 years ago with the restoration of the Iberá wetlands, the largest wetland ecosystem in Argentina, alongside Doug and Kristine Tompkins. As a biologist and leader, she has spent more than 30 years designing strategies for the creation of protected areas in Argentina, and leads the line in the continent’s most ambitious initiatives for reversing the species extinction crisis.
What she and her team have achieved, from the reintroduction of jaguar to the region following a 70 year disappearance to the creation of 7.6 million acres of national park across Argentina, is a remarkable achievement. Sofía has been recognised in BBC’s Most Influential Women of 2022.
Sean Gerrity
Montana | Great American Prairie
In 2001, Sean Gerrity joined conservation biologist, Dr. Curt Freese, to embark on a mission to assemble a 3.2-million-acre landscape and reintroduce all the wildlife species that once inhabited Montana’s northern Great Plains. It is an ambitious mission – to create the largest wildlife complex ever assembled in the continental United States.
Sean was born in Great Falls Montana and graduated from Montana State University. He lives with his wife Kayla in Bozeman Montana. Having co-founded Catalyst Consulting, a successful Silicon Valley business, he next turned his skills to creating a nature-based legacy on a monumental scale.
Sarah & Isabelle Tompkins
South Africa | Samara Karoo Reserve
Mother-daughter team, Sarah and Isabelle Tompkins, are dedicated to protecting the Great Karoo, South Africa, and reintroducing species to their 67,000 acres of restored and protected land, with an aim to expand this protected area to 3 million acres in the near futurel.
Originally from Johannesburg, Sarah and husband Mark Tompkins had known the Great Karoo as a desolate place that had lost all its wild beauty and abundant wildlife. In 1997, the Tompkins visited Monkey Valley farm and fell in love with its green and lush landscape following the recent rains. The couple decided to buy it, removed fencing and livestock and let the land recover for a few years before turning it into their rewilding passion project.
Today, over a quarter of a century later, Sarah runs the reserve with daughter Isabelle, who has inherited her parents’ drive to expand and protect the beautiful, semi-arid lands of the Great Karoo, holding the belief that humans should be “a part of nature, not apart from it”.
OUR TEAM
Duncan Grossart
Duncan Grossart is the Founder of Journeys With Purpose, with a great love of the natural world, wildernesses and travel. Journeys With Purpose is a member of 1% for the Planet, The Long Run, and a Certified B Corp, and as B Corp’s highest scoring travel company it’s been awarded “Best for the World: Environment 2022”.
Duncan passionately believes in restoring our relationship with the natural world, conserving landscapes and harmonising lives and prosperous communities. He joins as a co-host for flagship experiences, and shares their context in relation to other leading conservation and restoration projects throughout the world.
A zoology graduate (BSc + MSc), his career spans award-winning entrepreneurship through to environmental and nature conservation work and has been focused entirely on rewilding in recent years. His rewilding and landscape-scale restoration
Duncan is also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization, where he is a board member of the Planet Action Network, a committee member of the Global Impact Summit Rwanda 2024 and a Travel Network Minister.
Listen to his podcast with Rewilding Earth here – Spreading Rewilding Awareness and Advocacy via Journeys With Purpose
Venetia Martin
Venetia’s passion for exploration was sparked during teenage years spent in Maseru, Lesotho where she attended a local school and would spend weekends discovering the mountains. After studying Business Leadership & Management, an early career in London in marketing, design and advertising was overshadowed by the allure of Argentina, where she pursued a passion in equine therapy in Cordoba and learnt Spanish. She travelled extensively in Latin America and relocated to Buenos Aires, where she worked for a London based luxury travel company, leading sales and expanding their Latin offering. A curiosity for Central America took her to Costa Rica, where she spent three months driving across the country and discovering truly wild and unspoilt places. She started a travel advisory, working with a number of private ranches and reserves to create transformative experiences in, and for, conservation.
Venetia joined Journeys With Purpose as Partnerships Director in January 23 and from a home base in Madrid, is responsible for designing exceptional experiences with our network of remarkable conservation partners, to catalyse impact through transformative travel.
Lara Webster
Lara’s love for the natural world began with family holidays to the remote Isle of Mull which, despite its soggy climes, remains one of her favourite destinations for its vast wild spaces, wildlife and opportunities for solitude. At the polar end of the spectrum in terms of climate, Lara first travelled to Africa in 2013, a visit which sparked her ongoing adoration of this beautiful continent.
Over the years, she’s been lucky enough to return to Southern and East Africa, exploring Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa – with more to come. She joined Journeys With Purpose as Journey Planner in 2023, where she leads on Journeys to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. She has relished connecting with Impact Partners and conservation initiatives around the globe, working to share their remarkable efforts with curious travellers who seek to visit, engage with and contribute to positive impact on their journeys.
Katya Payne
Katya comes from a photography and film making background which is where her love of travel began. With a love of visual anthropology she sought to capture images of people immersed in their natural environment.
Taking every opportunity to travel, she spent time working and living in the cloud forest of Ecuador before travelling extensively through South America and Asia and studying film at Manchester and Melbourne universities.
Moving back to London she started a career in furniture design, becoming a director of a contemporary furniture company in London for 12 years. Now happily ensconced in the Cotswolds with her family, she joined Journeys With Purpose in 2022 and leads on Latin America, Asia and Nordic travel, delighting in connecting guests with remarkable people, places and projects around the world.
Eliza Norris
Eliza has a deep passion for travel which has led her to explore more than 40 countries across six continents. From hiking ancient pilgrimage trails across the Kii Peninsula in Japan to sailing through the remote San Blas Islands of Panama, her love of adventure in wild places has taken her to far flung corners of the world.
Embarking on a Geography degree, Eliza was able to continue learning about different places and spaces while focusing on the interaction between humans and the environment. Inspired by fieldwork in Israel and Syria, she began her career in security intelligence, specialising in climatic and travel risks globally. Seeking a new challenge that would marry her interests in exploration and the environment, Eliza joined Journeys With Purpose in 2023. As an Operations Manager she works behind the scenes to aid the day-to-day functioning of the company while helping to execute guests’ transformative journeys in wild nature.