The Team
Overseas Expeditions |
UK Programmes |
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| Georgia Spink Expedition Manager |
Justin Tarrant UK Manager of Youth Personal Development |
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| Charlie
Eustace Expedition Manager |
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Expedition Manager |
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Support Team |
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| Richard Mayon-White Commercial Director |
Peter Harvey Managing Director |
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| Catherine Rogers Advisor |
Christine Cooper Finance Manager |
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Finance |
Hugh Elkington Resources Manager |
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Dr Matt Ladbrook Company Doctor |
Samantha McElligott |
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Dr Caroline Baugh |
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Wilderness dog |
UK Programmes
Justin joined WE in November 2008 and manages the UK programmes. Justin's previous life saw him running an electrical engineering company, and in a bid to escape the office took on a number of outdoor qualifications including his summer Mountain Leader Award, Single Pitch Award and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). He used these skills to form an outdoor activity development company, and then made the move to Wilderness Expertise. Justin has yet to expand his travel wings to the wider globe, but spends lots of time hill-walking, climbing, mountain biking and generally getting muddy in the UK.
Overseas Expeditions
Georgia joined WE in late 2007 and has taken on the role of Expedition Manager working closely with the other members of the Overseas Team. Originally (and proudly!) from Whitby in North Yorkshire, she defected to the South due to a job in the bar industry. When working late nights and weekends became more pain than pleasure, she took the not too distant leap into the wine sales industry. Whilst in the role Georgia was able to pursue her interest in water sports and joined a local Dragon Boat Team. One year later she was representing Great Britain and had become a World Champion! This radical life-changing moment made Georgia re-think what she wanted from her work life and so she went back to university to study Sports Leadership.
This led to Georgia discovering Wilderness Expertise and she spent a hectic summer getting to know the company. It wasn't long before she'd worked her way in permanently and is now a very happy member of the team.
Georgia has been lucky enough to travel to several countries, including America, Canada, Mexico, Hong Kong, China, Australia, New Zealand, and numerous places in Europe – but she is yet to conquer the big ones of Africa and India. Her honeymoon in late 2008 will hopefully cross one of those off her to do list though!
Georgia is passionate about travel and sport and knows only too well about the fulfilment, excitement and challenges that both can provide. She hopes to venture to many new places whilst on board at WE and try out some new sports – she is already becoming quite proficient with a squash racket!
Charlie
Eustace 
Charlie's love of travel took wings when she headed to Argentina for a few
months during her Gap year; living with a family on a ranch, teaching English
and trying to learn Spanish. By the time she left Aberdeen University with
a Physical Geography BSc, her love of travel and the outdoors had been firmly
established and she knew that she wanted to combine both of these interests
in her future work.
In between travel to both Central and South America, Charlie spent 18 months
working for an overseas expedition provider where she was lucky enough to
lead an expedition to South Africa. Following this, she spent time in Central
America volunteering as a volcano guide where all the money made from the
clients went to a local charity for street children.
On her return, Charlie joined the Wilderness Expertise team as an Expedition
Manager, putting to good use her knowledge of the expedition world and overseas
travel. In her spare time she tries to take to the hills and do as much
outdoorsy stuff as living in the south of England will allow!
Mark’s love of the outdoors started at a young age through Scouts, Army Cadets and any other way he could find to spend time away from home and in the outdoors. Since these early days Mark has tried most outdoor activities but has a particular passion for hill walking and canoeing.
Mark had the pleasure of going to university in Ambleside in the Lake District where he furthered his passion for the outdoors whilst completing a degree in Outdoor Studies and working in an outdoor clothing and equipment shop. Following university Mark went climbing in Spain for a few months before lack of money forced him to get a proper job and after five years working for an outdoor clothing and equipment brand Mark found himself starting as an Expedition Manager with Wilderness Expertise where he has been happily working with the rest of the Overseas Team since July 2008.
Mark has travelled to many countries worldwide including Australia, America, China and Peru as well as much of Europe. He has yet to discover the delights of the African continent but is hoping to get out there later in 2009.
When he’s not in the office and there’s no rugby matches to watch Mark can generally be found somewhere in the mountains whether they are in the UK or abroad.
Support Team
Richard
Mayon-White 
Richard has many years experience in developing companies and managing teams,
in both large organisations and smaller companies. Prior to joining Wilderness
Expertise, Richard managed the operations of a national sailing school on
the South Coast of England. His role within ECG is as overall business manager
working across all the satellite units of the Group.
In his spare time Richard has travelled extensively, including climbing Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua. A commercially endorsed RYA Yachtmaster, he has skippered yachts in the Fastnet Race and Three Peaks Yacht Race. He now concentrates his efforts on triathlon and offshore yacht racing and in early 2006, he rowed across the Atlantic with his fiancee setting a record time for a couple in the race.
Peter
Harvey 
Peter is passionate about youth expeditions and a believer in the personal development benefits of outdoor education. In 1995 he set up Wilderness Expertise and has been involved ever since. His expertise in remote travel has led him to working with a number of different companies e.g. BP, Rio Tinto, EarthWatch and the Royal Geographical Society.
His work in the youth expedition industry has involved founding the Expedition Providers Association and supporting the Young Explorers' Trust, which he currently chairs. He was also part of the technical committee for the British Standard for overseas expeditions (BS 8848) and is currently co-chair of the ISO for Adventure Tourism.
Peter is a qualified mountaineer and has run personal development expeditions for young adults all over the world.
Peter has also worked as a remote medical practitioner and still gets out on adventure races when he can. Peter lives in Aldershot with his wife Claudia and dog Talisker, when he is not off traveling!
Catherine
Rogers
Catherine graduated with an LLB (Law Degree) in 1985 and spent several years
establishing a successful career in Corporate Treasury.
However the call of the outdoors was strong and in 1991 Catherine gave up her suit to work for Raleigh International in South America. 5 years later with numerous expeditions under her belt to places like Papua New Guinea and Patagonia she was to be found managing a bird watching resort in Guyana with no gas or electricity!
It was at this point that Catherine met Peter Harvey and they found they shared an enthusiasm for outdoor education. In the summer of 1997 Catherine joined him as a Director when they started the expedition and UK courses business, which has now grown into Wilderness Expertise.
Currently experiencing a career break to have three children, Catherine continues to take an active interest in the development and smooth running of the business. Having recently attained her Masters in Neuro Linguistic Programming she hopes to incorporate her skills into the UK-based training given to the young adults prior to their expeditions.
Christine
Cooper
Chris joined Provident Life in 1973 for what she believed to be a stopgap.
Little was she to know that she was going to spend the next 27 years helping
the business evolve and progress. Eventually the time came to make a break
and Chris joined the team in 2000 to become the finance manager. Be nice
to her – she pays all our bills!
Nicola
Conway 
A New Zealander, Nicky has spent most of her life in the outdoors and is
passionate about travel. She graduated from Wellington's Victoria University
with degrees in maths and accountancy before taking to the open road.
Nicky has travelled to more than 40 countries and enjoyed many adventures along the way. Prior to joining Wilderness Expertise, she worked for Explore Worldwide (Europe's leading Adventure Travel Company) and has lead over 50 tours in a variety of countries across the globe.
After 3 and a half years "on the road", Nicky took up the post of Operations Manager for Explore where her skills and experience were put to good use in training new Leaders and managing their existing product. Nicky is a bit of a chameleon in that she worked as in accountancy earlier in her life, and after working for Wilderness Expertise as an Expedition Manager for Wilderness Expertise, Nicky re-discovered her love of numbers and has moved across to Finance!
In her spare time, Nicky loves to trek in the mountains and even spent her honeymoon traversing the Bernese Oberland in the Swiss Alps
Hugh
Elkington 
Hugh attended school and university in South Africa and is currently finishing
his studies in Tourism Management. He has a very sporty and outdoor orientated
background and has travelled throughout Southern Africa extensively going
on safaris and fishing trips into Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana almost
every year since 1990.
Hugh worked for 7 months as a Marketing manager of a Game lodge in South Africa on one of the private game reserves, and while there also did a bit of game ranging. Fishing is a hobby he enjoys although in Zimbabwe he often had trouble with elephants walking through between him and his car!
Hugh first came to Wilderness in October 2005 to do some work experience and we haven’t let him go since then!
After completing a degree in Law and French, Samantha decided upon the obvious career choice as an apprentice at Plas Y Brenin. She excelled in scrubbing toilets and managed to spend a bit of time on NGBs, so then burst forth into the world of freelancing. She spent a total of 6 years flitting about the country and still can't quite behave when kept indoors for any length of time. For this reason (and to keep her away from the office) she is allowed to work remotely from her cosy cottage in North Wales, where she is kept company by the lovely Tim, and lots of rain.
Samantha has led a number of overseas expeditions to various parts of Africa, South America and Europe (Ghana being her favourite), and is still sleeping well at night despite her huge carbon footprint from all the long-haul journeys. Samantha taught Public Services for a while in the wilds of Dudley, and despite picking up some fantastic phrases from the locals, she still preferred to brandish the Wilderness logo and defected full-time to our shores in 2006.
Samantha is a frequent face on UK courses and is responsible for recruitment, training and general pink and fluffy support of our Freelance Trainers and Expedition Leaders. She is very good at making tea and eating chocolate Hob-Nobs. You are most likely to find her wearing a pair of very pink Crocs.
Dr
Caroline Baugh 
Caroline qualified as a doctor in 1998 and rapidly developed an interest
in emergency and pre-hospital care. She has worked in various hospitals
in London, gaining experience in a number of different specialities, from
Accident and Emergency to Anaesthetics, Intensive Care, Paediatrics and
High Risk Obstetrics. She is ALS, ATLS and APLS qualified.
This, and a Diploma in Tropical Medicine, at least partially prepared her for a two-year post, working as the Medical Director for Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) in Northern Sudan. This entailed the medical management of a large country programme – treating a variety of diseases including Severe Malnutrition, Malaria, Leishmaniasis, Tuberculosis, HIV, and many others. She was responsible for the medical planning and implementation of MSF’s emergency health and nutrition programme in response to the ongoing crisis in Darfur, the largest ever MSF response.
When not at work, she tries to get as far away from it all as possible, usually either by heading out sailing or by walking up some hill or other. She recently skied over 600 km in the Arctic on an endurance race to the Magnetic North Pole – adding to her first hand knowledge of medicine in rather extreme and unusual environments!
Talisker is a pedigree collie cross, and owns Peter Harvey. Talisker's interest in personal development has resulted in him training Peter very well so that he gets food and a juicy bone to order. Talisker is interested in chasing things (whether they're moving objects or not) and is interested in a career in the outdoors.
