The Story Behind The Compass Room

My career didn't begin in travel. It began in engineering.

After graduating in Mechanical Engineering, I worked for global chemical company — a grounding that gave me a deep appreciation for business, systems, quality, and getting things right. But I was always restless. I wanted to see the world, and I wanted to do something that mattered.

So in 1998 I left engineering behind and moved to Colombia to work with Save the Children. Then Peru. For several years I worked in international development, learning how to collaborate with local communities, find creative solutions to complex problems, and navigate working in places most people had never heard of. That experience gave me something else, too: an insatiable love of adventure and a deep, enduring connection to the people and landscapes of Latin America.

Travel had been in my DNA from the very beginning. I spent my earliest years — from eight months to five years old — living in Ghana, Africa, where my father worked for the British Council training teachers. My first solo trip abroad came at thirteen, to Holland to visit a pen pal, my teenage years were spent visiting Europe and by my mid-twenties, I was taking four-week adventures to Peru, India, and Zimbabwe whenever I could, always curious, always pushing a little further. 

When I finished my work with Save the Children in Lima, I didn't go straight home. I backpacked north through Ecuador and up into Central America where I bought a car and drove from Guatemala to Canada. The time I spent in Guatemala cahnged me forever.

Spotting the gap — and going all in.

Guatemala was spectacular. Ancient ruins, extraordinary Maya culture and traditions, welcoming indigenous communities, colonial cities, volcanoes, lakes and vast expanses of rainforest. But the travel companies operating there were offering generic, off-the-shelf itineraries. Nobody was creating truly bespoke, high-end experiences and itineraries. Nobody was telling the real story of this remarkable country to the international luxury and adventure market.

So in 2001, I embarked on a new adventure. I drove from California to Guatemala and co-founded a DMC Local Operator.

Viaventure was built on a powerful purpose: to showcase Guatemala’s incredible offering by working with local people from as many areas as possible to create the most authentic and engaging experiences possible. To put money into the hands of the people and communities that made each destination extraordinary. To provide opportunity and training to people outside of the major cities. That ethical foundation — positive impact, authentic experiences, unique properties and deep local collaboration became our biggest competitive advantage.

We grew fast. Within a few years we were working with major tour operators, crafting tailor-made itineraries for discerning travellers across Guatemala and Belize. Since then, Viaventure has expanded across the region — now operating across six countries, from Mexico to Panama.

What twenty-five years of doing it the hard way teaches you.

We learned everything the hard way: how to find and win international trade clients. How to build booking and operational systems. How to price for value and profit. How to carry out risk assessments and build emergency procedures. How to carry out ongoing product development and staff training. How to market a destination in the early 2000’s that the world largely considered dangerous, undiscovered, or 'just for backpackers' — and turn it into a luxury travel success story.

Nobody handed us a playbook. We figured it out, year by year.

After about a decade, I left Viaventure — life changes, as it does — and I channelled everything I'd learned into a new venture. Travel Kinship is a marketing and representation company that helps DMC local operators and boutique properties around the world reach international travel buyers. With a huge database of luxury and adventure buyers and a full suite of services from email marketing to webinars to trade show support, Travel Kinship now represents around a curated group of DMC clients across the globe.

But something kept nagging at me.

So many DMC owners were facing the same challenges I had faced — and the support simply wasn't there. There's plenty of advice out there for travel agents and tour operators. But for DMCs — the local operators who make the magic possible — there's very little support directly specifically to them. Very few people truly understand the specific pressures of running a DMC, a destination business, managing so many moving parts with so many ways things can go wrong, requiring huge creativity alongside terrific logistical skill, serving clients you rarely see, in markets that can feel impossibly far away.

That's why I built The Compass Room.

It's a training and coaching space designed specifically for DMC owners and managers — practical, proven support from someone who has built and grown a DMC from scratch, and who has spent years working inside the international travel buyer market. A community where you can share experiences with people who actually understand your world. A place where, whatever stage you're at, you can find your direction and grow your business.