MEET THE TEAM
Mark Donnelly – Managing Director
Originally from Manchester, England, Mark graduated university and joined the travel industry starting by selling flights and packaging holidays over the phone. At night school, he studied for an advanced diploma in marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing. The theoretical skills combined with real life experience proved invaluable when he formed his own company specializing in creating bespoke sports’ travel experiences. Mark left Manchester in 2006 to start a family and a tour company offering safaris and Mount Kilimanjaro climbs in Tanzania, East Africa. This company from a small office and one vehicle ended up splitting into two companies, employing over 60 staff as it became one of the most successful tour and camp companies in East Africa. Mark is an entrepreneur who has experience of marketing and guiding companies from start up through explosive growth to mature companies. Mark speaks English, French, Spanish and Swahili. He loves sport; football, chess, cricket and tennis; reading, travelling and spending good times with family and friends. Mark is based in UK, Kenya and Serbia.
Francesca Marty
Fran always loved traveling, to the point that her parents say that she was born in a suitcase!
Fran studied Sciences of Education in Geneva and then decided to start a new training in tourism to turn her passion into a job. She did an 8 months’ training period in Zanzibar -working for Chumbe Island Coral Park in the early days of the project- and then, at the end of her studies, was asked to go back and worked with them for another 2 years and a half.
After another year in Zanzibar working with a photographer and editor specializing in tourism-related publications, she was offered a job in Dar es Salaam with a tour operator selling the South of Tanzania.
6 years later -with her then 4 years old daughter- Fran moved back to Switzerland but kept in touch with Tanzania by working with a tour operator specialized in the Northern Circuit and Kilimanjaro treks. During all these years she’s been organizing tailor-made tours for direct clients and tour operators, guided agents’ fam trips and attended travel fairs and road shows.
Fran speaks Italian, English, French, some Swahili and some German.
