Tom has had a fascination with travel and visiting the far flung corners of the world from a very early age, something that may have been helped when he moved to Hong Kong at only 3 months old! This was followed by time living in Brunei, Germany and Namibia whilst exploring the surrounding areas on family holidays.

At 15 he trekked to Everest Base Camp and at 17 boarded a train in Hong Kong, with his brother Dan, travelling via Beijing and Moscow to the Mediterranean coast of Spain, all by train, and visiting 15 countries along the way! At last count Tom has visited 75 countries and continues to look for new and exciting trips away and new True Adventure destinations.

Tom also enjoys time out in the countryside of the UK, he is a keen cyclist, runner, mountain walker, and although his playing days may be drawing to a close, he is also a big rugby fan. He enjoys cooking and during the summer often fires up the BBQ to cook meals for the whole True Adventure team.

Mark is extremely passionate about how beneficial and developmental our expeditions can be for young people. Having led his first expedition in the late 80s and since then personally leading in excess of 40 school expeditions coupled with serving for 26 years in the Armed Forces, Mark has developed an instinctive understanding of safety and the benefits of developing world travel.

As a previous Chairman of the Expedition Providers Association he has represented the wider expedition industry on various national safety committees. This along with his personal experience of operating in remote environments means he is perfectly suited to oversee True Adventure’s “Safety and Backup, Planning, Team Training and Leader Selection”.

As well as visiting the mountains, jungles deserts and seas of the world to scope out our itineraries, Mark is a keen triathlete and adventure racer having completed several Ironman triathlons and recently the desert race that is the Marathon Des Sables.

Mike has been responsible for over 2000 school expeditions and is an acknowledged authority on safety and back-up. For over 40 years he has led expeditions to the jungles, mountains and deserts of the world. He has been the Chairman of the Expedition Providers Association and represented the school expedition sector on the national advisory group which supports Learning Outside the Classroom.

Mike was awarded the Sword of Honour when he graduated from the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and was commissioned into 2nd King Edward VII's Own Gurkha Rifles.

During his military career he was Chief Instructor at the jungle warfare school in Brunei, an instructor at the Joint Services Mountain Training Centre in Wales, and flew helicopters with the Army Air Corps before commanding the Army Mountain Training Centre in Germany.

He worked for the Foreign Office during the war in Yugoslavia, has been Director of an aid agency in Bosnia, and more recently led a multi-national UN team tasked with verifying the status of Maoists combatants during the civil war in Nepal.

Mike has led over 20 Himalayan expeditions including 4 to Everest, the summit of which he reached in 1999 at the age of 47. He is the author of The Storms which was published in 2015 and includes the disaster on Everest in 1996, following which Mike co-ordinated the rescue which was featured in the 2015 film “Everest”.

He is a father of 3 and the proud grandfather of 4 granddaughters, the eldest of which celebrated her 8th birthday by trekking with Mike in Nepal.

John is our Operations Manager and has previously worked as Head of Outdoor Education, D of E Manager and School Staff Instructor for the Combined Cadet Force. Before taking on this role he spent 26 years in the British Army working worldwide from oceans to deserts to high mountains, all whilst ensuring safety is paramount. He has visited some of the world’s most beautiful countries including Nepal with a visit to Everest Base Camp in April 2015, where he witnessed first hand the destruction caused by the earthquake.

John has a passion for developing young adults, whether that is on expedition in the UK or overseas. He spends a lot of his free time working on Duke of Edinburgh expeditions both supervising and assessing. He is also an experienced dive instructor and has spent time on diving expeditions rehabilitating injured soldiers.

Megan went on expedition to India with True Adventure back in 2009. She has been a convert ever since! She is currently studying Outdoor and Adventure Education at Chichester University and is on placement with True Adventure for the next year.