In line with its ethos of Care of the Land, Wildlife and People, conservation-led travel company &Beyond has reorganised its executive structure to increase the company’s focus on substantial growth opportunities and the acceleration of its overall Impact model in its mission to leave our world a better place. The company positively impacts more than 9 million acres (3.6 million hectares) of wildlife land and 2 000 km (1 200 miles) of coastline and now operates on three continents. &Beyond CEO Joss Kent has made some small but significant changes to the company’s top management structure to allow for more capacity and investment into all aspects of its impact strategy, as well as to pursue significant growth opportunities across Africa, Asia and South America.
The &Beyond Group has proven its fully sustainable Impact model over the last few years and has subsequently started to expand this model and its footprint in Africa, Asia and South America. “With a strong pipeline of further development across three continents, changes needed to be made to support our ambitious plans, while also ensuring that our focus remains firmly on what drives our success, namely, our commitment to having a sustainable, positive impact on the planet, paid for through the delivery of extraordinary guest experiences,” says Kent. “Bearing this in mind, we have created a new executive position that will free up more of my time to personally oversee the impact that &Beyond has on the land, wildlife and people in the countries where we currently operate and to drive the expansion of our model into new territories across all three of our regions of operation.”
In addition to allowing the CEO to focus on expansion of operating territories and the company’s impact model, the freshly created role of Chief Operating Officer Africa Lodges enables better coordinated planning across the company’s lodges in Africa and provides additional capacity and support to the existing team of Regional Directors. In keeping with &Beyond’s commitment to growing and promoting from within, Niall Anderson, previously Regional Director East Africa, has been tasked with the new portfolio. Niall has had an extensive career from the ground up in the travel industry, having worked his way up from safari guide to lodge management and, finally, Regional Manager and then Regional Director in East Africa. Niall is passionate about conservation, people and community development. He also cares deeply about hospitality and consistently encourages his teams to provide the ultimate guest experience. In his new position, he is responsible for ensuring the balanced success and growth of the commercial and impact-led objectives of all &Beyond lodge operations in Africa.
The position of Regional Director East Africa has been filled by Jane Braack, whose career with &Beyond dates back to 1996. Over more than twenty years, Jane has developed extensive experience at management level in a variety of &Beyond destinations. Beginning her journey with &Beyond in South Africa, Jane then took on the challenge of replicating &Beyond’s lodge model and culture in India as Regional Manager of the company’s joint lodge venture in that country. Returning to South Africa, Jane became Regional Manager at Phinda Private Game Reserve, &Beyond’s flagship property and the birthplace of the company’s model of combining luxury tourism with conservation and community engagement. Jane’s latest move sees her based in Tanzania, where she has been tasked with further developing the region and deepening &Beyond’s impact in terms of conservation, communities and people.
In view of the growth in the executive team for Africa, Mark Wheeler, previously Regional Managing Director East Africa, Asia and South America, will now focus on overseeing growth and development in Asia and South America, as well as taking on wider responsibility for business development for the &Beyond Group. His new role as Regional Managing Director Asia, South America & Business Development has seen him relocate from Nairobi, Kenya, to the UK, where he joins &Beyond CEO Joss Kent in the company’s UK office. The move sees him take on increased responsibility for overseeing &Beyond’s lodge and touring operations in Asia and South America, as well as focussing on strategic plans to roll out the company’s impact model on both those continents.
By making better use of its existing resources in the various regions, &Beyond has also reorganised its Impact teams, resources and leadership. Field and Sustainability Director Tony Adams will now become the dedicated Conservations and Community Impact Director, reporting directly to the CEO. He will lead and oversee the tripling of Group resources in the &Beyond Impact team to provide greater focus and delivery of newly set and ambitious plans for scaling &Beyond’s impact across its existing platforms of Care of the Land, Care of the Wildlife and Care of the People.
“Our commitment to caring for communities and conservation lies at the very heart of the &Beyond model and has formed the yardstick by which we measure each and every decision we make. In the context of a complicated business such as ours, we believe that it is vital to constantly re-evaluate and refine our structures to ensure that our focus remains firmly on our impact strategy and that we are delivering exceptional guest experiences. It is our guests who lie at the centre of our now fully proven, vibrant and exciting sustainability model. We have a really strong and experienced team, fully engaged and supportive shareholders and some really great opportunities to grow, expand and improve. If successful, we also passionately believe that, by taking on some of these new challenges, we can, and will, ultimately leave our world a better place,” concludes Kent.
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