Rowan spent the early 1980’s in the Nepal and India Himalaya leading treks, river trips and fishing tours for Tiger Mountain, before returning to the UK to work at their London office (ExplorAsia) with Nick Van Gruisen.

In 1991, Rowan and Nick founded Worldwide Journeys and Expeditions and grew it into one of the UK's most successful adventure travel companies, before merging with The Ultimate Travel Company in 2003.

The company's involvement with charity challenge events began in 1997 when Rowan organised and led a trek in the High Atlas of Morocco for a group of 80 trekkers raising money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Jennie has been involved in the world of overseas charity challenges since 1996. She started out as an Events Fundraiser with the charity Scope, where she worked for over 6 years developing an extensive range of overseas challenges and giving her in-depth knowledge and understanding of charity events.

Jen joined Ultimate Travel in 2001 to help grow the charity challenge side of the business, now known as Ultimate Challenges.  Her passion for overseas adventure keeps her enthusiasm high and she loves developing new events to inspire people to take on a new challenge.

Her main love is mountain biking and when not leading trips overseas can be found riding the single track of the North Downs and looking after the day to day management of our charity clients.

Lisa joined The Spastic Society in 1993 (now Scope) organising community based fundraising events where in 1996, she progressed to develop, market and organise challenge events for the charity.  In 2000 she emigrated to Australia to set up challenge events in Sydney for their sister charity. When she returned she moved to VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) to set up their challenge event programme before coming to The Ultimate Travel Company in 2005.

With over 15 years experience of the charity challenge market, she is as enthusiastic today as she was in her early 20’s and this comes across everyday, whether its on the day to day operation side in the office, or whether she’s out in the field, Lisa always ensures every trip is not only a successful event for the charity, but also that it’s a life-changing experience for everyone who takes part.

After graduating with a degree in Zoology from Nottingham University in 2001, Connie worked as a conservation officer in South Africa for 6 months.

Following her return to the UK she worked for the Environment Agency for 18 months before moving to London and joining the charity sector. Before joining Ultimate Challenges, Connie worked as Events Manager at Mind, managing a huge range of fundraising events including overseas and UK challenges.

Connie has a keen interest in travel and sport, which has led her to take part in the Polar Challenge, a 350 mile race across the Arctic to the Magnetic North Pole. Unfortunately frostbite saw her turn round short of the finish line but it hasn’t diminished her desire for extreme adventure and she continues to plan new challenges.

After graduating from Guildford School of Acting in 2001, Stephanie was fortunate enough to experience the delights of TV, stage and film. Alongside the acting, Stephanie has had a variety of roles ranging from, a special needs teaching assistant to co-ordinating events across the UK. 

Stephanie is a keen cyclist and thoroughly enjoys gallavanting around the world! As a result, she took part in the Macmillan Cycle Challenge across Central America covering 3 countries in 8 days. Subsequently, Stephanie went on to complete a 3 month internship with Macmillan Cancer Support on their Challenge Events Team.

Stephanie is delighted to be joining The Ultimate Travel Company and hopes to bring her enthusiasm and her passion for travel to the team.