Olle A. Olsson, Founder & Chairman
Olle is the visionary behind Explorica. He has a quarter-century experience in educational student travel, having worked as everything from a program consultant to the president of EF Educational Tours, an industry leader. He founded Explorica to combine the best of traditional student travel with top new technology to improve every aspect of your travel encounter-from researching, planning, and booking to actually taking the trip. Olle brings both his extensive background and his creative foresight to Explorica, helping ensure an unparalleled travel experience for you. A 15-year resident of the U.S. and a native of Sweden, Olle has also lived in England, France, and Switzerland. He's fluent in German, Swedish, English, French, and HTML (well, sort of).
Evan Wood, Chief Executive Officer
As the CEO of Explorica, Evan brings with him more than 20 years of marketing, client management and operations experience. This includes positions held in Fortune 500 companies (Hewlett-Packard) to start-up ventures (Digital Cement) to non-profit organizations (Lawson Foundation), located in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. Just prior to joining Explorica, he was president of Hosted Villas Inc. (formerly HomesAway), one of the world’s leaders in luxury, experiential villa vacations.
Evan has travel in his blood, having grown up the son of a Canadian diplomat. He estimates having lived, worked, or travelled through at least 80 countries, and with his parents and siblings scattered around the globe, he considers himself a true ‘citizen of the world’.
Evan has an MBA from Thunderbird (The American Graduate School of International Management) in Arizona and BA in Political Science from Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. He lives in Toronto with his wife, 5 sons (yes, five!), and a dog.
Dan Kellerd, Executive Vice President of Operations
For over 20 years, Dan has covered every aspect of student travel for major North American and European student travel companies. From resort management to tour directing throughout Europe, from negotiating the best hotel deals to designing the smoothest tour itineraries, Dan has provided educational opportunities for over a million North American and European students and teachers. His background in this field is second to none. Dan is using his extensive industry knowledge coupled with the latest technology to ensure that Explorica travelers get the best value and experience.
Rich Beekman, Vice President of US Sales
Rich joined Explorica in August of 2000 as one of our first Program Consultants, and has since enjoyed working with thousands of teachers and students. During his time at Explorica, Rich has held roles in Custom Tours, Product Development, Client Retention, as well as opening Explorica's San Diego office. While traveling on over 15 Explorica Conventions and Teacher Trainings as well as still actively managing clients he has had for 10+ years, Rich understands what teachers are looking for in an educational travel partner. Rich is a graduate of Boston College with a BA in History.
Stephane Cosse, Vice President of Air Operations
Stephane has over ten years of international experience in both the Consulting and Airline Operations fields. Prior to joining Explorica in 2002, he worked for Accenture Ltd. in Paris and Chicago, conducting process re-engineering and change management consulting services for airline clients. Stephane has a Masters in Strategy and Management from Paris-X University / H.E.C. Business School, France and attended a Masters in Business Administration-Exchange Program at Texas Tech University. At Explorica, he negotiates air contracts, develops close working relationships with major air carriers, and supervises the management of air operations for Explorica travelers. Delivering quality flight itineraries on-time and under budget is Stephane's ultimate goal.
Matt Wertz, Vice President of Technology
Since joining Explorica as an IT consultant six years ago and signing on as lead IT architect not long after, Matt has quickly become an integral part of Explorica's management team. In fact, as Vice President of Technology, Matt is responsible for all technology initiatives-from developing applications to support internal & external users to overseeing Explorica's telecommunications system. His missions are to provide customers with a seamless travel experience throughout their contact with Explorica, and to simplify and automate processes in order to lower costs and improve usability. Before partnering with Explorica, Matt worked as an e-commerce consultant and graduated Summa Cum Laude with B.S. Electrical engineering from Boston University.
Connect with Explorica
