Founders and Team

Founders | Advertising, Sales, and Marketing | Editorial | Web Team | Operations

Founders

Greg Sullivan
CEO/Co-Founder, Editorial Director

Greg started his career as a corporate securities attorney and later an investment banker before launching a series of successful entrepreneurial ventures. In 1989, he started a business designing and manufacturing international arcade games, including the world’s largest selling coin-operated basketball game. After selling that company, Greg led a car retailing and finance company, growing it into a $750-million operation with 76 dealerships across the country. After selling his interest in that business in 2006, Greg began traveling the globe, searching for his next entrepreneurial opportunity.

While on a trip to India, Greg and AFAR’s co-founder Joe Diaz realized that there was no media voice for cultural explorers, those seeking to broaden themselves by going beyond the typical tourist haunts and connecting deeply with local people and places. Thus was born the inspiration to launch AFAR Media, a media company focused on experiential travel that helps people experience every destination as local residents do.

Recent Highlight: Andy Goldsworthy’s Wood Line
Next Trip: Punta Mita or Puerto Vallarta
Best Local Discovery: Gigi’s Oysteria on Green Street

Joseph Diaz
Co-Founder, VP Sales & Brand Development

A seasoned world traveler, Joe spent his early years growing up in a bi-cultural family, with one foot in Spain and the other in California. That early exposure to the global village propelled Joe toward what he now considers his “calling”—learning about this fascinating and quirky world we live in through travel.

After graduating from Duke University, Joe spent three years working with Teach for America in the barrios of Phoenix, Arizona, before getting his masters degree and launching a successful real estate investment firm in Arizona. His travels have taken him extensively to four of the seven continents, with a goal to visit all seven.

Recent Highlight: Bar Agricole—Pancakes, Micheladas and More
Next Trip: Puerto Vallarta
Best Local Discovery: Strand Bookstore

Advertising, Sales & Marketing

Ellen Asmodeo-Giglio
Executive Vice President, Publisher

Prior to joining AFAR, Ellen served as Vice President and General Manager of Weekend Edition & Luxury Group at The Wall Street Journal, where she oversaw sales and developed strategies to drive revenue in the luxury categories through all properties and strategic partnerships. Ellen originally joined The Journal to launch its successful lifestyle magazine WSJ.

Previously, she spent 17 years at American Express Publishing, the last seven of which as Senior Vice President and Publisher at Travel + Leisure. During her tenure at Travel + Leisure, the magazine experienced a 55% growth in ad pages and revenue and successfully lead the category. The Travel + Leisure brand extended to six countries, TV, the Web and ancillary products. Travel + Leisure received frequent accolades as the world’s leading travel magazine. Ellen collaborated in the development of key platforms that continue to drive revenue and differentiate the brand. Some include, World’s Best Awards, Design Awards, Marketwatch conferences and strategic alliances. Ellen has sat on the boards of: NYC & Co., Taj Hotels, Starwood Hotels, Kiwi, The Caribbean Tourism Organization, and the Audrey Palmer Hawks Scholarship Fund. She graduated from Baruch College and received an AAS in advertising from the Fashion Institute of Technology.

Recent Highlight: Amazing Singita – Tanzania Experience
Next Trip: Cartagena, Columbia to dance in the streets with locals
Best Local Discovery: The downstairs after-hours at Il Bagatto in the East Village

Dinesh Kapoor
Chief Marketing Officer

Prior to joining AFAR, Dinesh was Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson in New York where he led communication duties for HSBC and Smirnoff across all platforms.

In 2009, Dinesh led a crew of National Geographic photographers and cinematographers on a multimedia assignment across 40 cities around the world. The content was curated and used in the brand’s global campaign.

Over the last two decades, he has crafted and curated brand stories for Macy’s, Ford, DeBeers and Kimberley Clark. His work has been featured in Communication Arts, The One Show, D&AD and the Art Directors Club annuals. ‘Lumberjack’—a spot he created for HSBC—was inducted by the AICP into the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Recent Highlight: A Hindu in a Steakhouse
Next Trip: Costa Rica
Best Local Discovery: Kalyustan’s

Anjali Virmani
Integrated Marketing Director

Anjali has worked in marketing and branding for over 10 years with experience ranging from multi-platform program development, brand building strategies, client relationship management, social media, multi-media content creation and traditional and new media marketing programs. Her experience spans high profile brands such as O, The Oprah Magazine, Town&Country Magazine, WWD and Style.com.

Recent Highlight: Holy Cow
Next Trip: Jamaica, Croatia, Beirut…I don’t know, so much to see
Best Local Discovery: Anejo Tequileria in New York City

John Galante
Advertising Director

John has worked in the travel industry for 20+ years, and from all sides—agency side, client side, and publishing side. He is a passionate traveler, and always has his next trip planned and tickets in hand.

Recent Highlight: Aspen to Crested Butte hike
Next Trip: Puerto Vallarta and Punta Mita, Mexico
Best Local Discovery: Hiking and biking through Central Park, New York, now that the weather is warm.

Barry Brown
Senior Sales Director

Barry Brown joined AFAR in 2010. He has been serving the travel industry for over 20 years, starting at DDB Needham Advertising in the late 1980’s. Barry counts among his greatest professional accomplishments the conception and development of the Bermuda Music Festival, now one of Bermuda’s largest consumer events. He was at Amex Publishing for 10 years, where in addition to Travel + Leisure he took on roles with Travel + Leisure Family as Advertising Director and Director of Strategic Partnerships for Corporate Sales, managing corporate and global programs for Australia Tourism, Canada and others. He serves the industry tirelessly the as a longtime member of the Caribbean Tourism Organization Board of Directors, CTO Allied Committee Chairman, Audrey Palmer Hawkes Foundation Board, and CTO Foundation Board, Association of Travel Marketing Executives Board of Directors in addition to other travel associations.

Recent Highlight: Sunset at Halong
Next Trip: New Orleans Jazzfest
Best Local Discovery: The Fort Greene (Brooklyn) Flea Market

Lewis Newmark
West Coast Director

Lewis has extensive media sales experience with flagship brands. Before joining AFAR, spent nine years at Travel + Leisure, working in both the Los Angeles and New York City offices. Enjoys travel, dining out, reading and exercise.

Next Trip: AFAR Experiences Fall 2012
Best local discovery: Bottega Louie restaurant in downtown Los Angeles.

Katherine Kneier
Sales Manager, East Coast

Katherine has worked in publishing for the past six years and has been at AFAR for almost three years.

Recent Highlight: Double Rainbow
Next Trip: Rio de Janiero, Brazil
Best Local Discovery: The Union Square Green Market in NYC

Colleen Schoch Morell

Sales Manager, Southeast

Sam White

Sales Manager, Midwest

Rosa Manocchio
Sales Director, Europe

Rosa has been working in sales for travel magazines such as Travel + Leisure and Resorts & Great Hotels since graduating with a degree in International Business in 2005. Rosa’s personal passion for travel and obsession with everything Italian, led her to move to Rome in October of 2008. While in Rome she briefly worked for a privately owned luxury hotel chain, however, quickly realized that print and online media was more fulfilling.

Recent Highlight: Skiing in the South of Italy
Next Trip: Edinburgh, Scotland
Best Local Discovery: Amatriciana flambe’ at Trattoria Vecchia Roma

Godfrey Wu
Sales Manager, Asia

Sakhi Vyas
AFAR Exchange Sales Coordinator

An impossible idealist, Sakhi joined AFAR to run the Exchange section in fall of 2010. Prior to that, she spent 4 years living in 4 different countries – studying international marketing at Instituto de Empresa in Madrid; working at the Self-Employed Women’s Association & Center for Micro–Finance in Ahmedabad, India; going to school in Kalamazoo, Michigan; and learning Chinese with migrant workers in Beijing. Studying abroad sparked a love of experiential travel and also publishing, as Sakhi was the layout editor of Kalamazoo College’s 2007 Study Abroad publication Passage. She regularly geeks out about tourism for sustainable community and economic development around the world.

Recent Highlight: Fresh Tortillas
Next Trip: Malawi (hopefully!)
Best Local Discovery: The Shala yoga house on 12th/Broadway.

Sarah Zapiler
Integrated Marketing Coordinator

Sarah thinks everything is interesting. But, she had to get a degree in something, so she studied Psycholinguistics at New York University where she also served as editor for several academic publications. When she joined AFAR, Sarah knew she would find herself at home among travelers who value cultural exchange, discovery and a healthy dose of adventure. In all of her travels, she has come to know that there is no better way to see the streets than with her feet, so she walks as much as possible wherever she goes. Sarah is thrilled to bring her experience in and passion for designing communication to AFAR.

Recent Highlight: Vintage Shopping Gem
Next Trip: Thailand and Cambodia
Best Local Discovery: Fiat Cafe

Grace Kelly
Office Coordinator/Executive Assistant

This recent college graduate’s love of travel, history, photography, and people has brought her to AFAR.

Recent Highlight: SXSW – Keeping Austin Weird
Next Trip: Galapagos

Editorial

Julia Cosgrove
VP, Editor in Chief

Julia joined AFAR as executive editor in 2008, and was promoted to editor in chief in 2011. She last served as deputy editor of the DIY design magazine ReadyMade. During her tenure, the magazine was a finalist for a National Magazine Award in general excellence. Before making stuff at ReadyMade, Julia was part of the original launch team behind Time Out New York Kids, a spinoff of Time Out New York. She started her career as a writer at Business Week and the New York Daily News. Her obsessions include the writer Joan Didion, palm trees, and Paris in the 1950s.
Recent Highlight: Totems in Stanley Park
Next Trip: Sweden and Russia
Best Local Discovery:  The Best Hometown Pizza in Oakland

Jane Palecek
Design Director

Jane is the recipient of numerous awards for her magazine design work, including multiple National Magazine Awards (the “Ellies”) for her design as founding art director of the Hippocrates and Health magazines. Jane has also served as art director of Mother Jones, and created the look, logos, and design templates for a number of new and redesigned magazines, including Yoga Journal, Dwell, and Natural Solutions.

Jeremy Saum
Executive Editor

After working for four years in custom publishing, Jeremy took off with his wife to travel the world for a year and a half. Having slept in the shadow of Mt. Everest, slid down a Chilean volcano on their rear ends, and innertubed with glowworms in New Zealand, they returned to San Francisco. There, Jeremy worked as the managing editor of Diablo magazine and then as the associate managing editor of Via, a regional travel publication published by AAA.

Recent Highlight: Hawaiian Music
Next Trip: Canadian Rockies
Best Local Discovery: The Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda

Tara Guertin
Director of Photography

Tara has been working as a photo editor since 1998 when she began her career at BlackBook Magazine in NYC. She has been involved with several national publications, among them Talk, Seventeen, InStyle, and Lucky. Going from the fashion world in New York to the world outside my door here in California has been an amazing transition. I am equally passionate about both and feel lucky that each magazine I’ve been apart of has reflected that.

Recent Highlight: Worth the Drive North
Next Trip: Tanzania.
Best Local Discovery: The thousands of miles of trails crisscrossing California’s state and national parks. Anderson valleys Vineyards.

Jen Murphy
Deputy Editor

Jen has worked in the journalism world for the last ten years. She got her start at the Wall Street Journal, and continues to write a fitness column called “What’s Your Workout” for the paper. She spent seven years at Food & Wine magazine. During her three-year tenure as travel editor, she wandered the globe uncovering rising star chefs, trendsetting restaurants, and life-changing meals.

Recent Highlight: Break for Bubbly on the Slopes
Next Trip: Copenhagen
Best Local Discovery:  Black Jet Baking Co.’s Pop Tarts. The Jalapeño Cream Cheese when I want savory or the Nutella & Salty Hazelnut when I’m craving sweet.

Derk Richardson
Senior Editor

Before joining AFAR’s founding editorial team in 2008, Derk had written about music, food, and travel for nearly 30 years. He turned to editing in 2003, first at Acoustic Guitar magazine, then at Oakland and Alameda magazines. He hosts a weekly free-form music program on KPFA radio in Berkeley.

Recent Highlight: “Bird Houses” in Borneo
Next Trip: Laos and Cambodia
Best Local Discovery: First Fridays Art Murmur in Oakland

Jason Seldon
Art Director

A New Jersey native, Jason worked at Out magazine and Good Housekeeping magazine in New York City before moving to San Francisco to join the AFAR team. Diving into editorial design right out of college, he has assisted on a number of magazine redesigns, and has won Merit Awards from the Society of Publication Designers. Jason has also created illustrations for Money, Manhattan magazine, and Out magazine in his spare time.
Next Trip: Peru, or Greece
Best Local Discovery:  Domo Sushi in Hayes Valley

Serena Renner
Assistant Editor

Serena has a deep interest in people and a desire to document life’s journeys. That’s what led her to AFAR, after spending a year as the travel editor at Diablo magazine. She caught the travel bug during a study abroad trip to Granada, Spain. In the four months of her trip, she visited nine countries, from Morocco to Austria, and learned how to have real conversations in Spanish. Since her days of tapas and tinto de veranos, she’s endured a torrential downpour in Chiapas, Mexico; snorkeled with sharks in the Galapagos Islands; and driven through 11 U.S. national parks in a single summer. She now edits Wander and Stay, and hopes to take her travels further east.

Recent Highlight: Looking down on Guanajuato
Next Trip: India

Dani Vernon
Photo Assistant

Dani graduated with a degree in Photojournalism from SFSU and has worked with various media outlets in the Bay Area, including KQED and the Palo Alto Weekly. She also had the opportunity to travel around the world with a study-abroad program called Semester at Sea, which inspired her to work with a magazine that encourages the same form of travel that she was able to experience while abroad.

Recent Highlight: U Bein Bridge
Next Trip: Australia
Best Local Discovery: Giordano’s Bros restaurant in North Beach. Amazing sandwiches!

Adam Fischer
Editorial Intern

Before coming to AFAR, Adam was a student teacher at a charter school in Brooklyn. As a freelance contributor for Patch.com near his hometown in Larchmont, New York, he covered a range of topics from restaurant reviews to profiling local musicians. Adam graduated from Boston University with a degree in History.

Recent Highlight: Raft Capsize
Next Trip: Chile
Best Local Discovery: Garden Catering in Port Chester, New York.

Kareem Yasin
Editorial Intern

Kareem is a journalist with online marketing experience and a recent graduate of Stanford University. He spent over a year as an energy/finance reporter for Middle East Economic Survey in Cyprus and has also written for Palo Alto Weekly, The Cyprus Mail, The Human Experience and Hoover Digest.

Recent Highlight: Dead City
Next Trip: Oman
Best Local Discovery: Konnos Bay in Protaras, Cyprus

Web Team

Derek Butcher
Chief Technology Officer, VP Digital

Derek Butcher has over 12 years of experience in media and technology with companies such as The Industry Standard, IDG, Disney Internet Group, and Infoseek. As Vice President and General Manager of The Industry Standard, he relaunched the internet brand as a new form of online media property. Prior to that, Butcher served as Vice President and CTO of InfoWorld Media Group, where he spearheaded technology initiatives including web publishing systems, content redistribution and syndication, and web serving capacity. Derek also served as Senior Engineering Manager at Disney Internet Group, where he was responsible for the development of the Infoseek search engine portal, as well as assisting with the integration of espn.com and abcnews.com.

Recent Highlight: A Patagonian hike for reflection
Next Trip: Vienna
Best Local Discovery: 850 Montgomery Cigar Bar

Davina Baum
Director of Digital Content

Davina has 15 years of experience in journalism, eight of those years in online content. During her tenure as managing editor at CHOW.com, the site won a James Beard Award for Best Food Website and was twice nominated for National Magazine Awards. She has also worked for San Jose-based Metro Newspapers and edited books for Peachpit Press and Sybex.

Recent Highlight: Mezcal in Mexico
Next Trip: Amsterdam
Best Local Discovery: Tule elks at Point Reyes

Rie Yamaoka
Senior UX/UI Designer

Rie is originally from Japan, and her biggest travel adventure has been exploring, living, and working in the United States, and settling in the Bay Area. Her most recent work includes corporate identity, branding, and experience design for SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia.

Recent Highlight: Early Evening in Hanalei Beach
Next Trip: Taiwan
Best Local Discovery: Pepple’s Donuts in Oakland

Matthew Whittaker
Lead Engineer

Entrepreneurial software engineer and project manager with a passion for building businesses on the web. Love adventure and exploration which makes working at AFAR a perfect combination of passions.

Recent Highlight: Ko Phi Phi Island Tour
Next Trip: Argentina and Uruguay
Best Local Discovery: My favorite city view of SF is at the north end of Bernal Heights Park. You see a great expansive view of the city with the Golden Gate bridge and Bay Bridge together.

Kevin Favro
Sofware Engineer

Kevin started programming the web while living in Nepal as a means to share his experiences and creations with friends and family back home. He has since worked for various startups and large corporations around Northern California as a Software Engineer, and is currently helping AFAR build out their mobile and tablet applications.

Recent Highlight: Winter Garden
Next Trip: Kauai
Best Local Discovery: Placerville Waterfalls

Jason Perez
Software Engineer

Jason has worked on the internet for many years now. He was a product designer, crafting user experiences for companies such as Mint and Zendesk, before transforming into a developer at AFAR media. Jason’s hobbies include embarrassing himself at karaoke, and herding cats.

Recent Highlight: Flying Jelly Belly
Next Trip: Belize
Best Local Discovery: Black Diamond Mines

Evan Arnold
Software Engineer

Evan, a Chicago native, recently moved to San Francisco. Professionally, he’s swooped from the desktop app to the web and from closed source to open. He’s not very good at typing when other people are watching.

Recent Highlight: The Hopleaf
Next Trip: Holland
Best Local Discovery: Zomg! I found an apartment! Guys? Are you listening, guys? An apartment! I can finally put my stuff down! Guys?

Aaron King
Product Manager

Aaron has been working on web applications since 2001 and joined AFAR after a traveling and working from 55 countries around the world.

Recent Highlight: Climbing Bedouin Hunting Routes
Next Trip: Hong Kong
Best Local Discovery: Pigeon Point Lighthouse. They have a rustic hostel you can stay in with a jacuzzi directly beneath the lighthouse, perched on a small cliff overlooking the ocean.

Allison Murray
Community Manager

Allison is passionate about promoting experiential travel and helping to the AFAR.com community discover amazing places. Through constant exploration- whether its for the best pho ga in Hanoi or a place to nap in Jackson Square- she manages to make life an adventure. And above all she loves the unknown.

Recent Highlight: Wander Hanoi
Next Trip: Spain
Best Local Discovery: Spoontonic Lounge in Walnut Creek. It is a respite from the pretentious downtown bar scene—mostly because it’s totally hidden. Outside of town, near a small Oriental Foods market, park next to the paint store and walk downhill into the dark alley—here you’ll find her favorite bar!

Lauren Nicholl
Online/Community Intern

Lauren has been actively involved in the online travel community since returning from her extended travel down under in 2010. Moving to San Francisco has kept her in the travel mindset—constantly exploring this ever-changing city as well as developing a solid network of travel lovers. She quickly got involved in start-up Tripping and co-founded the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of Travel Massive, a monthly travel industry networking event. Moving to San Francisco also opened her eyes to the exciting world of tech and social media. Being a longtime fan of AFAR Magazine, she is thrilled to be working for a company for which she has so much passion, and to be on board during such an exhilarating time for AFAR.com.

Recent Highlight: Escape Across the Bay
Next Trip: Big Island of Hawaii
Best Local Discovery: Viracocha in the Mission District, a vintage shop, library, and underground music venue

Operations

Laura Simkins
General Manager, VP Operations

Laura was a part of the original launch team for Dwell and, during her eight year tenure there, grew circulation over 500% to a rate base of 325,000. She was actively involved in the development of dwell.com and Dwell on Design conferences. Laura also served as VP, Consumer Marketing for 8020 Media and JPG magazine, helping to build innovative new web programs to tap an online community member base of over 195,000. Laura is a two-time CM Circulation Excellence award winner and was responsible for Dwell being listed in Capell’s as one of the top ten best performers in circulation, three years running. Past experience also includes stints at Health and Mother Jones magazines.

Robyn Patty
Audience Marketing Manager

Robyn has spent the last 15 years working in media, most recently as consumer marketing manager at Dwell. Previously she tackled marketing for brands as varied as Lowrider, Surfing, PC Gamer and Macworld. She’s excited to have landed at AFAR, where her love of travel makes the work all the more interesting.

Recent Highlight: No Heels in the Alps Please
Next Trip: Portland
Best Local Discovery: Playland exhibit at Conservatory of Flowers

Matthew Fenster
Senior Accounting Manager

Matthew has worked in the accounting field for 8 years and got started in the publishing industry during his tenure at Dwell Magazine. When he isn’t completing month-end closes, budgets, and monitoring the AFAR bank accounts he enjoys hiking, listening to records, and working on the record label he started with friends, Voltaire records.

Recent Highlight: View from Nevada Falls, Yosemite
Next Trip: Barcelona and Paris
Best Local Discovery: Hog Island Oyster Company

Jenny Burbank
Audience Marketing Coordinator

Jenny comes to AFAR from the world of book publishing, where she spent nearly 6 years at Ten Speed Press, most recently as an Associate Marketing Manager. During her time there, she worked on a variety of projects, including the David Lebovitz app, and was introduced to some of her favorite interests including food, wine, and travel. Before getting her start in publishing, she worked on Google’s Book Search team and at the law firm Downey Brand.

Recent Highlight: Early Morning in Oia
Next Trip: Turkey or Thailand
Best Local Discovery: Vida y Vino Wine Bistro in Fremont

Stephanie Bradley
Office Coordinator/Executive Assistant

Stephanie is a recent graduate who relocated to San Francisco to join the AFAR team after finishing her anthropology degree at UC Davis. Stephanie’s love for experiencing other cultures comes from an upbringing filled with international travel with her family and friends, as well as a study abroad program called Global Learning Semesters that allowed her to travel to nine countries on three continents. She is excited to be part of the AFAR team and share her passion for traveling with others.
Next trip: Dubai
Best local discovery: Nick’s Crispy Tacos

Erin Mulvey Russell
Human Resources Consultant

Shelley Tatum Kieran
Director of Public Relations

A native of San Francisco, Shelley has lived in Los Angeles, Florence, New York, and Toronto. Prior to joining AFAR, she was the Communications Director at Dwell Media, GOOD, and Wired. She has worked for a number of top brands, including Vanity Fair, Ralph Lauren, and IDEO. Her most profound travel experience to date is running a marathon in Antarctica.

Next Trip: Spain
Best Local Discovery: Hidden Villa, an organic farm, wilderness and community in the Santa Cruz foothills.

Jill Greenwood
Director, AFAR Experiences

Jill is a seasoned marketing and event production specialist who gets to combine her two loves—travel and creating memorable experiences—through the programming and execution of all AFAR Experiences events. Jill came to AFAR from TED Conferences, where she directed multiple facets of the event operations for its major US and international programs. Prior to becoming an event producer, Jill spent her formative years in Whistler, BC, where she was director of marketing for Tourism Whistler.

Recent Highlight: Magical Oasis
Next Trip: Buenos Aires
Best Local Discovery: The monthly letter writing club at Vancouver’s Regional Assembly of Text, where this gorgeous, yet lost, art is celebrated—paper, pens and Smith Coronas provided!

Jordan Robbins
Program Officer, AFAR Foundation

Growing up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont and Glastonbury, England, Jordan was immersed in nature and travel from the start. Jordan’s passion is two-fold: helping youth to better understand themselves and their connection to the planet, and working with strategic partners to create the support systems that help youth reach their life goals. Over the past 12 years, Jordan has worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service and as California Manager of the Jane Goodall Institute’s Roots & Shoots program. Today, Jordan brings the power of experiential travel to low-income youth in her dual role as Program Officer for the AFAR Foundation and Director of Scholarship Programs for Global Explorers.

Recent Highlight: Biodynamic Farming in the Fertile Soil of Arenal Volcano
Next Trip: Stockholm Archipelago
Best Local Discovery: Jasper Hill Farm cheeses, Greensboro, VT