Shivya Nath: Founder
Shivya is an impact entrepreneur, award-winning travel writer, bestselling author, and passionate advocate of tourism as a force for good.
She grew up in a valley in the Indian Himalayas, and began her career in the tourism industry as a digital marketer over 15 years ago, at the Singapore Tourism Board. Following a volunteer travel stint with a responsible tourism enterprise in the Trans-Himalayas, she became deeply passionate about the potential of travel as a force for good. Over the next seven years, she lived out of two bags, spending time with local and Indigenous communities across the globe, pursuing storytelling at the intersection of travel, the environment and social impact.
Her words have appeared in BBC Travel, National Geographic Traveller, The Washington Post, Travel + Leisure and other leading publications. She is the author of the national bestselling travel memoir “The Shooting Star: A girl, her backpack and the world” (Penguin, 2018) and runs an award-winning sustainable travel blog.
Shivya has been featured by The Washington Post among travellers changing the way we think about the world, by National Geographic Traveller among travellers of color smashing stereotypes, and in the BBC film, The Audacious, on living your best (sustainable) life. She is a recipient of the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Awards (Society of American Travel Writers, 2023) and the Inspire Global Media Awards (London, 2025).
She holds a Master’s in Sustainability and Environmental Management from Harvard University (DCE), where her research focused on climate adaptation solutions in tourism. She also holds a professional certificate in sustainable tourism from the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).
Lola Akinmade Åkerström: Advisor
Lola Akinmade Åkerström is an award-winning visual storyteller, international bestselling author, and travel entrepreneur. She has dispatched from over 70+ countries and her work has been featured in National Geographic, New York Times, The Guardian, BBC, CNN, Travel Channel, Travel + Leisure, Lonely Planet, Forbes, and many more. She has collaborated with commercial brands such as Intrepid Travel, and National Geographic Channel, to name a few. As a storyteller, Lola was recently named a 2022 Hasselblad Heroine and is the 2018 Bill Muster Travel Photographer of the Year.
As a business owner and entrepreneur, she runs Stockholm-based travel consultancy, Geotraveler Media, co-founded the travel influencer marketing collective, NordicTB, and recently co-founded Local Purse, which supports travel guides and local artisans through live video shopping.
Her book, Due North, received the Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Best Travel Book, and she is also the author of international bestselling "LAGOM: The Swedish Secret of Living Well" available in 18 foreign language editions, and internationally-acclaimed, bestselling novel, "In Every Mirror She's Black".
In 2018, she was recognized as one of the Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) in media and as a mentor, she runs her own online academy, Geotraveler Media Academy, which is dedicated to visual storytelling and helping the next generation of travel storytellers put the heart back into the craft.
