Our Team and Board of Trustees

Kathy Atkinson was appointed as the first Chief Executive of the Safer Tourism Foundation in December 2016. She has a fundamental belief in the value of travel and is a backpacker at heart. Like many people, Kathy finds a discord between "holiday" and "health and safety". Her vision for the Foundation is as a charity that constructively challenges travel industry practice where necessary but which also enables and encourages people to travel well and widely, understanding and managing the risks they face but not being enslaved by them.

Kathy studied at Cambridge University and has spent the last 20 years working in the charity sector, having begun professional life working for Exxonmobil at Fawley Refinery. She has worked at Voluntary Service Overseas here in the UK and in Nepal, did a stint as a management consultant for a range of clients in the not for profit sector and spent seven years as Chief Executive for the Campaign for National Parks, during which time two new National Parks were designated - the New Forest and the South Downs.

As well as leading the establishment and development of the Safer Tourism Foundation, Kathy holds a non executive directorship within the NHS, as a lay member of a local clinical commissioning group. She lives in Guildford but visits the mountains whenever possible. In 2016 she and her husband took their kids out of school for a three month round-the-world backpacking adventure so the issues facing the Safer Tourism Foundation are very real for her. This summer Kathy and her family are planning a backpacking trip around the Yucatan.

Ian Ailles is the Chair of the Safer Tourism Foundation and works closely with the Trustees and CEO to ensure the aims of the charity are achieved.

A qualified accountant, Ian has worked in complex, customer facing organisations in both the public and private sector. Most recently, he has performed key leadership roles in the travel and leisure industry at Thomas Cook and Wyndham. He has also held executive, non-executive and consultancy roles for charities, start-up ventures and large organisations in sectors including NHS, education, care homes, IT and banking.

Ian is the Director General of the House of Commons – a position he has held since 2015. In this role, Ian is responsible for the delivery of effective and efficient services to MPs and the public.

Hans holds an MBA from Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Until 2008 Hans hold various marketing and sales roles in Fast Moving Consumer Goods companies. In 2008, Hans combined his love for adventure travel and his expertise in commercial management when he became Managing Director of Sawadee Reizen in The Netherlands. In 2010, Hans moved to Toronto Canada and became president of Quark Expeditions, the leader in polar travel, operating cruises in one of the most unpredictable and potentially dangerous environments in the world. In 2015 Hans took over responsibility for all adventure brands within TUI Travel, a business that was sold to KKR in 2017. In 2018 Hans became CEO and President of boutique luxury cruise start-up Victory Cruise Lines, while he is also a proud trustee of the Safer Tourism Foundation in the UK.

Janet had a long career in local government , the last 10 years of which was as Director of Environment, Transport and Property at a large Metropolitan Authority where her responsibilities included overseeing corporate safety and emergency planning. She was a Member of the Better Regulation Task Force for 10years where reports she worked on included a review of Licensing , the compensation culture and hotels. On leaving local government she became President of her professional body the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health. She currently is a non Executive Director of a CIC that works on carbon reduction and works for BEIS as an associate on Better Regulation.

October 2006 and my life was about to change forever. I kissed my children goodbye as they left with their father for a holiday in Corfu. That was the last time I saw Christi and Bobby alive, a day that will haunt me until we are once again together.

They died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a gas boiler that had not been correctly installed, serviced or maintained. My children died needlessly, due to systemic failings within the travel industry.

Their tragic story is well documented, as is the ‘David v Goliath’ decade long legal battle that ensued. I fought for justice for my children with a passion and determination like only a grieving mother could. Robbed of my children and the following ten years of my life, perseverance came at a personal price, but it has also done so much to raise the profile of the dangers of carbon monoxide and encouraged holiday makers to think more carefully about their safety when travelling abroad.

The Safer Tourism Foundation was born of some very open and frank conversations between myself and the CEO of Thomas Cook, Peter Fankhauser. We couldn’t change what had happened but together we could be influential in making tourism safer for the future, a lasting legacy for Christi and Bobby.

So I am very proud to be a trustee of the charity and pledge my commitment to ensuring that it will help in educating travellers about the dangers they may face, promoting safer tourism and ensuring that the travel industry is transparent, honest and respectful.

Colin is a Chartered Accountant who has worked in financial services and the oil & gas sectors before joining the travel industry. He has held senior finance, Finance Director and CFO roles across household names and niche brands, covering a wide range of holiday types. He is currently Group CFO at Hotelplan UK.

Stephanie Boyle joined the Safer Tourism Foundation to look after campaigns and communications in September 2023. Now based in London, Stephanie has lived in Brussels, New York, Florida, Illinois and Barcelona, and has done a fair bit of travelling in between. She's been involved in travel for the better part of the last 15 years, leading communications teams and campaigns for brands such as Skyscanner, Tripadvisor and VisitEngland, and building communications functions from scratch at startups like Culture Trip and Infogrid.

As a mother and stepmother, with family living around the world, Stephanie is passionate about sustainable and safe travel. When she isn't travelling herself, she can be found volunteering at her daughter's school or singing in cafes and pubs around South London.

Paul is a Senior Board advisor, former MD and CEO with over 30 years experience in hospitality, travel and membership. He started his career overseas at Crystal Holidays in Austria, and then at HQ where over a period of 10 years he held senior marketing and product roles. He then joined publicly-traded global hospitality services businesses, Cendant and Wyndham, and ran their camping division, then Hotel Dynamics and RCI. In 2015 he joined Hotelplan as UK COO and then UK CEO, including adventure travel brands include Inghams, Explore and Inntravel. In 2020 he left to pursue a portfolio career – he chairs MacsAdventure, runs his own advisory practice which help organisations drive business growth and create value and runs a retreat with several self-catering holiday cottages in Herefordshire.