Ben Peterson

Publisher

Ben fell in love with Africa in 2001, when he moved to Ghana to work at the Ghanaian Ministry of Justice. Since then, Ben has accumulated eighteen years of experience investing in, founding, growing and managing companies and non-profits across Africa. Ben is also the Recipient of Canada’s Meritorious Service Medal (MSM) one of Canada’s highest civilian honours, winner of Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award and the Queen’s University Alumni Humanitarian Award. Ben has a MSc from the London School of Economics.

Jan van der Does de Willebois

Director

Jan has spent most of the last 20 years working as an investment banker with Credit Suisse, Standard Bank (UK and Nigeria) and Dyer and Blair (Kenya).Over the last four years Jan has co-founded and invested in a string of companies across Africa focused on the growing lower middle mass market, including a digital lending platform in Kenya, a gym and laundromat chain in Nigeria, mass housing in Sierra Leone and agriculture in Ghana. His exits to date have had an average multiple of 3.2x.

Mikul Shah

Director & Founder

Born and raised in Mombasa on the Kenyan coast, Mikul Shah is a foodie, travel enthusiast, angel investor and serial entrepreneur with over 20 years experience in mature and emerging markets. In 2010, having relocated from London to Nairobi, he founded the award-winning restaurant discovery portal, EatOut. After seeing a significant gap in the market, Mikul founded Nomad magazine in 2017 with the mission to promote regional and domestic tourism in Africa, through high quality content.

Mark Willms

CEO

Mark spent much of his childhood living and travelling throughout Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya and Uganda. Since then, his professional career always brought him back to his “second home”. As a lawyer, Mark has experience working in business and start-up law, as well as in emerging and frontier markets. He was the Co-Head of Advisory for an African geopolitical risk firm, and has been a non-profit advisor to the Salama Shield Foundation, a Ugandan NGO. As an entrepreneur, he was named one of Canada’s “notable young entrepreneurs” after he co-founded a company called Mbuntu – a coffee and travel company. Mark was named a Canadian Millennium Scholar and has an International Master of Laws degree from Duke University.

Vanessa Wanjiku

Head of Sales

Vanessa’s outgoing, positive and social personality has driven her success; she has managed to work her way up as a sales and marketing professional in the media industry. Vanessa is a living example of the famous Penelope Douglas quote “experience is the best teacher”. As the head of sales for Nomad Magazine her main goals are to make sure that the magazine is consistent, profitable and sustainable. Vanessa has a deep passion for traveling, fashion and music.

Jodi York

Director of Nomad Travel Club

Jodi took a trip to Kenya in 2010 and it changed the entire trajectory of her life. She ended up switching degrees, universities and made it her mission to get educated on the continent of Africa and share that knowledge. Jodi is originally from Ottawa, Canada but has studied, travelled, and worked within the continent for the past 11 years. Jodi has called Nairobi home for the past 5 and a half years and has spent her time here working in tourism and showcasing the unparallel beauty East Africa has to offer. Jodi has travelled thousands of visitors through Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia and loves all things operations, facilitation and designing bespoke experiences. Jodi is passionate about photography, travel and makes a mean guacamole.

Soni Adriance

Editor-in-Chief

Soni is a Nairobi native who has always been passionate about, and worked within, the food and travel industry. She has extensive experience developing and executing marketing strategies to promote brands with proven success in providing marketing consultancy, managing digital marketing operations, and executing local sales strategies. With a degree in Public Communications from the American University in Washington D.C., Soni has worked in events, sales, strategic marketing, magazine editing, radio and is currently the Editor-in-Chief for Nomad Magazine. Soni will travel far and wide for a good meal, craft beer or dirty martini, and for her lifestyle Instagram account, Soni Side Up.

Carol Soi

Bookings Manager

Carol is an enthusiastic travel specialist with extensive experience in coordinating travel throughout East Africa for thousands of youth, families and people from all walks of life enabling them to discover unparalleled experiences and make life changing memories. Over her many years of experience, Carol has coordinated over 2,500 trips for approximately 11,000 travellers including many high level celebrities from all over the world. In her previous role, Carol was responsible for the entire booking process ensuring that travel itineraries were well planned and executed so that all travellers experienced world class service. She holds a master’s degree in strategic management from USIU-Africa and is passionate about nature and conservation.