People of NomadMania

These are the people without whom NomadMania would not be possible.

Core Team

Orest Zub 🇺🇦

Managing Partner

Online entrepreneur, overlander. Semi-pro tennis player, blogger.

Daniel Zagrodzki 🇵🇱

IT consultant / developer

For work – loves IT; in spare time – loves all outdoor activities.

Yaroslav Ingulskyi 🇺🇦

Frontend developer

Coffee lover and fan of hard rock music.

Viktoriia Ovcharenko 🇺🇦

Software developer

Curious programmer, avid reader, passionate about space, always striving for excellence.

Pedro Peticov 🇧🇷

Travel Experience Manager

Driven by curiosity and attracted by what’s different. Love connecting people.

Kaylee Tesfaye 🇪🇹

Secretary

Passionate about people, places, and creating experiences that matter.

Series Committee

Artur Padalianchyk 🇧🇾 🇱🇹

Tech leader by trade, traveller and foodie by heart, always chasing new places and flavors.

Olivier Demars 🇫🇷

A Frenchman who lived in a dozen countries slowly but surely making its way to 193.

Niels Honkoop 🇳🇱

Cheese prince from the Netherlands. Once went to law school. Into old maps and street food markets.

Stephen Nemeth 🇺🇸

Traveling to all the places I never learned about as a kid. Museum maniac and lover of obscure historical sites.

Thijs Copraij 🇳🇱

Professional pilot, amateur diver, hiker, historian and castle enthusiast. Always interested in seeing new places.

Douglas Gerhardt 🇬🇧 🇧🇷

Gallivanting serial traveller, scuba diver, and avgeek exploring cultures, stories, and hidden gems. One region at a time.

Jack is a lecturer in Tourism Studies at Mid Sweden University, with a particular interest in tourism’s peacebuilding potential. When not working, he is out eating, drinking beer, skiing, hiking and history nerding around the world

UN Masters Committee

Felix Laube 🇨🇭

Swiss global citizen interested in crossing boundaries. Engineer by trade – railways are the object.

Peter Oswaldt 🇬🇧

British-Portuguese-French citizen struck with wanderlust. Completed my first round the world trip in 1981 as a 19 years old backpacker and have kept going ever since. Based in London.

Orla Phillips 🇮🇪

Irish travel enthusiast based in Dubai, exploring cultures, chasing adventures in all corners of the globe.

Douglas Gerhardt 🇬🇧 🇧🇷

Gallivanting serial traveller, scuba diver, and avgeek exploring cultures, stories, and hidden gems. One region at a time.

Executive Committee

Mette Ehlers Mikkelsen 🇩🇰

Chair of the Committee. Mette is a professional board member and 3rd generation of four generations of women travellers.

Dondon Bales 🇵🇭 🇦🇺

Dondon circumnavigated the world four times, and authored the travel book “Gala: Adventures of the Most Well-Traveled Filipinos”.

Sue Rogers 🇬🇧

A mostly solo traveller, with an education and management background, and the first British born woman to achieve 193.

I share travel advice on www.suetravels.com

And Instagram: su3travels & su3travels_countrycountdown

Eugenio Bregolat 🇪🇸

Of Spanish and Russian heritage, I was born in Asia and raised around the world as the child of a diplomat. Though family life with two young sons keeps me closer to home, I remain passionate about exploring new and lesser-known NomadMania regions.

Lucy Hsu 🇺🇸

Born and raised in California’s Silicon Valley, a daughter of Vietnamese refugees, pursuing a career in educating children in underserved communities.

Kostiantyn Liorek 🇺🇦

Ukrainian globetrotter who is currently living in Poland due to the situation in his native country. He has lived in a number of countries in the past.

Adam Barredo 🇺🇸

Raised in a bilingual U.S. city, I once struggled to speak Spanish but eventually built a career across five foreign languages and six countries through daily practice and persistence. I now live in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, working as a Reconstruction Project Coordinator and advocating for language learning and meaningful travel as tools for personal growth and cross-cultural understanding.

Khadija Musa 🇰🇪

Somali descent, born in Kenya and left to the US as a teenager she never dreamed of becoming a “world traveler” but eventually did.

Tania Timoianu 🇷🇴

Born and raised in Bucharest, Romania. Having traveled since the age of one, I have visited 120 UN countries by 19 and experienced adventures from hiking the Himalayas and crossing the Gobi Desert to paragliding in Norway and trekking the Inca Trail. I currently study Japanese and Russian full-time at university, speak five languages, and am passionate about exploring the world, learning new languages, and planning meaningful journeys.

Ed Hotchkiss 🇺🇸

I am an avid traveler and photographer and have been to more than 150 countries. I write about my travels and share my photography on www.ExploringEd.com.

Yui Pow Redford 🇬🇧 🇸🇬

UK-based Singapore native who completed the UN 193 in 2017, becoming the first Asian woman to achieve the goal and the first Singaporean.

Anonymous

This male NomadManian under the age of 45 wishes to remain anonymous while being an active Executive Committee member. He originates from the Western Asia Megaregion, giving a voice to a growing travel demographic.

Read more about the Executive Committee and each of its’ members here on our blog.

Verification Committee

Thomas Büchler 🇨🇭

Minister of Internal Surveillance. Head of the Verification Committee.

Kostiantyn Liorek 🇺🇦

Ukrainian globetrotter, a historian by education, he especially admires World Heritage sites and places of high historical importance.

Erik Futtrup 🇩🇰

One of the biggest Danish travellers, a good planner and organiser.

Jacquelyn Kunz 🇺🇸

Worldly, cultured, NomadMania’s Most Intrepid Traveller of 2022.

Yannik Graf 🇩🇪

A young traveller from Germany with a strong desire for freedom.

Peter Oswaldt 🇬🇧

British-Portuguese-French citizen struck with wanderlust. Completed my first round the world trip in 1981 as a 19 years old backpacker and have kept going ever since. Based in London.

Scholarship Committee

Yui Pow Redford 🇬🇧 🇸🇬

UK-based Singapore native who completed the UN 193 in 2017, becoming the first Asian woman to achieve the goal and the first Singaporean.

Cameron Mofid 🇺🇸

American traveller of Egyptian-Iranian origin who is currently in the midst of his quest to visit every country in the world.

Ed Hotchkiss 🇺🇸

American traveller and the founder of ExploringEd.com, a travel and photography blog.

Read more about the NomadMania Scholarship Programme here.

Sustainable Travel Committee

Dondon Bales 🇵🇭 🇦🇺

Head of the NM Sustainable Travel Advocacy Committee based in Australia.

Anna-Katri Raiha 🇫🇮

A solo female traveller and the first woman in Finland to visit every country in the world.

Boris Kester 🇳🇱

Visited all the countries in the world and is convinced that sustainability should be high on the agenda of the (extreme) traveler community.

Billy Offland 🇬🇧

The youngest verified UN Master on NM and is always travelling with a focus on biodiversity.

Gunnar Garfors 🇳🇴

Visited all the countries in the world – twice. The Norwegian author has written several documentary books.

Geography Committee

Harry Mitsidis 🇬🇷

Founder. Global nomad, bowling, aviation, statistics, Eurovision Song Contest fan!

Dietmar Cerjak 🇦🇹 🇸🇮

Seeks to experience the world fully, eager to see, taste, and feel everything. He dreams of crossing mountains, sailing the Seven Seas, and discovering unknown territories.

James Coyne 🇱🇹 🇮🇪

James, born in the UK with Irish and Lithuanian roots, loves maps and exploring. He travels to many places and wants to see more of the world.

Katelyn Jarvis 🇺🇸

Founder of the non-profit “Peace Stamps.” and aims to enhance cultural understanding and make a positive impact through her journeys.

Dmitry Malov 🇷🇺

Born in Magadan, Russia, at that time — USSR. So at first, the only way of travelling possible for me was by reading adventure books and studying maps. Seen then, a huge fan of remote islands, micronations, and the last surviving scheduled ships.

Erik Jelinek 🇨🇿🇬🇧

Raised in Scotland with studies in France and Germany, embraced travel early. At 23, he embarked on a global journey, intending a year but returning after three, captivated by the world’s wonders.

Mikael Staffas 🇸🇪

Since the 1980s, he has has been exploring countries and regions, setting a goal in 1983 to visit every country before retirement, averaging four new countries annually.

Vassilis Stamatelopoulos 🇬🇷

With over 36 years in the Hotel & Travel industry, this professional understands the significance of travel for relaxation and cultural connection.

Alumni Members

Milana Bojinović 🇧🇦

Executive Manager. Scuba diver, nature lover, under travelled.

Eugene Petrus 🇺🇦

Marketing manager. He is the biggest fan of his pet and a travel star Traveling Chapati.

Wojciech Fedoruk 🇵🇱

Executive Committee and Vice-Minister of Internal Relations. Showing the world to his children. Fan of polar regions.

Artem Golubchak

Designer. Artem is a web developer, designer, traveler and digital nomad from Ukraine.

Gianni Bianchini

Digital Sphere Minister. Blogger, writer, photographer and youtuber. Co-founder of Nomad is Beautiful.

Pirkko Schildt

Finland Ambassador. Travel and stories from travels. Travelling duo with my husband.

Steve Buckley

Internal Relations Minister. A Brit now living in New Zealand – usually 3 trips per year.

Nicola Coratella

Italy Ambassador.

Ric Gazarian

Ambassador – US and Thailand. Chasing 193 at GlobalGaz.com, podcasting at Counting Countries.

Jack Goldstein

Spanish Language Associate. Every type of travel including very long drives.

A. Mehmet Haksever

Executive Committee Member. World Heritage traveller, Islamic architecture, meditation, cruising.

Lars Jensen

Website tester. Global shipping analyst on a quest to visit everywhere in the world.

Samer Kawar

Online Operations Minister. Wanderluster. Architect. Urbanophile. San Franciscan. Sketching my way around the world.

Markus Lundgren

Executive Committee and Ambassador. Restless traveller wanting to learn from other world views.

Gina Morello

Charity Development Minister.

Redzuan Rahmat

External Relations Minister. Part-time traveller with a penchant for travel to unrecognized countries and unusual destinations.

Mike Weiss

Community Development Executive. Curious by nature, anthropologist wannabe, fueled by unusual destinations.

JoAnn Schwartz

WHS Minister. Focused on the less visited and unusual parts of the world.

Bill Wohlrab

Communications and News Minister. An optimistic citizen of the world who longs for the open road.

Grigori Yeghiazaryan

External Relations Minister.

Tor Anders Birkenes

Minister for 193. Electrical engineer and hobby traveller exploring our beautiful world.

Harri Tuomola

Minister of Major Lists. Fan of borders and lists. Native of Finland, currently residing in Mitrovica.

Founder

Harry Mitsidis

Founder. Global nomad, bowling, aviation, statistics, Eurovision Song Contest fan!

harrymitsidis.com

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