Executive Director

Chairman Emeritus

Mary Thomson - Chairman OBI (Canada)

Mary M. Thomson, BA (Hons.), MA, LLB, is a senior partner in Gowlings' Advocacy Group in Toronto. She is one of Canada's pre-eminent practitioners in the areas of class actions, mass tort litigation, products liability, pharma litigation, health law and consent law, and is recognized in the Canadian Legal Lexpert Directory as a leading lawyer in the area of medical negligence. She brings extensive experience in representing clients before the courts, Commissions of Inquiry, professional regulatory bodies and other administrative tribunals, and served as amicus curiae in Goodis v. The Children's Lawyers at the request of the court. Ms. Thomson is also expert in privacy issues in the health care field.

Ms. Thomson is currently an adjunct professor in the Graduate Department of Health Administration, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, instructing Ethical and Legal Issues in the Health Law Field. Ms. Thomson has taught Trial Advocacy throughout her career at both the University of Toronto and the Intensive Trial Advocacy Workshop at Osgoode Hall Law School. In addition, she has taught and developed curriculum for negotiation theory and skills following her completion of the Basic and Advanced Negotiation Program at Harvard Law School.

Ms. Thomson is a past board chair of Canadian Outward Bound Wilderness School, a past director of Outward Bound Canada, and a founding trustee of the Outward Bound Canada Foundation. She currently serves on the Risk Management Committee of Outward Bound International.

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Lorna Wendt - Vice Chairman OBI (USA)

Lorna Wendt is a personal believer in the power of Outward Bound and has been on 12 programs on 6 continents. She has been a Board member of OBI for 5-years and now serves as Vice Chairman with a special interest in Development.

Lorna Wendt founded The Institute for Equality in Marriage to try to answer these questions and, more important, to help set legal precedent that will lead to fairer divorce laws in the United States.

In addition to managing the Institute, Ms. Wendt supports the arts and education through her many philanthropic activities. She is a founding member and benefactor of the Board of the Women's Philanthropy Institute and is a founding member of the University of Wisconsin's Tri-State Women's Initiative. She is on the advisory board of both the University of Wisconsin's School of Music and the College of Letters and Sciences and the University of Wisconsin Foundation. In 1997, she was named as one of the University's distinguished alumni. Ms. Wendt has served on the Board of the Stamford Center for the Arts, is an honorary trustee of the Stamford Symphony and on the Advisory Board of Outward Bound USA.

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Mr. Bill Grabe, Treasurer (USA)

William O. Grabe is an Advisory Director at General Atlantic, which he joined in 1992. Mr. Grabe brings broad international experience and an extensive sales and marketing background to General Atlantic. He has assisted numerous companies in their geographical expansion and the development of strategic alliances. As an Advisory Director at General Atlantic, Mr. Grabe serves on the boards of AKQA and Quality Technology Services.

Prior to his affiliation with General Atlantic, Mr. Grabe retired from the IBM Corporation as an IBM Vice President and Corporate Officer. In his last position he was responsible for US Marketing and Services and was a founding member of the board of ISSC, the precursor to IBM Global Services. Earlier in his IBM career he was President, National Accounts Division and in 1988 was responsible for the worldwide launch of the AS 400.

His outside affiliations include serving as a member of the UCLA Anderson School of Management Board of Visitors, a Trustee of Outward Bound International, and a director of Compuware Corporation, Gartner, Inc. and Lenovo Group Limited.

Mr. Grabe holds a B.S. in Engineering from New York University (1958) and received his M.B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles (1963).

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Eduardo Balarezo

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Peter Britton (USA)

Peter P. Britton is owner and manager of Brick Ends Farm, Inc. a biorecycling company specializing in the composting of organic wastes and the production of enhanced soil products. He is a founding partner of Agresource, Inc., a regional cost-avoidance company that has pioneered in on-farm use of organic wastes and new composting techniques.

Mr. Britton, with his wife Beatrice, has been a participant in OBI Guest Expeditions to: Kilimanjaro, The Scottish Highlands, England Coast-To-Coast, the Silk Road, the Camino De Santiago, and Bhutan in 2008.

Although now a practicing agricultural engineer, Mr. Britton pursued a B.A. degree in American Studies at Yale University from 1962-66. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1966-70 as a salvage diver before returning to teach English, American History, and Anthropology at Belmont Hill School, Belmont, MA from 1970-75. At this time he adopted farming as his passion and career path, joined by his wife and children, Nathan and Willoughby moving to Hamilton, MA - home of Brick Ends Farm.

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Francois Burman (South Africa)

Born in South Africa, Francois is a Professional Engineer who has held senior positions in the nuclear energy field. An entrepreneur with many interests Francois is active in hyperbaric medicine and serves on the board of the international Divers Alert network and is Chairman of Outward Bound South Africa.

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Roy Chung (Hong Kong)

Dr Roy Chi Ping Chung JP, co-founder of Techtronic Industries Company Limited, is currently the Vice Chairman and Executive Director of the Company. He is responsible for the corporate and business management of the Group. Dr Chung is also the founder of Bright Future Charitable Foundation.

Dr Chung holds a Doctor of Engineering WMG Engineering from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate Degree by the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia in 2006. He was further awarded an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration by the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 2007. He was also appointed as Justice of Peace by the Hong Kong SAR Government effective on July 1, 2005 and won the Hong Kong Young Industrialists Award in 1997.

Dr Chung is active in several professional associations and numerous charities in Hong Kong benefitting young people. He serves as Chairman of Executive Committee of the Outward Bound Trust of Hong Kong.

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Jon D'Almeida (Hong Kong)

Jon is a New Zealander who has roamed the world in the service of Outward Bound. After working as School Director in New Zealand he left to take up the challenge of starting Outward Bound in post-apartheid South Africa. With that school well established Jon moved to Hong Kong where he is now the Executive Director. Jon has had many years of involvement in Outward Bound around the world.

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Kathleen Healy

Kathleen Healy is a private investor, nonprofit board member and management consultant. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the New England Aquarium, the Sea Education Association and on the Board of Overseers of Boston University. Previous board memberships related to Outward Bound include Pacific Crest Outward Bound School, Thompson Island Outward Bound School and the national board of Outward Bound USA.

Formerly, Ms. Healy worked as a management consultant for McKinsey and Company in New York and London. She holds a M.B.A. and CPA and has certificates in nonprofit management and governance. She is an avid sailor and hiker and has been on Outward Bound courses in Oregon, Key West, the British Virgin Islands and Colorado.

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Tim Medhurst (Australia)

Originally trained as a Licensed Surveyor, Tim has a B.Sc and Dip.Ed. After gaining a Master of Science in Glaciology from Melbourne University, Tim led scientific expeditions in the Antarctica spending 10 months in the field away from the base. He followed this with service as Operations Director of Outward Bound Australia overseeing 18 operational areas around Australia. Tim was Country Director in Fiji for CARE Australia and later became Executive Director of OB Australia. After a 30 year involvement, Tim now serves on the Board of OB Australia.

Recently Tim has been Director of Casleyville and South Developments involved with land development and real estate investment. Tim serves with a number of not for profit organizations including being Chairman of The Ethos Foundation

Tim and his family enjoy travelling, mixing and working with other cultures. He is an enthusiastic surfer and skier. He and his wife Fiona have three children.

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Nikhil Mundle (India)

Nikhil received a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology and a MBA from Nagpur University. He is partner in the family business of construction and leasing of real estate in the growing city of Nagpur.

His extensive charitable work includes being founding Trustee of Outward Bound Bharat Trust. Through the Mundle Educational Trust he supports the Mundle Public School, Central India School of Fine Arts and Pasaayadaan Parisar. He is also a Vice President of the Blind Relief Association, which operates Blind Boys School and Workshop for Blind Students.

He is active in sports and played badminton competitively, has completed several long distance treks in the Himalaya and climbed Kilimanjaro with the OBI Global Leaders Program in 2006.

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Iain Peter (Scotland)

Peter has held many prestigious jobs in the outdoor education field in the UK and served as Chief Executive, Mountain Training Trust, Plas y Brenin for a decade. An internationally recognized mountain guide has climbed major peaks like Everest, Cerro Torre in Patagonia and the Eiger North Face. serves as Chairman of the Risk Management Committee of Outward Bound Trust UK and has been involved in the setting of standards, training and assessment of candidates for all UK mountaineering qualifications.

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Mike Perlis

Mike Perlis is President and CEO of Forbes Media. He has served as a media industry CEO with over 25 years' experience managing a wide range of content and multi-media brands. Mr. Perlis joined Forbes Media from SoftBank Capital, a venture capital firm focused on high growth internet based businesses, where he served as a General Partner. Formerly he served as President and CEO of Ziff-Davis Publishing and as President of the Playboy Publishing Group, overseeing all publishing and related product activity worldwide. Mike has been on numerous Outward Bound programs in the USA, Nepal, Africa and served on OB USA Board for many years. He recently climbed Mt. Rainier.

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Andrew Smith (New Zealand)

Andrew Smith is a New Zealander, and spent his working life in businesses supplying materials to the construction industry, firstly with his family's business Smith   Smith Ltd, of which he became Managing Director, and then from 1987, with two partners in a glass merchant business Metropolitan Glass, which they established from scratch.

Metropolitan Glass grew to become the largest glass merchant business in New Zealand, and was sold to a private equity firm in 2006.

From then on, Andrew has focused his time on managing an investment portfolio, and becoming more involved with a number of not for profit organizations.

Andrew completed an Outward Bound course in 2007, and became a director of Outward Bound New Zealand in 2008.

He is currently on the finance sub committee, and is Chair of the Outward Bound Foundation. With his wife, Jenny, he joined the OBI Guest Expedition in Oman in 2010.

His interests include travel, golf, and the visual arts.

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Krassimir Yanev (Bulgaria)

Has extensive business experience in various fields, most of which within international context. He was a Managing Director of DHL Express in the Balkan countries and led the merger effort between DHL International and Danzas in Bulgaria. He is currently CEO of Net Info BG, the leading Bulgarian Internet Media Player.

Krassimir holds an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh, USA and an M. Sc. in Economics and International Business from Sofia University of Economics.

He has been Board Chairman of Outward Bound Bulgaria for a number of years, guiding the organization through difficult economic times. Krassimir speaks various languages including English, Bulgarian, French, Spanish and Russian.

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Ian Wade, Executive Director (USA)

Ian has a varied background in Outward Bound as an instructor for Colorado OBS, program manager for Pacific Crest OBS and Vice President of Outward Bound USA responsible for risk management and program development. He was a founder and President of the American Mountain Guides Association, establishing accreditation and certification programs. Ian spent a year at Columbia University Business School in New York getting a graduate qualification in Not For Profit Management.

A passion for mountaineering and the profound impact it can have on people is what initially attracted Ian to Outward Bound. His mountaineering activities include numerous "big wall" climbs in Yosemite, the North Face of the Eiger, a first ascent in the Karakorum and being climbing leader of the Mt. Everest Peace Climb. He reached the summit, by the north ridge, along with 20 climbers from America, the Soviet Union and China- a world record number to reach the summit from one expedition.

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G. Kelly O'Dea (USA) - Chairman Emeritus

Kelly is Chairman/CEO of AllianceHPL Worldwide, a strategic advice and solutions firm headquartered in New York City. A well known global marketing executive, he previously served as Vice Chairman of IPG Advanced Marketing Services, President of Foote Cone & Belding Worldwide and President of Worldwide Client Service for Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide.

He has worked with top-level clients in virtually every category and has led many of the world's largest accounts including Ford, Unilever, Shell, Boeing, Kraft, PepsiCo, Microsoft, AT&T, Fujitsu, Samsung, Compaq and IBM. He also lived 10 years of his career overseas.

Educated in the USA and Europe, he received an International MBA with Distinction from the Thunderbird Graduate School of International Management and a BA (Political Science and Economics) from the University of Portland. He is a board director and trustee of both schools and has also served on several corporate and industry boards.

Kelly has been actively involved with Outward Bound for nearly 25 years as a board director, marketing advisor and host of several Outward Bound expeditions. Aside from serving on the OBI Board, Kelly has been a Board member of OB USA.

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Peter Kyle - Chairman Emeritus

Peter is a lawyer and hails from New Zealand. He was educated at Victoria University of Wellington gaining a BA (Economics) and a Bachelor of Laws (Honors). He worked as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand he worked as a Clerk to the Chief Justice of New Zealand. He was then awarded a Rotary International Graduate Fellowship to complete a Master of Laws degree at the University of Virginia in 1974. Upon returning to New Zealand he was made a partner in the leading New Zealand commercial law firm of Watts and Patherson. In 1979, he took leave from his firm to serve as a Senior Counsel with the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines. In 1992 Peter accepted an offer of a senior position within the Legal Department of the World Bank based in Washington, D.C.

Peter completed his first Outward Bound course at Anakiwa, New Zealand, in February 1966. He became an active leader in the Alumni Association of and the Council. He served on all major Board committees and chaired most of them. He became actively involved in the international activities of Outward Bound and in 1988 was instrumental in drafting all the legal documentation which led to the establishment of the International Advisory Board. In 1993 he was appointed to that Board and in 1997 he was made Chairman. He stepped down in 2003 but remains active in legal and licensing matters as Chairman Emeritus.

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William E. Phillips - Chairman Emeritus

Bill Phillips is a native of Chicago. He graduated from Cornell in 1951 and then served as a naval officer at sea during the Korean Conflict. After an M.B.A. at Northwestern, he worked for Procter   Gamble as a brand manager. In 1959, he joined Ogilvy & Mather, which grew from one office to the fourth largest agency in the world, and served as chief executive officer from 1981 to 1988.

Mr. Phillips became involved with Outward Bound in 1975 on a rafting trip on Cataract Canyon with Bill Coors, Josh Miner, Joe Nold, and Steve Truitt, among others. He has since been on 16 Outward Bound adventures from the streets of New York City to high altitudes on six continents.

As an OBUSA trustee, Mr. Phillips initiated a PSA recruitment advertising campaign. He then became the founding chairman of the New York City Outward Bound Center. In 1988, he led the establishment of an international board, which he chaired for nine years. In 1997, Mr. Phillips stepped down to become chairman emeritus. He remains active in fund raising for Outward Bound everywhere.

Mr. Phillips also serves on four for-profit Boards and four non-profit Boards. Mr. Phillips is married to Barbara Smith, who is a professional fundraiser. He says he has always been luckier than he deserves to be, except on the golf course.

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