The Tropical Discovery team is made up of a very talented & diverse group of seasoned travelers sharing a common passion for travel in Central America. No matter what your interest - culture, colonial history, scuba diving, archeology, adventure, luxury spas, fishing, nature, sports… etc., our travel consultants are experts in the areas we operate in and will best guide you in planning your perfect Cental America vacation.
Our sales consultants are at your service from our offices in Miami Florida, Paris France and Hamburg Germany. Our Guatemala office, located in beautiful La Antigua, is our logistical center and provides our clients with all in country services.
Ken Layton : Sales Director - Ken's love for travel and culture has taken him around the globe many times, spending approximately eight years living and working in Europe and ten in Latin America, in addition to having extensively traveled the Caribbean, Asia and Africa. He has over the last ten years held various international business development roles in the Internet and tourism sectors, working for companies such as 3Com, Amazon.com Europe, ViaFrance and consulting for several online travel portals. Ken's dream of sharing those destinations and activities which inspire him the most has finally become a reality. He is a US and Guatemalan national, has a Bachelors Degree in Int. Relations and Int. Business from California Polytechnic, San Luis Obispo, and an MBA from L'Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris; he speaks fluent English, French, Spanish and German. (BASE: Miami & Guatemala)
Sisco Sanchez : Communications Director - Our technological and creative guru, as well as another ocean and travel aficionado, Sisco has spent his working career serving as creative director for companies such as Young & Rubicam and Ogilvy & Mather in Barcelona, Madrid, New York and Miami. He has worldwide experience in creation and development of TV, print and Internet based marketing campaigns, and is able to couple his great creative, marketing and branding skills with advanced internet development, making him an expert in the Interactive Marketing field. Sisco is a Spanish national and speaks fluent English and Spanish, with proficiency in French. (BASE: Miami, Florida)
Gabriela Peralta : Product Manager and Travel Consultant - Gabriela's experience as a travel agent and her passion for tourism and travel, make her the ideal candidate to inspire our customers to travel to our beautiful countries of Central America. Gabriela has worked in tourism for 15 years. With a passion for languages and travel, along with her knowledge of the tourism market, Gabriela plays a key role in helping to communicate the riches of Central America. Gabriela is Guatemalan, but has lived in the U.S. and speaks English fluently (BASE: La Antigua, Guatemala)
Suzie Campbell : Global Sales Representative - Suzie is a respected professional within the US travel industry, with over 25 years of sales and marketing experience, including 10 years with Best Western International as Marketing Chair. She also gained extensive experience as President of Arizona Circle Tours. At Tropical Discovery she serves as Global Sales Representative and basically spends her time travelling the globe training travel agencies & tour operators worldwide about the breathtaking natural beauty, history and culture of Central America. (BASE: Tempe Arizona)
Julieta Martínez: Travel Consultant – Julieta was born in México, but spent most of her childhood in Guatemala. French, Guatemalan and Mexican national, Julieta developed a passion for languages and Travel and the fact of having more than 3 years of experience in tourism in Central America, allow her to provide advice that will attract the attention of our customers to travel to our destinations. Julieta holds BA in Foreign Languages Applied to Commerce from “La Sorbonne Nouvelle”, in Paris and “Leipzig University” in Germany. Julieta is trilingual (English, French and Spanish) and knows some German. (BASE: La Antigua, Guatemala).
Katrin von Enden : Travel Consultant- Although Katrin was born in Germany, she spent the majority of her childhood living in Asia and Latin America. Because of her early exposure to the unique cultures Asia and Latin-America, she developed a passion for travel which led her to become the premier travel consultant she is today. For the past four years she worked as a travel consultant in Central America, planning detailed customized destination trips. She traveled extensively throughout Central America, to become an expert on all the region has to offer. Because of the passion she has for her work, she is able to provide her clients seamless travel coordination for all stages of planning, booking, and enjoying customized tours throughout Central America. It is her belief that she is not just planning a vacation, but that she is helping to create memories that last a lifetime. BASE: Germany).
Solenne Marquet : Administrative Manager and Travel Consultant - Prior to joining the Tropical Discovery Team, Solenne spent six months fortifying her love for Latin America and the Spanish language by travelling throughout the region and working at a rehabilitation camp for wild animals in Bolivia. Prior to that, she worked as a junior consultant for Perspective SA, a management consulting firm, and as product manager and chief editor for E-Loft SA, a pan European student services company. Solenne is great source of valuable and insightful information in helping our customers plan unforgettable tours and yachting vacations in those areas we so cherish. She has a Bachelors in Political Science from Institut d’Etude Politique in Strasbourg, and a Masters in Human Resource Management from Paris Dauphine. Solenne is a French national and also speaks fluent English and Spanish. (BASE: Paris, France)
Julioandré Piedra Santa : Adventure Sports Specialist – A self-proclaimed patriot without a cause, this traveled soul lived in the south of Germany before getting his BS in Printing Management in New York. His intellectual meanderings have taken him from Archery to Wine Tasting to Energy Psychology. While working on the QE 2 he caught a serius case of travelling. He has managed to quench that travelling thirst through expedition style adventure racing around the world, from Scotland to the Amazon to Patagonia. While training for these races he has come to think of Guatemala as his own natural playground. He is a Guatemalan national and speaks fluent Spanish, English and basic German. (BASE: Guatemala)
Advisory Team
Bruce McNamara : Sales Director Europe - A true travel and tourism expert, Bruce has over 15 years experience in the tourism industry serving as Product Manager and Sales Director for various European tour operators such as Jet Tours, Quimbaya Tours and Vacances AirTransat. He has literally spent a major part of his working career in search of the perfect vacation packages to promote, at Tropical Discovery Services he has found a just that. Bruce is a British national, grew up in France and speaks fluent French, English and Spanish. (BASE: Paris, France)
Paul Ridoutt : Senior Advisor - Paul has over 30 years of professional management consultancy experience, together with project management and senior executive experience, in the tourism, travel, hospitality and leisure industries, in over 35 countries in Europe, North America, Caribbean, Australasia and the South Pacific. Paul, as well as the entire team, is an avid supporter for sustainable tourism and ecological initiatives and is actively seeking ways to contribute to the healthy communication and development of the Caribbean and Central American region. He will in addition head the company’s non profit division, the Tropical Discovery Foundation, whose purpose it so aid with local education and ecological initiatives. Serving Tropical Discovery Services as Strategic Consultant, Paul is a British national and is based in Miami Florida.
David Hatton : General Counsel US - David is a partner in the law firm of Orshan, Lithman, Seiden, Ramos, Hatton & Huesmann, LLLP with offices in Coral Gables, Florida. He has developed a practice in corporate transactions, business strategy, and commercial litigation involving a broad range of brick-and-mortar and technology based companies. David currently serves as general corporate counsel and special advisor to Tropical Discovery Services Inc. and to various other client corporations, with significant experience representing companies with a focus on tourism, manufacturing, distribution, licensing and marketing throughout the Americas, the Caribbean, and the European Union. Mr. Hatton Graduated from The American University with a B.A. in Law & Society and a Minor in Economics and received a Juris Doctorate from the University of Miami School of Law.
Peter Schimmann : General Counsel Europe - Besides also being a seasoned world traveler and connoisseur of countless shores and islands in the Mediterranean, Caribbean and South-East Asia, Peter has years of experience in legal and management consulting in the international arena, working with major international law firms and start-up companies in Germany, Italy, France and Japan. Peter graduated from the University of Munich Law School in Germany and holds an MBA degree from the L'Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées in Paris, France. In addition to his native German language, Peter speaks fluent English, Italian, French and Japanese, and is proficient in Spanish. At Tropical Discovery Services, Peter serves as our legal counsel and business development advisor for Europe and East Asia.
