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About Me

Since moving to the island of Boracay I have totally embraced the life here and work tirelessly to keep things the way they are - encouraging sustainable and life enhancing development and stopping the bad kind. We don't always succeed but I like to think we make a difference. I volunteer as a Director and the Secretary for the Boracay Foundation Inc which is a large members organisation made up of island stakeholders of all kinds.

I have a degree in Archaeology and Ancient History and left university to sail the seas on cruise ships at 21 where I eventually became chief purser, after many a contract as a receptionist and chamber maid! My heart always felt an Asian pull and spending these years sailing and often in Asia only reinforced this love of the Far East. In the end I married a Filipino man called chris and though we tried life in the UK where I learned many entrepreneurial skills as the CEO of a charity, Age Concern Kirklees, we moved back to Asia in 2003 after the birth of our son Joseph. Maya, my daughter, was born in 2007 .

Since moving to Boracay, I have set up an international school on the island which teaches children from 2 to 11 years old and uses the British Curriculum. I also own a small hotel and have set up WHL Boracay (also Cebu, Palawan and Manila) - a website that brings local, grass-root accommodation and tours online. Read more about my school, hotel and WHL website below.

I was just elected to the Eminent persons Group as Director of Support Services Marketing. The EPG is mandated by the Presidents office to promote Sustainable development on the island. So my role is to coordinate all the marketing experts on the island and come up with a marketing plan and a kind of support wish list- to work out where the business sector and private person stand a good chance of then receiving it. One such request is for WHL consulting to come and do Project Exposure in Boracay. The EPG supported this and now its confirmed the government will fund it-we are just waiting for the money.

On a more personal note I love to socialise, party and eat good food as well as spend quality time with my family and explore. Being a hotelier is about passing that knowledge on to your guests so that they enjoy all those good things about the island and the Philippines that it took me ages to discover. So this is the same for Tripbod, I will enjoy passing that knowledge on.

My Links

Boracay WHL: Locally sourced accommodation and tours

I got involved with WHL as I was building my own Boracay Info site and then met the guys from WHL and thought wow they are doing just what I want to do - I may as well join them! Happily they agreed and we hope in the future to bring more off the beaten track Philippine destinations into the eyes of the world.

My hotel - the Boracay Hills Hotel

My hotel has won the trip Advisor travellers Choice awards twice and 3 awards from Trivago this year and being listed as one of Expedia's Insider Select List of the top 1% of hotels in the world! If you look for hotels in the Philippines there are 6 and we sit alongside the likes of Shangrila, Peninsula, Hyatt etc - very funny as we are so different but also makes me very proud to have made it up there with the big expensive chain hotels. I also do some property management - looking after large luxury villas and apartments - perfect for group getaways.

My School

This year we have managed to build our own purpose built school and we are so proud of it! W e even have a library (there is no other on the island). We run a scholarship program and 25% of our kids are non-fee paying. This ensures a real global community and lack of elitism plus enables us to contribute to the islands children more fully.