Our Staff
We have a reputation in the market for creativity, innovation, flexibility, openness and friendliness. These attributes are exhibited by all our staff. Ours is a complex small business and we believe in empowering staff to make decisions and establish their own relationships with key suppliers, agents and markets. We are not a "top down" organisation with strict segementation, but rather a flexible "matrix" based on mutual respect. Therefore every staff member profiled here is highly capable and will have a multi-faceted role and expertise in the following:
- expertise in our subject matter, luxury and experiential travel in New Zealand
- expertise in developing and supporting key markets
- direct responsibility for their clients while they are in-country
- expertise in certain outbound markets
- linguistic and cultural ability
Most importantly, our people care, they care about our clients, they care about doing the very best possible whatever the circumstances.
Jean-Michel Jefferson - Director
Jean-Michel Jefferson is the founder of Ahipara Luxury Travel. Educated at various schools in North Africa and the Middle East, then Rugby School, and the universities of Exeter and Sheffield, Jean-Michel spent 9 years with Price Waterhouse as a Management Consultant and Aviation Strategist. His last position was Director of Corporate Finance and Head of the Aviation Group in... > Read more
Karen Jefferson - Director
Karen divides her time between the family and the systems side of the business. Responsible for finance, systems and staff, Karen has designed and implemented some state of the art finance and itinerary IT applications. We now have systems which can be accessed from anywhere in the world and can produce fully costed custom itineraries within an hour. Together with Jean-Michel,... > Read more
Marina Kovandina - Russian Market Manager
Marina is responsible for Russian-speaking and East European markets. A Russian national married to a Maori New Zealander, Marina has extensive experience in both outbound and inbound tourism. Extensively travelled around New Zealand, Marina understands how to manage this destination for East Europeans, and is responsible for our market education strategy for those markets. This... > Read more
Judy McNeill - Itineraries & Lauderdale
Judy is our latest addition. A proud Southlander, Judy has been living in the Central Otago area for the last ten years. She is helping us with itinerary creation, implementation and management and also with the marketing of Lauderdale as an event venue. Judy has a lovely warm personality, delights in getting details right, and is a pleasure to work with. She loves her... > Read more
Anastasiya Aleksandrova - Itineraries
Passionate about New Zealand as a destination for travel & tourism, Anastasia is involved in providing professional and complete travel services to our clients. Focusing on international clients, she ensures that each travel itinerary meets their specific requirements. Anastasia first came to New Zealand seven years ago from her native country of Russia. Since then she has fallen in love... > Read more
Pamela Scheirlinck - Accounts
Pamela has been looking after our accounts for a while and will be familiar to many as a voice on the phone. Dividing her time between us and New Zealand Water Polo, Pam is also Karen's sister and can often be found at Lauderdale!
