Entrepreneur, leader and philanthropist BRUCE POON TIP is the founder of adventure travel company and social enterprise G Adventures, the world’s largest small-group adventure travel company, with 23 offices worldwide offering more than 650 tours on all seven continents and serving 150,000 travellers a year.
Bruce is also the founder of the nonprofit foundation Planeterra in 2003, which harnesses the power of the tourism industry to direct travel dollars into vulnerable and underserved communities around the world. His work with organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), like-minded companies and indigenous people has supported more than 40 unique community development and relief projects around the world, with another 50 in development.
In 2012, Bruce was inducted into the Social Venture Network Hall of Fame, joining celebrated entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson (Virgin Airlines), Anita Roddick (The Body Shop), and Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream). He was also awarded a Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, recognizing significant contributions to society, and was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016, 2006 and 2002.
Bruce’s first book, Looptail: How One Company Changed the World by Reinventing Business, a New York Times bestseller, was the first business book to be endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who penned the book’s foreword. In 2015 Bruce released his second book, Do Big Small Things, a gorgeously designed journal about life and travel that takes readers on a journey and invites them to share their own inspiration and creativity.
G Adventures has been named one of the 50 Best Managed Companies for over 10 years and is repeatedly recognized as a “best place to work” in Canada, the US, the UK and Australia.
3 words to describe Nature?
Happiness
Peaceful
Beauty
3 things Nature taught you?
Being humble,
Importance of stillness
Awareness that we’re surrounded by beautiful things
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Serengeti, Galapagos and the Geelong Bird Sanctuary
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Free
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Small
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Curious
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Invincible
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Excited
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Light
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
All of the above
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
9
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Growing up in Calgary I spent a lot of my spare time in ponds after school, knee-deep in mud. I lost track of time catching frogs and observing tadpoles in transition. I was fascinated by natural biology.