IAATO Executive Committee
Ute Hohn-Bowen
Chair - IAATO Executive Committee
With more than 20 years of experience in Polar tourism, Ute has sailed many times to the Antarctic Peninsula, Falkland Islands (Malvinas) and South Georgia. She also participated in many Arctic expedition cruises to Svalbard, Greenland, the High Canadian Arctic, Northeast Passage and made her way to the North Pole 90° on July 25, 1999.
Ute began her career in tourism in 1969 in her native Germany working for the travel agency Koch Übersee GmbH. During her 11 years there, she finished her degree and occupied several management positions. In 1980, she immigrated to Argentina and became Passenger Sales Service Manager for Lufthansa Argentina. In 1986 she moved to Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego and started her own company for yacht sailing cruises around Cape Horn and Chilean Channels. Ute operated one of the first expedition cruises to the Antarctica Peninsula with the Professor Molchanov in 1992.
In 1994 she joined Quark Expeditions as General Manager and, in 2000, became Director for Oceanwide Expeditions, successfully building up the company's Antarctic division. In 2004, Ute became Director and partner of Antarpply Expeditions, operating the vessel Ushuaia. She has been in charge of the Antarpply marketing, sales, reservations and passenger sales service departments since then, and has build Antarpply Expeditions into one of the leading operators to the Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands, South Georgia and Falkland Islands (Malvinas).
Ted Cheeseman
IAATO Executive Committee
Ted grew up studying biology and ecology and traveling with the fledgling wildlife expedition company, Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris, founded in his youth by his parents. After earning a graduate degree in tropical conservation biology, Ted returned to California to lead and organize wildlife expeditions and soon found himself smitten by the Polar Regions. Antarctica and the Southern Ocean now feature as the main focus of his work and passion.
Ted now directs Cheesemans' Ecology Safaris, designing and leading some of the most in-depth wildlife expeditions to the Southern Ocean. In a parallel effort to reduce the impact of carbon-intense travels, Ted helped found CarbonTree Conservation Fund in 2009, seeking to raise the quality and legitimacy of available carbon offsets by directly creating tropical forest conservation projects in South America. In 2011 CarbonTree Conservation Fund was instrumental in the establishment of a 21,000-acre protected area in Tumbes, Peru.
The need is clear for responsible management of all human activities in the Antarctic, a fact that attracted Ted to the mission of IAATO over a decade ago. Increasingly involved over the years, Ted has been rewarded by seeing IAATO mature as an association of progressive self-management, pursuing high environmental and safety standards ahead of government and international treaty regulations.
Rich Pruitt
IAATO Executive Committee
He has served as the Associate Vice President of Environmental Programs at Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. since 2003. In May of 2011, he assumed additional duties related to corporate Maritime Safety, Management Systems and Situation Management. He currently is responsible for evaluating new technologies, developing corporate vision and strategic initiatives and setting policy for all environmental and maritime safety compliance and continual improvement activities for the corporation. Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. is a global cruise vacation company that operates Azamara Club Cruises, CDF Croisières de France, Celebrity Cruises, Pullmantur, and Royal Caribbean International, and is in a joint venture with TUI Travel to operate TUI Cruises. The company has a combined total of 40 ships in service and two under construction.
Prior to joining Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., Rich served in the United States Air Force and the United States Coast Guard. From 1980 to 1990, Rich was an Air Force airborne Russian linguist and Airborne Mission Supervisor, assigned to various units and the National Security Agency. He also served in various national security and marine safety roles with the United States Coast Guard from 1990 to 2003.
He holds a Master of Business Administration degree in Environmental Studies from Florida Atlantic University. He also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management from National Louis University and an Associate's degree in Russian Interpreting from the Community College of the United States Air Force.
Leif Skog
IAATO Executive Committee
He joined Lindblad Expeditions in 1997 after working for many years as master for many celebrated international expedition cruise ships: MS Lindblad Explorer, MS Polaris, MS Frontier Spirit and MS Explorer, taking passengers to the world's most remote polar and tropical destinations.
With tremendous skills and experience in ice navigation, Leif began his work aboard ships plying the Arctic and Antarctic waters in the late 70s: MS Thuleland, MS Columbialand, MS Ocean Princess and MS Illiria. The Brostroms Shipping Company appointed Captain Skog as consultant for a mission in the Beaufort Sea, Canadian Arctic, and Antarctica with their specially designed ice-going lumber/bulk carrier, MS Thulelandand Columbialand. The mission in Antarctica was to transport all necessary equipment, explosives, fuel and provision to build the largest airstrip in Antarctica at the Rothera Base for the British Antarctic Survey. As chair of the IAATO Marine Committee, Leif was the architect for the association-wide Emergency Contingency Plan for all passenger ships cruising in Antarctica. The plan focused on how ships in the vicinity of the peninsula would communicate, coordinate and respond in the event of a marine disaster. Leif holds a Master Mariner's Degree and a Marine Engineering Degree from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and a diploma in advanced Shipping Business Economics and Trading. Before he became a captain in 1984, he worked as officer on a number of different types of vessels: general cargo ships, LPG-gas tankers, O/O-ships of 275,000 MT DW, a ULCC-ship of 375,000 MT DW, 800- and 1,200-passenger vessels, and a multi-purposed helium deep diving support vessel.