Our U.S. Staff
Our staff of expert travel planners is exceptionally well traveled and extremely
knowledgeable about our destinations. We couple an unrivaled depth of experience
with an unmitigated enthusiasm for foreign culture, history, language, and geography.
From Budapest to Vladivostok, from the Arctic Circle to the Gobi Desert and beyond,
we've been there, and we've returned with a wealth of experience, knowledge and
information that benefits our clients immeasurably.
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Douglas Grimes, President and
founder of MIR, created the company after traveling to the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s on a goodwill exchange between members of the Soviet Olympic Volleyball team and players of the sport from 11 U.S. states. He has made over 100 trips to our destinations and is a member of the Explorers Club. Whether exploring archaeological sites in Central Asia and the Caucasus or leading "Inside the Russian Space Program" tours to the Baikonur space launch site, Douglas' trips have spanned MIR's destinations since our inception.
Email: douglas |
Annie Lucas, Vice President, has been with the company since the very early years. Her background in Russian & Eastern European Studies serves her in her role overseeing company-wide operations, systems and product development. With a passion for out-of-the-way places (favorites include Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan), she personally scouts emerging destinations and has an extensive travel history. Recent travels to the Baltics countries of Latvia and Estonia included a journey to Estonia's Saaremaa Island.
Email: annie |
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Dmitry Rudich, Director, Custom Group Tours, grew up in Ukraine. He has traveled since he was a child, spending an interesting month in North Korea as a Young Pioneer. Dmitry traveled in Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus and Turkey before coming to the U.S. for an international business degree. His travels have also taken him from Minsk to Moscow to Vladivostok, throughout Eastern China, and recently across the snow-capped mountains of Tajikistan.
Email: dmitry |
Brian Seifipour, Custom Group Tour Specialist, spent a year studying in Minsk for his degree in Russian Studies and International Affairs. Fluent in Russian, he has most recently worked in Toliatti, a Russian town on the Volga River, through USAID's U.S.-Russia Volunteer Initiative Program. In 2008, he traveled to the Baltics countries of Lativia and Lithuiania before stopping in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Email: brian |
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Margie Banin, Custom Group Tour Specialist, is a native of the Pacific Northwest but speaks both Russian and Japanese fluently. She has more than 20 years of travel experience visiting regions around the globe. Memorable experiences range from camping her way across Kazakhstan, Central Russia and Buryatia to several years living in rural Japan. She is always eagerly awaiting her next adventure.
Email: margie |
Marina Arkhipova, Sales/Operations Support Specialist, was born in Turkmenistan and raised in Ukraine. Coming to the U.S. at 14, she won a basketball scholarship to St. Leo University in Tampa, Florida, where she earned a degree in International Hospitality and Tourism Management. Marina is fluent in English, Russian, and Ukrainian.
Email: marina |
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Charity Shaller, Sales Specialist, earned her degree in Romance languages, and her interest in French and Italian has grown into a desire to communicate with the far reaches of the world, and she has lived in France, Italy and Morocco. Additionally, Charity has traveled to Moscow and along the Silk Road as well as through China, Mongolia and Siberia on the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Email: charity |
Andrew Barron, Director, Scheduled Tours,
studied Chinese and Russian in college and spent a year living and working outside
of Beijing. His travels have taken him across China, from Xi'an to Lhasa, on an extended overland expedition from Shanghai to Urumqi, and from Western Russia to Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan at the heart of Central Asia.
Email: andrew |
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Meaghan Samuels, Tour Specialist, grew up in California and completed her Creative Writing degree at the University of Washington with a minor in International Studies. Inclined towards international travel since she spent a summer in Europe with her grandparents as a child, she has circum-navigated the globe, from the foot of Sadako's stolid statue in Hiroshima to wandering the wine vineyards of South Africa to Uzbekistan in Central Asia and most recently across Iran with her MIR clients.
Email:
meaghan |
Kristina Hyman, Tour Specialist, is a native of Tallinn, Estonia, and has lived in Poland, Sweden, and California before moving to Seattle. She has traveled extensively in Europe, especially the Baltic Sea region, and throughout Russia, Turkey, and Portugal. She holds a Master's degree in International Business and has previously worked as an importer and as a translator.
Email: kristina |
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Jennifer Tam, Private Journeys Specialist, grew up in the little town of Lincoln City, Oregon. She spent a year living in China while earning her degree in International Business and traveling to places like the famous Sunday Bazaar in Kashgar and the modern city of Shanghai. Recently, she set foot on "The Roof of The World," traveling from Beijing to Lhasa, Tibet on the Shangri-La Express Private Train, and traveled to Russia and Uzbekistan.
Email: jennifer |
Olga Hayes, Private Journeys Specialist and native of St. Petersburg, Russia, worked for many years as a senior curator for the State Russian Museum, as a consultant to museums throughout Europe and as a professor at St. Petersburg University. She has a Doctorate in Russian Culture specializing in Russian icons as has served as a tour guide in St. Petersburg for many years.
Email: olga |
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Anne Thorsteinson, Private Journeys Specialist, was born and raised in Alaska and came south to the University of Washington for a degree in Russian Language and History. She studied in St. Petersburg, Russia for several months before spending a year teaching English in Budapest, Hungary and traveling around Central Europe.
Email: anne |
Liz Riley, Marketing Specialist, grew up in Delaware where she earned a degree in Mass Media Communication. Her love of adventure, the arts and the internet brought her west to Seattle where she has found a way to combine all of them at MIR. Liz has recently done some exploring in Bulgaria and Romania.
Email:
liz |
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Mariana Noble, Copywriter & Sales Support Specialist, earned her Russian Studies degree in Seattle, and studied Russian language in St. Petersburg. Mariana's favorite vacation spot is Siberia, where she recently attended a World Congress of Orthodox Old Believers near Lake Baikal.
Email: mariana |
Jered Gorman, Air Specialist,
was born in Seoul and lived in Korea, the Netherlands and Germany as a child before moving to the Pacific Northwest. Jered studied in Guilin for his degree in Chinese Studies, is conversant in the Chinese language and has traveled extensively in China.
Email: jered |
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Robin DeJong-Glass, Finance Director,
is a native Washingtonian with a penchant for warm places. While most of her traveling
has been to destinations like the Caribbean, Hawaii and Mexico, she and her husband
hope to travel with MIR to St. Petersburg one day.
Email: accounting |
Kristin Anne Carideo, Marketing/Sales Support Specialist, is a native New Yorker who recently earned a Master's degree in Scottish Literature while living in a small Scottish town by the sea. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe and studied Chinese Art at Oxford as part of her undergraduate degree from Sarah Lawrence College.
Email: kristin |
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Yuliya Gorbanyova, Administrative/Sales Support Specialist, is a native Ukrainian, born and raised in Kharkov. Yuliya has always had an appetite for travel and culture. As a child she vacationed on the Black Sea with her family and in high school she spent two years studying in Israel and Japan. Yuliya earned a degree in Computer Science from the University of Kharkov while venturing around the globe to places like Prague, Poland, Budapest, South Korea, and Russia.
Email: yuliya |
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