About TravelBud

Grace is an enrollment coordinator at TravelBud signing people up to our many programs and helping them get all the answers to the questions they may have about taking the plunge and going overseas for amazing teach abroad adventures. Hailing from a beautiful little, coastal town in South Africa called Hermanus, she recently returned from adventures abroad and will be based in Cape Town.

Besides travelling, Grace loves cooking, reading Oscar Wilde books, scouring vintage shops for things of another time and going wine tasting at every available opportunity. She taught in South Korea for a year, in a city just outside of Seoul, called Anseong. Living and teaching abroad taught her so many things about herself, the world and life in general making her the wise old soul she is today:

“The most poignant thing I learnt was that you can connect with people, no matter how different your culture, and that the world really is filled with genuinely good people.”

Before Korea Grace had never travelled out of Africa, but since arriving there, she’s gotten the chance to travel to Thailand, Cambodia, Israel and Ireland. She was lucky enough to tick being in Ireland during St Paddy’s day off her bucket list, but finds it a toss up between the Emerald Isle and Israel as her favourite places on Earth.

That might change soon as the list of places she still wants to go is growing daily, with Turkey next on the list!

Brooke grew up just south of New Orleans, Lousiana and after living in Thailand for just over a year, she's returning to Louisiana as a TravelBud Enrollments Coordinator.

During her time in Thailand, she taught conversational English in a small town called Tak to about 500 of the cutest kindergarteners you’ve ever seen. They made her feel like an absolute celebrity and their hugs and laughs brightened every day she spent at her school.

As an Enrollments Coordinator, Brooke helps people get things rolling when they are looking to teach abroad with TravelBud. She answers questions, put fears to rest, and gets them excited about their new experience.

Brooke is also the Content Specialist at TravelBud, managing social media profiles, handling content submissions, and doing writing and alumni relations as well.

Aside from traveling, her passions include lounging in coffee shops with a good book, watching Jeopardy!, and cooking and eating with friends and family.

She's quite lucky to have traveled quite a bit before going over to Thailand. She's been to 18 countries; some highlights of her travels were walking 500 miles on the Camino de Santiago, taking a ski lift up to the Great Wall of China, scuba diving in Thailand, and watching the Springboks win the Rugby World Cup in Cape Town, South Africa.

Her future travel aspirations include visiting the new 7 wonders of the world, and she's already crossed one off the list - The Great Wall of China!

A natural born leader, Stu is TravelBud’s Managing Director and one with a difference! He describes his most important focus as “keeping the unique enthusiastic and caring company culture alive as we grow together”. Something which is close to the hearts of every team member.

Stu has been with TravelBud from day one, the moment he finished university two of his closest friends, the Kelly brothers invited him to join them on a new venture: TravelBud! From humble beginnings where he was responsible for everything from accounting to marketing and blogging he’s grown a dream team which is taking the business to new heights.

Travel has touched Stu’s life deeply as he explored Europe independently while living and working in the UK as a sports coach after he finished high school. It’s taught him that truly exciting and life-changing adventures only happen when you step outside your comfort zone; and not a day goes by when he doesn’t challenge the team to do the same!

So where is his favourite destination? None other than our best-seller, Thailand! And, if he can ever find the time to take a sabbatical from steering the TravelBud ship he’d like to spend his time off volunteering and living in Malawi or Kenya for a bit.

Liam is TravelBud’s co-founder and is the visionary driving force behind our team. He’s from Cape Town, South Africa but finds himself exploring the world and living in a variety of places, most recently Hua Hin, Thailand.

Having taught in Thailand himself, he returned with a newfound appreciation for educators and a vision for supplying better prepared and more passionate teachers to Asia to have the same amazing experiences he did.

Liam says living in Asia taught him not to sweat the small things in life and to have more compassion and patience – this is something he’s instilled in every aspect of life at TravelBud.

A keen videographer, Liam is most often found behind the lense of his camera or nose down behind his laptop editing the next epic video he’s shot. Well, that’s when he’s not discovering the next big underground hip hop scene in Myanmar, Korea or back home in SA – this is one guy who’s passionate about his music!

Travel is also something which runs in Liam’s blood, by the age of 19 he’d been to 25 countries and he’s not showing any signs of slowing down! Currently sitting at the 35 country mark, he dreams of buying a character-filled 4×4 and exploring every last corner of Africa.

Luke is a director at TravelBud and practices as an advocate at the Cape Bar Society of Advocates in Cape Town, South Africa.

Luke brings strategic business advice and guidance to TravelBud, as well as a dose of enthusiasm for the love of travel.

Having begun his career as a Field Zoologist/Marine Biologist Andy has a unique perspective on the field of international experiential education and travel. He has worked and lived in a range of countries including: Zambia, Madagascar, Tanzania, Mexico, South Africa, the UK and the USA. Further he has worked with a wide range of entities including educational, government, non-governmental, charity, for profit and informal organisations across networks of over 65 countries. Over the course of 20+ years in the field, networking and attending conferences Andy brings a broad range of skills and experience to the team.

As an entrepreneur Andy likes nothing more than to brainstorm new ideas, products, strategies etc. and work with multi-talented teams or individuals to implement them. As a scientist Andy has published extensively on a variety of topics from Whale Watching guidelines in the UK to extensive studies of various fauna and flora in Madagascar and more. As a business strategist Andy enjoys brainstorming to look at the bigger picture and boiling that down to actionable plans. Finally as a networker and facilitator, Andy enjoys working with different cultures and is highly experienced with bridging differences.