Our Founder 

Andrea Mandel-Campbell

Andrea Mandel-Campbell founded karibu in October 2022, following a multi-faceted career as a foreign correspondent, TV anchor, best-selling author, and a corporate strategist and advisor to CEOs, start up founders and politicians.

A long-time environmentalist and active traveler, Andrea decided to leave her corporate career behind to build a mission-driven platform focused on sharing the beauty of unique wild places through inclusive and responsible travel.

Inspired by the dual threats of biodiversity loss and climate change, and the destructiveness of overtourism, her goal is simple: create an army of advocates and evangelists for nature and people-positive travel. We can, through our travel choices, not only empower our own well-being, but be part of the solution to saving nature.

Originally from Montreal, Andrea graduated from Carleton University with a Combined Honours degree in Journalism and Political Science. Her Honours thesis on the live capture of whales and dolphins for marine parks, was the inspiration for karibu’s first signature destination to the Johnstone Strait of British Columbia, home to pioneering research on orca whales.

Andrea spent 10 years as a foreign correspondent in Latin America, with stints in Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Mexico, where she was the bureau chief for London’s Financial Times. On her return to Canada, she wrote the best-selling business book, ‘Why Mexican’s Don’t Drink Molson: Rescuing Canadian Business from the Suds of Global Obscurity’, and later became an anchor on CTV’s Business News Network.

She left journalism for politics, where she ran as a provincial candidate before serving as a senior advisor to a federal minister in Ottawa. In 2013, Andrea moved into the corporate sector, launching the Canadian offices of a New-York-based CEO Advisory firm before heading up a Capital Markets advisory practice for a large Canadian consultancy.

She sits on the Board of Outward Bound Canada, a not-for-profit charity dedicated to transforming young people’s lives through experiences in the outdoors. In 2025, Andrea was made a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, recognizing her work with karibu adventures to “make Canada better known to Canadians and the world.” Andrea is also an Operating Advisor to Vertu Capital, Canada’s only female-founded private equity firm.

Andrea still loves to write and has a regular column in Harrowsmith Magazine, where she writes about eco-travel. You can find her columns at www.harrowsmithmag.com

Andrea is married to an amazing man, and has two amazing kids. And they love to go on adventures together.