Welcome to the Secret Atlas team page.
The passion for remote destinations brings us together to create and share authentic experiences with you.
Founders
Michele D'Agostino
Co Founder
An avid high latitude sailor and explorer, Michele co-founded Secret Atlas to bring the small group expedition experience to the Arctic.
Holder of Yacht Master Ocean commercial title and PTGA Polar Guide.
Andy Marsh
Co Founder
A passionate traveller and explorer of remote places, Andy co-founded Secret Atlas to share his love of the wilderness in a low impact and intimate way.
Read Andy’s blog post here
Expedition Team
Expedition Leaders
David Berg
Expedition Leader
David is an accomplished professional polar guide from Sweden who has led expeditions in Svalbard, Greenland, Scotland, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, South Georgia, the Falkland Islands and Antarctica.
Meet David here
Andreas Umbreit
Expedition Leader
Andreas has extensive experience in Svalbard, Greenland and the Russian Arctic. First visited Spitsbergen in 1986, he is an author of guide books and was a first tour operator registered in Spitsbergen.
Meet Andreas here
Mats Forsberg
Expedition Leader
Mats is a naturalist, wildlife photographer and adventure traveller from Sweden. First worked onboard the world famous Lindblad ´Explorer´ in 1982 and has since worked throughout the seven seas and the Polar Regions, including Norway´s Svalbard Archipelago and numerous trips to Greenland, the Canadian and Russian Arctic and Antarctica.
Meet Mats here
Rickard Berg
Expedition Leader
Rickard began his polar career working in the Norwegian high Arctic and worked as a professional ships officer and wilderness guide on expedition vessels in Norway, Svalbard, Greenland, Iceland, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctica.
Meet Rickard here
Morten Jørgensen
Expedition Leader
Morten first visited Svalbard in 1997 and has been a polar guide ever since. His broad experience make him a much valued expedition leader.
Meet Morten here
Laali Berthelsen
Expedition Leader
Laali is from Nuuk in Greenland. She is a highly experienced Arctic guide and has extensive knowledge of all places cold including Greenland, Canada, Iceland and Svalbard.
Meet Laali here
Ali Liddle
Expedition Leader
Ali has been working on cruise ships since 2010 and is a self-confessed ‘Polar Addict’. Her particular interest is natural history, the wildlife and flora and she enjoys sharing her local knowledge of and passion for the polar regions.
Meet Ali here
John Rodsted
Photo & Expedition Leader
Originally trained as a commercial photographer, he has impacted the world of imagery from the moment he set up his own studio in Melbourne at 22.
Today, he is not only known for his award-winning work as a photojournalist of communities at risk, but also for his artistic and written work.
Meet John here
Mette Elisuessen
Photo & Expedition Leader
Mette has guided in all polar regions for over 16 years, totaling over 300 voyages. Before this, she was program manager for Save the Children in Afghanistan from 1990 to 1997 and was a key member of the international campaign to ban landmines, who were awarded the 1997 Nobel Peace prize. She was raised in the fjords and mountains of Norway and has had a continued passion for wilderness areas since childhood.
Meet Mette here
Photography Guides
Roger Brendhagen
Photography Expert
Roger is a photographer and workshop leader with extensive experience shooting in the Arctic and Antarctica, including 7 expeditions to Svalbard.
Meet Roger here
Florian Ledoux
Photography Expert
Florian Ledoux is an artist, documentary filmmaker and photographer. Lately, he worked for BBC “Frozen Planet II”, Disney “Polar Bear” as well as Netflix and National Geographic.
Meet Florian here
Chase Teron
Photography Expert
Chase is a Canadian environmentalist, adventurer and photographer. He has travelled extensively across the Arctic in search of the perfect shot. He is passionate about conservation and teaching photography.
Meet Chase here
Rick Tomlinsson
Photography Expert
Rick is a professional, expedition, wildlife yachting photographer. His pictures have been published in magazines all over the world, including National Geographic and in Yachting World.
Meet Rick here
Office team
Lidia Stranc
Sales & Operations
Lidia has over 8 years of experience running operations and production for several organizations.
Prakash Shah
Finance
Prakash is a qualified accountant, with years of financial experience with blue-chip names such as Deloitte, Nomura, Barclays, M&G, UBS and JP Morgan.
Kalena Martensen
Digital Content Producer
Fascinated by the polar regions since her early childhood, in preparation for her studies she has been supporting the Secret Atlas team since January 2022.
Becky Lima-Matthews
Freelance Content Writer
Becky is a freelance copywriter, content writer and scriptwriter based in London. She has over seven years’ experience in writing words that inspire action, raise awareness, educate and entertain. As well as her work for Secret Atlas, she also works with organisations such as Into Film, YHA and King’s Health Partners.
Giovanni Mori
Web Development
Giovanni brings 20 years of web development and graphic design to the Secret Atlas. He is responsible for the design and overhaul of our current website.
Debra Taylor
PR Manager
Debra has extensive experience in the travel industry and has for many years been running toucanmoon, offering a bespoke package of marketing, PR and business development services to small specialist travel companies, focusing mostly on expedition cruising and the polar regions.
Craig West
Web Development
Craig has 22 years of experience in Front-end UI Web Developement. He is a multidisciplinary front-end UI developer working with Startups and Agencies within the UK and EU.
