Meet Richard Bangs
Richard Bangs, explorer and entrepreneur, is profiled in this video from Yahoo!
Explorer
Richard Bangs has often been called the father of modern adventure travel. He has spent 30 years as an explorer, leading first descents of 35 rivers around the globe, including the Yangtze in China and the Zambezi in Southern Africa. During that period he founded Sobek Expeditions, the first multi-national river running company and the pioneering outfitter for global active wilderness travel.
Author and Producer
Richard has published more than 1000 magazine articles, 19 books, a score of documentaries, several CD-ROMs, and all manner of digital media. He has lectured at the Smithsonian, the National Geographic Society, the Explorers Club and many other notable venues. He writes a semi-regular feature for MSNBC.com and produces and hosts “Richard Bangs’ Adventures with Purpose, as seen on national public television.
Entrepreneur
In the early 1990s Sobek merged with Mountain Travel to become Mountain Travel-Sobek (www.mtsobek.com), then as now a leader in international adventure and eco-travel. He began TerraQuest, one of the first online travel projects, and went on to Microsoft as founder and editor-in-chief of Mungo Park, a pioneering interactive publishing effort. He was part of the founding executive team of Expedia.com, and served as its Editor-at-Large. He was creator and publisher of Expedia Travels Magazine (published in partnership with Ziff-Davis), and executive producer of Expedia Radio, and founder and executive director of Expedia Cafes.
He has also served as president of Outward Bound; founded the “Well Traveled” series for Slate.com; was founding editor and executive producer of “Great Escapes,” another Microsoft Travel initiative (www.greatescapes.msnbc.com); and produced “Richard Bangs Adventures” for Yahoo! He lives in Marina del Rey, Calif., with his family. You can reach him by email here.
