Siobhan Byrne Learat has been in the tourism industry since 1989. She has post-graduate degrees in business, Arabic & Middle Eastern History, and a first class MBA from the Smurfit Business School. After managing Active Ireland a property development company for three years, she set up Adams & Butler in 2003 , an upscale tour operator specializing in stunning accommodation, tailor-made travel services and private visits for wealthy and sophisticated clients and celebrities in Ireland, Scotland and elsewhere. Her true passion is Africa, and last year with her Kenyan Samburu husband Kasao, she launched a new company Adams & Butler Africa offering tailor-made vacations and safaris to Africa featuring intimate owner-managed camps and lodges. This year Siobhan set up a charity Nalepo Educational Fund with Mary Grennan with two main objectives – one, to provide basic education to the Samburu children in Northern Kenya, and secondly, to empower their mothers and other young women there with essential life skills. Samburu is an area of Kenya often neglected by the Kenyan government and other NGOs. Siobhan also lectures part-time in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Smurfit Business School.
