The polar regions are what we do. From our expert expedition guides to our impeccable crew to our diversely skilled office staff, the OEX team is all about giving you the utmost experience of the Arctic, Antarctica, and the sub-Antarctic. Seasoned passengers of our own epic voyages, we bring to the table not only a love of the exotic polar world but also a combined wealth of expertise unrivaled by any other polar tour operator. Join us on one of our adventurous voyages, and let us share with you all there is to see, do, and explore in Earth’s most remote frontiers.
Our staff
Expedition staff
- Adam Burke
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: British
Adam has always had a love of the outdoors and adventure, from an early age he dreamt of visiting exotic places and immersing himself in other cultures.
This love of the outdoors led him to work teaching adventurous activities and for over fifteen years this pursuit has given him the opportunity to live and work all over the globe. He has taught sailing in Australia, paddle sports on Europe’s rivers and led expeditions in Africa.
After spending five years teaching white water safety & rescue and boat handling techniques to the fire brigade, he moved on to providing marine science support in Antarctica. He has spent over five years living between the Antarctic continent and the island of South Georgia, including overwintering twice.
Whilst providing science support he spent his time in Antarctica managing boating operations and helming RIBs for diving operations. This covered understanding environmental changes and its effects, wildlife monitoring and counting as well as water sampling for a long-term data collection.
Adam enjoys travelling with his partner who shares the same values and love of the outdoors. This has taken them from deserts to rain forests and ultramarathons in the mountains.
- Rinie van Meurs
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: Dutch
Rinie van Meurs has been an expedition leader since 1989, leading hundreds of expeditions all over the polar regions. The Arctic island of Spitsbergen, the largest in the Svalbard archipelago, is as familiar to him as his own back yard.
- Eduardo Rubio
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: Guatemalan
Eduardo is an astronomer with a passion for sharing nature with others.
- Philipp Schaudy
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: Austrian
- Hans Verdaat
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: Dutch
- Adam Turner
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: British
- Florence Kuyper
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: Dutch
- Jan Belgers
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: Dutch
- Claudio Ghiglione
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: Italian
- Chris Long
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: New Zealander
- George Kennedy
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: Australian
- Pippa Low
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: British
- Marcel Paul
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: Dutch
- Sara Jenner
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: British
- Ali Liddle
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: British
- Christian Engelke
- Function: Expedition leader
- Nationality: German
Activity staff
- Henrik Enckell
- Function: Dive Team Leader & Advisor
- Nationality: Swedish
Henrik is an experienced dive leader, rebreather instructor trainer, and one of the first dive masters to bring tourists diving in Antarctica.
Henrik has been diving for over 25 years and teaches all levels of recreational and technical diving up to Advanced Trimix CCR.
He runs the IART (International Association of Rebreather Trainers) Regional Office for Northern Europe and is a member of the IART Board of Advisors.
Henrik is a keen wreck diver and has been involved in deep-wreck expeditions all over the world. Some of the interesting wrecks he has visited are the WW2 disasters General von Steuben and Wilhelm Gustloff in the Baltic as well as the HMS Victoria ("the vertical wreck") at 145 meters (475 feet) off the Lebanese coast.
His interest in both the ocean and space has engaged him in projects with the European Space Agency (Mars500 Project) and SeaSpace Exploration and Research Society (Project Poseidon), among others.
He has a military background, having served in peace keeping and enforcing missions in the Middle East and former Yugoslavia.
He has been leading dive expeditions in Antarctica and the Arctic for almost 20 years in remote and challenging waters, many of which have never been dived before.
Henrik holds an M.Sc. Degree in Electrical Engineering and works in the automotive industry when not traveling the polar regions.
He has lived and worked in Tokyo for two years but currently lives in India with his wife, three teenage daughters, and five-year-old son.
- Michael Green
- Function: Dive Team Leader and Advisor
- Nationality: British
Michael began diving in 1980, training with the Royal Navy in Portsmouth Harbour.
Captains
- Toni Salo
- Function: Captain
- Nationality: Finnish
Born and raised in Turku, Finland, Toni grew up in a city with ancient seagoing traditions. He has loved sailing since he was a child, when he regularly went out with his grandfather to experience life on the high seas. Ever since, he has dreamed of sailing to far-away places and exploring the world. Toni served in a naval base near Helsinki for two years before starting his studies at Maritime University in 1999. He got his officer’s license in 2003 and spent the first ten years of his career working on cargo ships.
After many years of gaining experience, he finished his studies and got his Master mariner license in 2012. Toni moved to the expedition industry the following year and has no plans of leaving it. He loves the nature, wildlife, and delivering a great polar travel product.
Toni joined Oceanwide Expeditions in 2018. Even though he’s sailed the seven seas and loves all the new places he gets to visit, there’s still a special place in his heart for the tiny island in Finland where it all started 40 years ago.
When he is on leave, Toni enjoys reading, cycling, fishing, and photography.
- Evgeny Levakov
- Function: Captain
- Nationality: Russian
Evgeny Levakov was born in a small village not far from Nerekhta, an ancient Russian town in the Kostroma region. The closest water to his village was a 15,000 square-meter pond.
- Joachim Schiel
- Function: Captain
- Nationality: German
Born near the German city of Cologne, Joachim Schiel grew up some distance from the coast. His first contact with vessels came from the yearly sailing trips he made with a youth group on the Baltic.
- Remmert Koster
- Function: Captain
- Nationality: Dutch
- Ernesto Barria
- Function: Captain
- Nationality: Chilean
- Arthur Yakovlev
- Function: Captain
- Nationality: Russian
Office
- Kees Matthes
- Function: Nautical Superintendent
- Nationality: Dutch
- Marina Joglar
- Function: Reservations, North-America
- Nationality: American
- Danique van Burken
- Function: Senior Marketing Manager
- Nationality: Dutch
- Sebastiaan Schijf
- Function: Financial Controller
- Nationality: Dutch
- Marie Rose Porreca
- Function: Reservations, North-America
- Nationality: American
- Dorine van Boekhout
- Function: Reservations
- Nationality: Dutch
- Maria del Pilar Fernandez
- Function: International Sales Manager
- Nationality: Chilean
- Andreas Diesing
- Function: Key Account Manager for the German speaking countries
- Nationality: German
- Bas Jumelet
- Function: Assistant Hotel Operations Manager
- Nationality: Dutch
- Gabi Merten
- Function: Reservations for the German speaking market
- Nationality: German
- Florian J. Piper
- Function: Director Sales | Arctic program
- Nationality: German
- Karin Toornstra
- Function: Reservations
- Nationality: Dutch
- Michael Frauendorfer
- Function: Hotel Operations Manager
- Nationality: Austrian
- Franklin Braeckman
- Function: Antarctic Program Manager
- Nationality: Belgian
- Loraine van Huizen
- Function: Online Marketeer
- Nationality: Dutch
- Femke Wolfert
- Function: Staffing Manager
- Nationality: Dutch
- Piet Vink
- Function: Managing Director
- Nationality: Dutch
- Majanda Fens
- Function: Reservations Manager
- Nationality: Dutch
- Erik Hageman
- Function: CFO
- Nationality: Dutch
- Elza Back
- Function: Account Assistant
- Nationality: Dutch
- Grace Vidal
- Function: Reservations, North-America
- Nationality: American
- Sasha Rachkova
- Function: Online Marketeer
- Nationality: Russian
- Stefan Pruimboom
- Function: Staffing and Operations Advisor
- Nationality: Dutch
- John Yeh
- Function: Sales Representative China & South Asia & Oceania
- Nationality: Chinese
- Ko de Korte
- Function: Consultant
- Nationality: Dutch
- Alexandra den Dikken
- Function: Senior Graphic Designer
- Nationality: Dutch
- George Janes
- Function: Senior Copywriter
- Nationality: British
- Nyrée Siereveld-Verstraete
- Function: Account Assistant
- Nationality: Dutch
- Teun van ‘t Verlaat
- Function: Technical Superintendent
- Nationality: Dutch
- Adam Turner
- Function: CXO - Head of Expedition Operations
- Nationality: British
- Marissa Medrano
- Function: Accounting
- Nationality: American
- Toto Vermue
- Function: Sales Accountmanager
- Nationality: Dutch
- Michel van Gessel
- Function: Director
- Nationality: Dutch