About

Welcome. Where in the WORLD have you been? We've been worried sick! Okay, we're not worried, but we'd like to help you answer that question with your very own TravelGraph™. This interactive info-graphic style page will show the world how well traveled you are: Where you've been, what you liked, your favorite cities, your Essence™ as a traveler, and all your travel stats - from how many cities you've visited, to how many miles you've traveled. Build it. Share it. Gloat.

But wait! There's more !

Once you've answered the question of where you've been, the next logical question is: Where should you go? Now, you're a smart, savvy traveler and you've been places, right? All of those places? Those experiences? They've helped you become the smart, wonderful, amazing (picky) person you are today. The perfect hotel for you will only be perfect because the hotels you've stayed at in the past have helped form your opinion about what a perfect hotel is. The next restaurant you're going to love, you'll love because you've spent your whole life discovering what kind of restaurants you like... why not make the next restaurant one of THOSE restaurants?!

At TravelShark, we crave this too. And we want to prove it. Your TravelGraph lends a lot of insight into you, as a person. Using your TravelGraph, together with a little input from you, TravelShark will show you the Essence™ of your ideal Hotel, Restaurant, Event or Activity. Why is that helpful? Well, because we've been hard at work, using big data and algorithmic analysis to also determine the Essence™ of all the Hotels, Restaurants, Events and Activities in a broad range of cities that span the globe. The TravelShark app will use all of this data to make perfect, personalized, recommendations, and if you just want curated local gems, our HUNT™ guides are just the thing!

Ambitious? You're damn right! You can learn more about the small, capable, excited group of people with all the ambition who are working to bring you these amazing tools below.

Our Team

David Leppan

Chairman & Co-Founder
Location:

Singapore, Singapore
Hometown:

Johannesburg, South Africa
Preferred Travel Activity:

Yachting

David Leppan, Founder and Chairman of the Board David Leppan started his first Web-based venture, World-Check in late 2000. World-Check is the leading global provider of highly structured risk intelligence, servicing 5,400 clients, including 49 of the 50 largest banks, in over 160 countries worldwide. In 2007 he sold a majority stake in the business to Spectrum Equity and HarbourVest Partners. In 2011, after four years in which Mr. Leppan served as Chairman, the company was sold to Thomson Reuters. In 2007 Mr. Leppan invested in VRE Global Ltd, later to be renamed Internet Search Marketing Ltd, a company with a strong SEO background and successful in the United Kingdom in the area of business marketing online. With a firm belief in e-commerce he looked to expand his interests globally and along with Graham Easton founded TravelShark Pte Ltd in 2008. Subsequently he has invested in a number of start up ventures including Wealth-X, the leading provider of information and insight about wealthy people. Mr. Leppan is a British national, grew up in South Africa, studied in Austria and lives in Singapore.

Toma Bedolla

Chief Executive Officer
Location:

Boulder, Colorado, USA
Hometown:

Denver, Colorado, USA
Preferred Travel Activity:

Getting Lost

Toma Bedolla, Chief Executive Officer After pursuing his B.S. in Physics (minoring in Computer Science) at the Colorado School of Mines, Toma came out of school at the highwater mark of the dot-com era. He immediately began leading teams on a number of big vision projects, like early work on the global file systems (GFS) acquired by RedHat and consultancies acquired by Computer Associates to current algorithmic initiatives like the HowTru project. Toma served as the CTO for Jason's Deli from 2004 to 2007 during the company's embrace of technology as a business asset for efficiency and differentiation. Toma Bedolla applies a unique blend of a physicist's algorithmic mind and business experience to the technologist's craft of problem solving. Toma is the driving force behind TravelShark's application of big data and semantic analysis to better utilize today's data graphs (social and interest). Toma believes we can get the algorithms we all run in our heads when researching and planning for a trip on the Web and easy to use. A modest adventurer, Toma has named three 20K+ ft peaks in southwest China, caddied full-time on the PGA Tour and trekked extensively from Colorado to Patagonia.

Graham Easton

COO & Co-Founder
Location:

Singapore, Singapore
Hometown:

LONDON, ENGLAND, UK
Preferred Travel Activity:

Trying local food

Graham Easton, Chief Operating Officer Following a 21-year banking career with the Bank of England, FSA, Bank of Bermuda, and HSBC, Graham Easton founded UK company VREGlobal Ltd, now Internet Search Marketing Ltd. ISM is a leader in providing geo-targeted search engine optimization (SEO) solutions to small- and medium-sized businesses in the UK. Teaming up with David Leppan in 2008, Mr. Easton went on to co-found and develop TravelShark Pte Ltd, which is the largest provider of travel and hospitality websites in the world. Graham Easton is a director of Swiftrank, and is Chief Operating Officer and the lead SEO at TravelShark.