We’re dedicated to making life easier for others like us who are tired of spending hours online trying to plan great trips.
Nile Media (NileGuide.com, 10Best.com) is a team of successful entrepreneurs who also happen to be passionate travelers.
Josh Steinitz
CEO
Josh left the management consulting ranks to follow his passion for travel and entrepreneurship by joining Away.com. He soon found himself touching many pieces of the business, from marketing to sales and business development, and helped build Away into the web’s largest travel publisher, a top brand in the adventure travel space, and a successful media business. After an acquisition by Orbitz, Josh held a leadership role in media sales and business development for the Partner Marketing group within Cendant. On a personal level, Josh is an avid traveler who loves the outdoors. When he’s not scheming about his next trip to Mongolia or Bolivia, he’s taking advantage of Northern California’s abundant outdoor adventure opportunities, whether it’s snowboarding in Tahoe, mountain biking in Sonoma, hiking in Big Sur or kayaking in Sausalito. Josh is a graduate of Princeton, and tries not to bore his friends with stories from college too often, though he sometimes can’t help himself.
Travis Seward
Editorial Director and GM of 10Best.com
Travis has more than a decade of experience in print and online travel publishing. Before 10Best, he was a designer, consultant, importer and administrator in the international textile and decorative accessories industries. When a friend invited him on a 23-day exploration of Guatemala, the travel bug hit! He’s now traveled to more than 200 cities and 26 countries to soak in the culture, meet the people and sample the foods that make a place unique. Whether a day-trip to a local festival or an extended journey abroad, Travis is always planning the next jaunt. Outside of work, he indulges in various creative projects, enjoys theater and the arts, hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains and frequently visits Charleston and the South Carolina coast. But food is his passion! Whether at home or away, you’ll find him planning a meal, baking for friends, tracking down a hole-in-the wall ethnic restaurant or sipping champagne before savoring a seven-course tasting menu.
Lesley Brownlie
Director of Product Management
Lesley has been a product manager for almost 10 years and likes to use technology to solve customer problems. Originally from Canada, Lesley completed her Masters of Psychology and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario. While living in Vancouver, BC, Lesley discovered two of her biggest passions- trail running and mountain biking! It is pretty typical to find Lesley outdoors on the weekend, sometimes to complete training for the next ultra-marathon and sometimes just enjoying the view. Lesley loves to travel to different destinations to experience their outdoor activities. Occasionally this leads to trouble – like the time she was bitten on the neck by a rare spider when completing a night hike through the Amazon jungle in Ecuador.
John Olmstead
Director of Software Development
John is a web engineer with over 14 years of experience building data driven applications. With an undergraduate degree in architecture from UC Berkeley and a Masters in Computer Science from Cal Poly, John brings a unique blend of creative and technical skills to the team. In addition to the many web applications he has developed for companies such as Apple, Hewlett Packard, Citibank, and Lehman Brothers, John also spent four years working at ILM where he worked on dozens of movies, including Avatar, for which he received an onscreen credit. When not at work, you can find John mountain biking the slopes of Mount Tamalpais, surf kayaking the caves of the California central coast, skiing the black diamond runs at Tahoe, or scuba diving the waters of the Channel Islands, hunting for his next meal and/or photo of a lobster, sea bass, or scallop. At home, John puts his cooking and BBQ skills to use turning locally gathered ingredients into tasty meals with an international flair. John is also a published travel and food photographer whose portfolio includes images in the Wall Street Journal and Gastronomica. Preferring the road less traveled, John’s favorite destinations include Colombia, Cambodia, and Tuscany.
Adam Tyner
Senior Developer
Adam has been programming location-based travel applications for more than a decade, including projects for Priceline.com, Fairmont Hotels, AT&T Wireless, InterContinental Hotels Group, Amadeus Global, and Radisson Hotels. He currently fields all of the programming and database administration for 10best.com. Although coding and a side gig writing movie reviews generally keep him tethered to a computer, Adam travels whenever he has a chance, including having competed in a month-long fishing tournament in the Caymans and flown to Montreal for a guest spot on a basic cable werewolf comedy.
Amanuel Yohannes
Senior Software Engineer
I was born and raised in Asmara, Eritrea (a country in east Africa). As the son of a mathematician father and an accountant mother, I loved math in elementary school and ended up studying Computer Science at the University of Asmara, Eritrea. I started my career working in the presidential offices of Eritrea, but after two years I decided to try something new and moved to Dubai. While working as a software engineer, I had the opportunity to travel to 13 countries around the world including Sudan, Egypt, Uganda, Qatar, Oman, Iran, Bahrain, Thailand, Russia, Holland, El Salvador and Panama.
I then moved to USA to pursue my studies. Although I never finished my masters (I decided school didn’t make me a better engineer!), I did end my world traveling and chose to settle in the US. In my spare time I love to travel, otherwise you can find me reading computer science books, drinking good beer or playing soccer.
Craig Given
Engineering Program Manager
A native New Yorker, Craig headed west early in his career and landed in California during the dot-com boom. He spent those early years at AT&T and Verizon Wireless leading rapid B2B and B2C e-commerce web application build outs. After graduating from the University of San Francisco with a Master’s degree in Information Systems, Craig made a switch to smaller technology companies in search of exposure to cutting-edge technologies and software development processes. As Program Manager, Craig has a hand in the success of all engineering efforts at NileGuide. When not at work, Craig can be found going for a motorcycle ride, skiing in Tahoe, fishing in Alaska or seeing a Phish concert. Before starting at NileGuide, he recharged by spending a month overland through South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique.
Jennifer Agostinelli
Business Manager
Growing up in the Northwest, Jennifer’s favorite pastimes included staying out of the rain and reading. This led to her naturally study literature at Evergreen State College. After moving to San Francisco, the dot.com world snapped her up to run Business Operations – utilizing her range of experience is in HR, Accounting and Revenue tracking. In her spare time Jen loves weekend hiking explorations right here in her new California homeland. She can also be found at the local hardware store buying a new saw or such item to make some “art”.
Libby McMillan
Senior Editor and Content Manager
Libby was a travel journalist for 12 years before joining the Nile team. A recent transplant to Greenville SC, she spent 20 years in sunny Florida, what she calls “the only place in the world where you drive north to reach the South.” An avid football fan, Libby has deep ties to the University of Oklahoma but actually graduated from rival Texas. She’s lived in Austin, Boston, Nashville, San Francisco and Captiva Island, including 4 happy years on a houseboat. She’s an authority on America’s Great Southwest and the country’s coastal Southeast. Libby speaks enough Spanish to get around the block, but also studied Italian for the 7 years she made annual treks to northern Italy. She can land a small plane, sail in dense fog, and pack for anywhere in the world in ten minutes.
Lucas Deibler
Project Manager and Analyst
Lucas was born and raised in Alliance, NE- home of world famous Carhenge. He attended the University of Nebraska, and shortly after, fled to the warmer weather of the southeast. It was here he latched on at 10Best.com, where he has had the opportunity to work in many different areas. Whether it is hiking, hunting, or just relaxing on the beach, Lucas is always up for an excursion. He has also traveled across the country to attend sporting events, and eventually hopes to visit every major league baseball stadium. His loyalties lie with the Milwaukee Brewers, and naturally, the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
Molly Drake
Marketing Manager
Molly graduated with a double major in Journalism and History from Northwestern University in 2004 and most recently worked in the video game industry doing marketing for IGN Entertainment. When not at NG, practicing yoga or participating as a slightly over-active member of the SF foodie community, Molly travels as often as possible (no surprise that she left video games for the travel industry!). She has sipped mint tea with spice merchants in Marrakech, sailed the blue waters of the Aegean, tasted the street food of Bangkok, hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, followed the Tour de France through the mountain stages of the Pyrenees, and eaten Sushi at a Tokyo fish market. Currently, she is using 95% of her accessible brain cooking up awesome marketing ideas for NileGuide, and 5% planning her next adventure (tango dancing in Argentina, perhaps?).
Rachel Greenberg
Marketing Manager
While growing up in Oakland, CA, an East Coast grandmother introduced Rachel to travel early. After months of promising tea at The Plaza, seven-year-old Rachel boarded a plane solo and never looked back. Rachel studied Spanish in Antigua, Guatemala (where she ate pounds of guacamole and purchased everything embroidered in sight) before starting college at UC San Diego. As a junior, Rachel studied abroad in Budapest, Hungary. Although she attempted to show more restraint in souvenir shopping, she did travel as much as possible in Central and Eastern Europe. While there, she had the opportunity to explore the Romanian country side, stopping at gypsy flea markets and communist-apartment-building-turned-dance-halls along the way. Now back in the Bay Area, Rachel lives happily in the Mission.
Usman Khan
Marketing Analyst
Born in Chicago, raised in the Washington, DC area, and currently residing in San Francisco, Usman’s real home is in the back of a 737. Blessed with the good fortune of being the son of a former airline industry executive, he spent much of his youth flying for free across the globe, developing an insatiable desire to see more of the world. A 2009 graduate of the University of Maryland (where he triple-majored in Government & Politics, Economics, and wearing sweatpants), Usman got his first taste of living abroad during a semester of studying in Barcelona, Spain. Prior to landing at NileGuide, Usman worked briefly as a social media consultant and completed multiple internships with the online marketing department at USATODAY.com. When he’s not traveling or working (read: eating all of the candy at NileGuide HQ), Usman is probably arguing over politics, playing/watching sports, or exploring what his new city has to offer.
Peter Horan
Board Member
Peter is a seasoned media and marketing executive with experience in both startups and multi-billion dollar public companies. He has had three successful exits as a CEO (DevX, About.com, and AllBusiness) and one as an independent director (Pluck) since 2003. Peter joined Goodmail in May of 2008 from IAC, where he oversaw that company’s media properties and ad sales operations. In this role, he oversaw IAC Advertising Solutions as well as Ask.com, Citysearch, Evite, Pronto, and IAC Mobile. He has a BA in English from Santa Clara University and an MBA from San Francisco State University.
Ben Boyer
Board Observer
Ben is a Managing Director of Tenaya Capital. He initially joined the predecessor to Tenaya (Lehman Brothers Venture Partners) in 2000, and co-founded Tenaya in 2009. Previously, Ben was a member of Lehman Brothers’ Technology Investment Banking group, where he was responsible for corporate finance and strategic advisory assignments. Ben holds an M.B.A. from Stanford Graduate School of Business and a B.S. in human and organizational development from Vanderbilt University.
Bill Draper
Board Observer
With over forty years of experience, William H. Draper III is one of the West Coast’s first venture capitalists. He is General Partner of Draper Richards L.P., a venture capital fund focusing on early-stage technology companies in the U.S., and Draper International, a venture capital fund investing in private companies with operations in the U.S. and India. Mr. Draper was founder of Sutter Hill Ventures in Palo Alto, California. During his twenty years as the senior partner of Sutter Hill, he helped to organize and finance several hundred high technology manufacturing companies. Mr. Draper served from 1981 to 1986 as President and Chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. In 1986, he became the head of the world’s largest source of multilateral development grant assistance, the United Nations Development Program. In addition to serving on many corporate boards of directors, Mr. Draper has served on the boards of the Atlantic Council, Draper Richards Foundation, Hoover Institution, Institute of International Studies at Stanford University, World Affairs Council of Northern California and the United Nations Association-USA. Mr. Draper has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Yale University, and a Master of Business degree, with distinction, from the Harvard Graduate School of Business.
Vince Vanelli
Board Observer
Founder and managing partner of KPG Ventures, Vince has more than 20 years operational, technology sales and business development experience, including key leadership positions at several global technology companies. From 1997 to 2000, he served as Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Network Products Division of Inktomi Corporation. Prior to that position, Vince was responsible for all Inktomi sales as Vice President of Worldwide Field Operations. Before his Inktomi undertakings, Vince spent eight years at Hitachi Data Systems where he held multiple positions, including Senior Vice President and General Manager, United States. He directed Hitachi’s sales channels, service, and field marketing departments and was responsible for a $1.2 billion revenue base. Prior to joining Hitachi, Vince worked for IBM Corporation where he spent eight years in various sales and marketing leadership roles throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Vince holds a B.S. and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering, both from Stanford University.