Bruce Poon Tip
Founder
G Adventures
Entrepreneur, leader and philanthropist Bruce Poon Tip is the founder of adventure travel company and social enterprise G Adventures. Following a transformational backpacking trip to Asia, Bruce had an idea to change the face of travel. At the age of twenty-two, on two maxed-out credit cards, he started G Adventures, a small-group adventure company that would bridge the divide between backpacking and mainstream travel and give travellers the opportunity to foster meaningful connections with local communities in the countries they visited. Twenty-seven years later, G Adventures is the world’s largest small-group adventure travel company, with 23 offices worldwide offering more than 650 tours on all seven continents and serving 150,000 travellers a year.
With a vision that travel could become a force for social good and significant wealth distribution, Bruce founded the nonprofit foundation Planeterra in 2003, which harnesses the power of the tourism industry to direct travel dollars into vulnerable and underserved communities around the world. His work with organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), like-minded companies and indigenous people has supported more than 40 unique community development and relief projects around the world, with another 50 in development.
Passionate about travel’s power to change the world for the better, Bruce has become a global leader on social entrepreneurship, leadership, immersive travel, and innovation.
He has addressed the United Nations and the World Bank, spoken at the headquarters of Apple and Google, and delivered keynote speeches at TED events and entrepreneurship conferences around the world.
In 2012, Bruce was inducted into the Social Venture Network Hall of Fame, joining celebrated entrepreneurs such as Richard Branson (Virgin Airlines), Anita Roddick (The Body Shop), and Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield (Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream). He was also awarded a Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, recognizing significant contributions to society, and was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2016, 2006 and 2002.
Bruce’s first book, Looptail: How One Company Changed the World by Reinventing Business, a New York Times bestseller, was the first business book to be endorsed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who penned the book’s foreword. In 2015 Bruce released his second book, Do Big Small Things, a gorgeously designed journal about life and travel that takes readers on a journey and invites them to share their own inspiration and creativity.
Built on the foundation of a strong company culture that celebrates happiness and freedom and rewards disruptive innovation through risk taking and fun, G Adventures has been named one of the 50 Best Managed Companies for over 10 years and is repeatedly recognized as a “best place to work” in Canada, the US, the UK and Australia.
