J. Scott Zimmerman - CEO, Co-Founder
Scott was born and raised in Missoula, Montana and moved to New York City for college, where he developed a passion for other cultures and a mind for poverty alleviation. After graduating from college, he worked as senior financial analyst in acquisitions for The Related Companies in New York City, completing $230 Million investment in low-income housing developments under state and federal tax incentive policies.
Scott was instrumental in forming the concept and strategy of StepUp Travel, as well as programming the initial site. He has lived in Argentina, Brazil, Ecuador, India, and England, and has traveled all over South America, Central America, and much of Asia. He speaks Spanish and Portuguese fluently.
Scott received a BA in Economics from Columbia University, a medical degree from Brown Medical School, and is currently completing his training in Neurology at Stanford University.
Anush Ramani - CTO, Co-founder
Anush was born in Hyderabad, India. He shuttled between Chennai, India and Dubai, UAE during his primary and secondary education before relocating to the United States. He attended the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, graduating cum laude with a degree in Computer Science. During college, he did an international internship in Manama, Bahrain and volunteered time to non-profits in India.
Post graduation, he worked for six years at Fidelity Investments in Boston - starting off as a software engineer, progressing on to project management. He was sponsored by Fidelity to earn his Master’s in Business Administration with a concentration in Innovation & Technology from Boston University.
Anush has taken a leadership role with technology strategy, development of the company's software, and with operations in Asia.
Trip Sweeney, Co-founder
Trip has six years involvement in sustainable tourism research and advocacy. He has an extended network of tourism colleagues working in academia, industry, and government. In addition to StepUp Travel, he has been a leading voice in microfinance tourism as highlighted in an article featured by Brave New Traveler entitled, Why we need microloan tours instead of slum tourism. This article seeded the formation of Investours.org.
Trip has been an invited speaker on sustainable tourism foriegn investment at University of Pennsylania for the Penn International Business Volunteers' Conferece on Corporate Social Responsibility. He was also an invited speaker at the International Institute of Peace through Tourism 2006 Conference in Kampala, Uganda, where he discussed the role of internet technology in marketing for small tourism enterprises.
Beyond his constributions to the concept of of StepUp Travel, Trip has been instrumental in using his team management skills to develop a unique pipeline for content acquisition.
Trip has lived in Chile and Brazil and has traveled to Mozambique, South Africa, Uganda, France, and England. He is fluent in Portuguese and proficient in Spanish. He graduated magna cum laude from Vanderbilt University and graduated with high honors from University of Kentucky College of Medicine in May 2009. He is currently at Stanford University training in Pathology.