Ralph Hammelbacher

Ralph is an inveterate international traveler. He first became involved with the travel industry in 1975, when he began guiding photographic safaris in East Africa. He had been traveling around the world, and a stopover in Kenya on his way led to a nine-year stay there, during which he worked as a guide and as operations manager of a local tour company. When he returned to the United States, Ralph worked with a tour operator specializing in Africa, Egypt and the Galapagos, then joined Lindblad Expeditions as Director of Product Development and later Marketing Director. During that time he designed travel programs to many parts of the world, pioneered Lindblad’s presence on the Internet and inaugurated the Daily Expedition Reports.

After a short-lived retirement, he served for several years as president of International Expeditions, rejoining Lindblad Expeditions in 2008 as Vice President of Expedition Development, pursuing his first love: developing travel programs to far-flung places. A native of New York, Ralph has a degree in economics from Cornell University and an MBA from the University of Chicago. He is keenly interested in natural history, photography, music, hiking and especially travel.