Our U.S. Staff

Our staff of expert travel planners is exceptionally well traveled and extremely knowledgeable about our destinations. We couple an unrivaled depth of experience with an unmitigated enthusiasm for foreign culture, history, language, and geography. From Budapest to Vladivostok, from the Arctic Circle to the Gobi Desert and beyond, we've been there, and we've returned with a wealth of experience, knowledge and information that benefits our clients immeasurably.

Douglas Grimes, President and founder of MIR, created the company after traveling to the Soviet Union in the mid-1980s on a goodwill exchange between members of the Soviet Olympic Volleyball team and players of the sport from 11 U.S. states. He has made over 100 trips to our destinations and is a member of the Explorers Club. Whether exploring archaeological sites in Central Asia and the Caucasus or leading "Inside the Russian Space Program" tours to the Baikonur space launch site, Douglas' trips have spanned MIR's destinations since our inception. In 2008 alone, Douglas made 5 trips to Russia and visited Kazakhstan and Estonia as well. Email: douglas

Annie Lucas, Vice President, has been with the company since the very early years. Her background in Russian & Eastern European Studies serves her in her role overseeing company-wide operations, systems and product development. With a passion for out-of-the-way places (favorites include Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan), she personally scouts emerging destinations and has an extensive travel history. Recent travels to the Baltics countries of Latvia and Estonia included a journey to Estonia's Saaremaa Island. Email: annie

Dmitry Rudich, Director, Custom Group Tours, grew up in Ukraine.  He has traveled since he was a child, spending an interesting month in North Korea as a Young Pioneer.  Dmitry traveled in Ukraine, Russia, the Caucasus and Turkey before coming to the U.S. for an international business degree. His travels have also taken him from Minsk to Moscow to Vladivostok, across the snow-capped mountains of Tajikistan, throughout Eastern China and Central Asia, most recently to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. Email: dmitry

Margie Banin, Custom Group Tour Specialist, is a native of the Pacific Northwest but speaks both Russian and Japanese fluently. She has more than 20 years of travel experience visiting regions around the globe.  Memorable experiences range from camping her way across Kazakhstan, Central Russia and Buryatia to several years living in rural Japan.  In Fall 2008, she visited Central Asia with MIR clients, stopping in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan along the way. It was her fourth trip to the region. Email: margie

Marina Arkhipova, Sales/Operations Support Specialist, was born in Turkmenistan and raised in Ukraine. Coming to the U.S. at 14, she won a basketball scholarship to St. Leo University in Tampa, Florida, where she earned a degree in International Hospitality and Tourism Management. Marina is fluent in English, Russian, and Ukrainian. Email: marina

Charity Shaller, Sales Specialist, earned her degree in Romance languages, and her interest in French and Italian has grown into a desire to communicate with the far reaches of the world, and she has lived in France, Italy and Morocco. Additionally, Charity has traveled along the Silk Road as well as through China, Mongolia and Siberia and on to Moscow on two trips aboard the Trans-Siberian Railway. Read about her experiences on her travel log. Email:  charity

Andrew Barron, Director, Scheduled Tours, studied Chinese and Russian in college and spent a year living and working outside of Beijing. His travels have taken him across China, from Xi'an to Lhasa, on an extended overland expedition from Shanghai to Urumqi, through Chinese Turkestan and from Western Russia to Mongolia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan at the heart of Central Asia. Email: andrew

Meaghan Samuels, Tour Specialist, grew up in California and completed her Creative Writing degree at the University of Washington with a minor in International Studies. Inclined towards international travel since she spent a summer in Europe with her grandparents as a child, she has circum-navigated the globe, from the foot of Sadako's stolid statue in Hiroshima to wandering the wine vineyards of South Africa to Uzbekistan in Central Asia and most recently accompanied her clients on a tour of Iran. Read about her experiences on her travel log. Email: meaghan

Jennifer Tam, Private Journeys Specialist, grew up in the little town of Lincoln City, Oregon. She spent a year living in China while earning her degree in International Business and traveling to places like the famous Sunday Bazaar in Kashgar and the modern city of Shanghai. She has set foot on "The Roof of The World" (Lhasa, Tibet) aboard the Shangri-La Express Private Train, has traveled to Russia and Uzbekistan, and recently took a trip through Siberia and Mongolia aboard the Tsar's Gold Private Train with an added visit to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East. Email: jennifer

Olga Hayes, Private Journeys Specialist and native of St. Petersburg, Russia, worked for many years as a senior curator for the State Russian Museum, as a consultant to museums throughout Europe and as a professor at St. Petersburg University. She has a Doctorate in Russian Culture specializing in Russian icons as has served as a tour guide in St. Petersburg for many years. She returns to St. Petersburg regularly, last visiting in Fall 2008. Email: olga

Liz Riley, Marketing Specialist, grew up in Delaware where she earned a degree in Mass Media Communication. Her love of adventure, the arts and the internet brought her west to Seattle where she has found a way to combine all of them at MIR. Liz has explored Bulgaria and Romania as well as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Email: liz

Mariana Noble, Copywriter & Sales Support Specialist, earned her Russian Studies degree in Seattle, and studied Russian language in St. Petersburg. Mariana's favorite vacation spot is Siberia, where she attended a World Congress of Orthodox Old Believers near Lake Baikal. Email: mariana

Jered Gorman, Air Specialist, was born in Seoul and lived in Korea, the Netherlands and Germany as a child before moving to the Pacific Northwest. Jered studied in Guilin for his degree in Chinese Studies, is conversant in the Chinese language and has traveled extensively in China as well as along the Silk Route in Uzbekistan and to Kazakhstan. Email: jered

Robin DeJong-Glass, Finance Director, is a native Washingtonian with a penchant for warm places. While most of her traveling has been to destinations like the Caribbean, Hawaii and Mexico, she and her husband traveled to France in 2008. Email: accounting

Kristin Anne Carideo, Marketing/Sales Support Specialist, is a native New Yorker who earned a Master's degree in Scottish Literature while living in a small Scottish town by the sea. She has traveled extensively throughout Europe and studied Chinese Art at Oxford as part of her undergraduate degree from Sarah Lawrence College. In 2008, she ventured to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Email: kristin