BIOGRAPHY

Robin Tauck

Robin Tauck is a highly respected veteran of the global travel industry and the new principal and founder of Robin Tauck & Partners LLC (RT&P), a platform for business and philanthropic ventures within specialty segments of the travel industry.  Through this company, Robin’s mission is to lead, inspire and assist our governments and the travel industry, and to act on immediate sustainability practices.*

Since 1978, Robin spent 30 years in her family’s leading worldwide company, Tauck World Discovery*, which has offered its clients luxury escorted land, cruise, riverboat and luxury safari travel since it was founded by her grandfather in 1925. Robin held many management positions with the company, most notably serving as its third-generation, first woman President, a position held for ten years from 1997-2007, and has served as its CEO.  

Under Robin’s leadership and other Tauck family leaders, Tauck World Discovery introduced many new premium travel offerings and expanded from North America to 70 countries on all seven continents while realizing record revenues and profitability.  She led the strategic direction and operation of over 110 land tours, dozens of small-ship and expedition cruises, and several African safaris. Robin’s expertise in one-to-one loyalty marketing in the affluent sector also created record customer satisfaction, brand loyalty awards, and a successful corporate re-branding in addition to new strategic public and private partnerships. The travel trade media recognized her as the “Most Powerful Women in Travel” several years; and she was a principle spokesperson for the Company.

An advocate for global sustainable tourism and merging philanthropy with business, Robin launched Tauck World Discovery’s “World of Giving” division in 1998 to create opportunities for the company and its hundreds of thousands of customers to “give back.”  This initiative resulted in large-scale volunteerism events and over 50 heritage grants to some of America’s most treasured sites, as well as in Africa and China.  These efforts, and World of Giving’s support of the U.S. National Parks, were recognized by President and Mrs. Bush in 2006 with the nation’s highest honor for historic preservation, the Preserve America Presidential Award.  Other awards include the U.S. Department of Interior “Take Pride in America” award in 2005, the Travel of Industry of America’s 2004 Public Service Odyssey Award, and the 2008 Pacific Area Travel Association’s Gold Preservation Award.

Robin is active in two family foundations, The Tauck Foundation, which focuses on youth development, and the Tauck Romano Innovative Philanthropy, which Robin founded with her husband, Peter Romano.  Their mission is to support innovative new programs that show promise in building positive change through cross cultural understanding, education, and leadership; focused on pressing worldwide needs related to conservation, environmental sustainability issues, multi-cultural issues and global development.

Though she left her active management role at Tauck in 2008, Robin remains the largest shareholder and continues her Board roles and representing public/private interests for the travel industry as well as select representation for the family company at high government and industry forums.

Education:

2009 - University of Cambridge/London BEP Business Sustainability Leadership
1998 - Stanford University, CA - Executive Program
1978 - University of Vermont - BA, Business Administration

Robin lives in Weston, Conn., with her husband and three grown daughters. Her daughter, Colleen, a Columbia University graduate, has spent time working for Tauck, making her the first of the “fourth generation” to work for the business.  She worked with the Egyptian Ministry of Culture on cultural property issues and public/private tourism in Cairo, Egypt from 2008-2009. She is currently pursuing an MA in Art History at New York University's Institute of Fine Arts.

Recent Honors and Awards:
(not inclusive of 50 Business Awards in Tourism for TWD)

2008 - Pacific Area Travel Association – “Gold Preservation Award” (World of Giving, a Tauck Inc. charitable division)
2006 - The White House – “Preserve America Presidential Award”
2005 - U.S. Department of the Interior – “Take Pride in America Award”
2004 - Travel Industry of America -- “Odyssey Award” (World of Giving, a Tauck Inc. charitable division)
2001 - Legacy of Leadership Award – University of Vermont
2000 - Ernst & Young Award – Entrepreneur of the Year; Service
2000 - Professional Women’s Exchange of New York Leadership Award
1999-2004 - Most Powerful Women in Travel – Travel Agent Magazine

Recent Board Positions:

Robin Tauck has served on the following industry and non-profit boards:

• T20 Prince of Wales - 2009 Corporate Leadership, UK/EU/Americas
• World Travel and Tourism Council - London
  • Member of Strategic Global Environment Committee
  • 110 CEOs in Tour & Travel worldwide
• Starwood Hotels and Resorts (Leisure Travel Board - 1997 to 2006)
• Travel Industry of America Foundation - Washington, DC
  • Former Member of Executive Committee, TIA
• Sustainable Travel International - Denver, CO & London
• The Old North Foundation - Boston, MA
• (new) Institute for Sustainability - Golden Gate NP Conservancy - San Francisco, CA
• The Tauck Foundation - Westport, CT
• Tauck, Inc - Norwalk, CT

General Inquiries: info@robintauck.com

Address: Robin Tauck, 8 Wedges Field, Weston, CT 06883 rtauck@robintauck.com

*Robin Tauck & Partners is not affiliated with or related to Tauck Inc. (dba Tauck World Discovery).