Adam Rogers

Like the title of one of his books, Adam Rogers is himself an intrepid traveler. His journeys have taken him to more than 100 countries throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. He set of on his first expedition in his early teens, exploring the west coast of North America from Alaska to Mexico on a motorcycle. At the age of eighteen he left his home in the Yukon Territory with a backpack and an intention to explore the world—to keep traveling east until he ended up back in the west. This first exploration of the planet brought him to more than fifty countries over five years on a budget of less than $100 a month. That experience formed the basis for the first two editions of The Intrepid Traveler.

As the editor-in-chief of Los Angeles-based Earth News, Adam covered the landmark 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and most of the subsequent summits of the 1990s in Barbados (small island developing states), Cairo (population), Istanbul (cities), Copenhagen (social development), and Beijing (empowerment of women). His book, The Earth Summit, a Planetary Reckoning, documented the 1992 conference through the perspectives of youth, business, government, and civil society. Based on that experience, Adam wrote a book for the UN Environment Programme, localizing the framework of Agenda 21 (Taking Action: An Environmental Guide for You and Your Community). He also joined a Venezuela/Vermont-based NGO called the Together Foundation to build a global computer-based network (TogetherNet) linking environmental organizations and UN offices around the world to share information and knowledge – before the worldwide web was invented. Not long after that Adam was involved in an e-commerce start-up (InterWorld Corporation) that pioneered server-side internet architecture solutions and sold them to Fortune 500 companies like Disney and Marks & Spencer.

Adam left the private sector in 1996 to work full-time for the United Nations, in various positions that lasted twenty-two years, including as coordinator of the World Alliance of Cities Against Poverty – a network of more than 900 cities that are committed to the cause of advancing human development within the urban context. During this time, he also served as a communications advisor to the UN Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC). He now divides his time between writing, consulting, traveling and skiing.

Adam received a BA in International Affairs from Northern Arizona University, an MA in Communication and Technology from the University of Alberta in Canada, and an MBA from the TRIUM program at New York University, the London School of Economics, and HEC Paris School of Management. Follow Adam on Twitter at @adamrogers2030