Partnership & Sponsorship Officer

Alison’s professional background weaves together multiple career tracks in marine biology & aquaculture, investment banking, and adventure & luxury travel. She is the founder of Blue Yūgen Inc., a strategy consultancy for organizations and companies solving real-world problems with emergent products, technology, and experiences spanning industries including space, automotive/flying cars & eVTOLS, aviation, and exploration & discovery.

A scientist, an explorer, and a marketing-minded business professional, she delivers consulting solutions in strategy development, strategic partnerships & commercial alliances, product design & development, program management, sales & marketing, and business modeling for start-ups.

Prior to consulting, Alison worked for esteemed travel companies including TCS World Travel, Intrav Private Jets, Abercrombie & Kent, and Travel Dynamics International. Serving in leading new business development rolls, she spearheaded strategic partnership development with senior leaders, international business units, and partners in diverse organizations including scientific institutions & research organizations, academic institutions, museums, non-profit organizations, professional councils & associations, and companies across the expansive global travel trade.

She has comprehensive destination knowledge and experiential design expertise having represented an extensive portfolio of destination management companies (DMCs) in 38 countries, around-the-world by private jet journeys, expedition cruise products, and safari lodges and camps throughout Africa.

A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Alison earned her Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan and a Master’s degree from New York University where she studied the intrinsic value of human exploration and adventure expeditions as a vehicle for innovative pedagogical approaches to solving the world’s biodiversity crisis.

Alison founded Blue Yūgen out of a passion to contribute her industry expertise and skills to the visionaries doing the impossible and creating products and experiences that help solve real-world problems here on earth.

Blue Yūgen is a testament to Alison’s belief that the emerging new space economy is the future, and human space travel and exploration is the singular experience that will forever change how we understand, protect, and conserve our living, breathing Earth. Alison resides in Orange County, California with her husband and two children. She enjoys wandering the great outdoors with her family, teaching her children that the greatest Yūgen can be found in your own backyard. All you have to do is open your eyes.