Born in Malawi, Sally-Anne had a carefree semi nomadic life travelling around the country with her parents and brother, attending village schools whenever they stopped somewhere for long enough. Finishing up in Blantyre, the family moved to Zimbabwe and while not quite as nomadic as in Malawi, she spent as much time as possible in the bush.

After completing her honours degree in the UK, Sally-Anne joined and had 25 years the adventure/eco-tourism industry, with Shearwater in Victoria Falls, Abercrombie and Kent in Zimbabwe and Wilderness Safaris in Botswana. Having worked in operations, marketing, product development and sales, she joined the Botswana Government as the Director of Strategy and Cluster Development with the Botswana Tourism Organisation. 

During her time in Botswana Sally-Anne’s passion for responsible tourism led to her holding key positions in the industry including Vice Chair of the Hospitality and Tourism Association of Botswana (HATAB), Chair of the Human Resources Development Council’s tourism sector, where she worked with a team of consultants to develop a Skills Needs Analysis and Skills Development Plan for the tourism industry. As a Board Member of the Civil Aviation Authority of Botswana and Air Botswana, she participated on various technical and project steering committees promoting international, regional and domestic “access” for the tourism industry.

Sally-Anne also participated on other project steering and technical committees where her work involved concept design and monitoring and evaluation reviews. These included working with the National Strategy Office on tourisms’ contribution to national sustainability through the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Environmental, Social and Governance platform (ESG), Wealth Accounting and the Valuation of Ecosystem Services (WAVES) and Natural Capital Accounting (NCA) and, industry development through working with the Botswana Bureau of Standards taskforce developing the standards and grading criteria for game lodges and tented camps, participating in land use management plans, promoting public private partnerships and community based natural resource planning.

In 2014 Sally-Anne was a member of the team co-ordinating the inaugural Illegal Wildlife Trade conference (held in Botswana) and again in 2022.