Maria Elena manages the ExperiencePlus! headquarters from its office in Fort Collins, Colorado. After spending many summers being a tour leader in Spain and in Italy, she has settled into her role managing greater strategic operations for EP from behind a desk.
Maria Elena holds an MBA from the Leeds School of Business in Boulder, Colorado and earned a dual Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and International affairs from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Together these disciplines enable her to focus her attention on day-to-day operations and user experience while maintaining a strategic vision for the business as a whole.
In 2011 Maria Elena and Monica were both selected by National Geographic Traveler to be featured in their Top 10 Guides in the world. Active in the cycling and active and adventure travel Industry and motivated to continually improve the whole industry, Maria Elena has been on the advisory board of the Adventure Travel Trade Association and currently is on the Board of Directors of Adventure Cycling Association in the US.
More than anything, Maria Elena still loves to immerse herself in new places and see the world by bike. In her spare time she rides her bike with her son and husband in the Colorado mountains and (when possible) further afield.
Her favorite trip—when pressured to choose—is the Camino de Santiago from Roncesvalles to Santiago de Compostela for its extraordinary combination of everything that makes a bike trek great: history, cuisine, landscape, pilgrims, great cycling and languages galore.