Megan Epler Wood

President, Epler Wood International

Megan Epler Wood is the principal of EplerWood International, www.eplerwood.com, which performs strategic business, market, supply chain, and product planning for sustainable tourism projects worldwide. Epler Wood oversaw the formation of the first and largest ecotourism NGO in the world in 1990, The International Ecotourism Society, and was its president for 12 years overseeing the development of a constituency of 1500 professional and business members in over 100 countries; sustainability standards through international stakeholder meetings for business; research protocols on best business practices, and the formation of ecotourism business development and training projects in over 25 countries. Since 2003 her firm has developed feasibility, business and market plans for projects in Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Mexico and Peru and designed and managed a global study on demand from international source markets for ecolodges and business viability determinants from successful ecolodges worldwide for the World Bank/IFC, co-authoring the study published at http://ifcln1.ifc.org/ifcext/enviro.nsf/Content/EBFP_Ecolodge. An additional report on the business of ecolodges, co-authored by Epler Wood, is available at http://www.ifc.org/ifcext/enviro.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/fly_EBFP_EcolodgeEplerwood/$FILE/Ecolodges-EplerWood.pdf