Founder and CEO at MaidenVoyage.com After a 20+ year career in leading technology teams for brands such as ITV, Sony Music, KLM, the BBC and EasyJet, Carolyn left her corporate career to launch maiden­voyage in 2008. She holds a degree in Business & IT, an MBA and has completed the Cranfield School of Management Advance Development Programme in Leadership. Carolyn speaks fluent Dutch having spent six years living in the Netherlands.

It was on a lonely business trip to LA that Maiden Voyage’s founder, Carolyn Pearson decided to create a network for professional women business travellers. Passionate about travel, Carolyn was hugely disappointed at having missed her opportunity to get out and explore one of the world’s most vibrant cities and having returned to her native England she conducted market research to understand if other women felt the same way.

Encouragement to bring the site to life came from scores of other business women who had spent many lonely evenings in their hotel rooms, often working, usually eating room service to avoid the embarrassment of dining alone in a restaurant or being the subject of unwanted attention. Carolyn launched maiden­voyage.com in 2008 and it was soon to be widely covered by the global press including the New York Times, the Guardian, CNN and BBC.

Shortly after launching, one of our members asked for a recommendation for a safe hotel in Beijing and that was the catalyst for the maiden­voyage.com brand standard for certified ‘Female Friendly Hotels’.Today maiden­voyage.com has members from all walks of professional life, from over 60 countries and is a reliable and trusted brand.