In 2017, Alex founded Timor Unearthed with the goal of connecting communities in Timor-Leste and Australia through educational tourism. Since then Alex has lead the Timor Unearthed team to facilitate educational travel experiences for Australian student groups, and support the development of sustainable tourism in Timor-Leste. Alex is passionate about improving the standards of tour services through training and developing local cabacity of Timorese tourism workers, and has a particularly interest in health and safety management within the tourism industry. Alex is the main point of contact with our clients and works closely with our group leaders to design tour programs specific to focus areas of learning.

Anas has been working in tourism since 2015. He has lead school and university immersion groups, coordinated the Dili-Darwin Yacht race, provided tour guide training for over 200 university students for cruise ship events, managed hotels and run motorbike adventure tours. As a Youth Ambassador for the UN Anas has participated in leadership, entrepreneurship and public speaking programs. He has lived, studied and traveled throughout cities in Australia, Japan, Singapore and Indonesia and is now completing a Business and Economics degree at university in Dili. As our operations manager Anas' role is to organise logistics, participate in stakeholder meetings, and confirm bookings to ensure everything runs smoothly on our programs. Anas plays an important role as our senior guide on immersion programs leading our groups and providing training and mentorship to our junior staff.

Manuela holds a Bachelor of Tourism from Dili Institute of Technology and during her studies volunteered as a tour guide on various tourism projects. In July 2022, Manuela joined the Timor Unearthed team as a facilitator on our Domestic Tourism Exchange project in partnership with USAID’s Tourism For All Program. On this program Manuela delivered training and workshop activities as our team connected two of Timor-Leste’s main tourism associations through a variety of practical and class-based learning sessions. As our Tour Coordinator Manuela conducts field research and designs our educational tour programs (including our recent trip with the University of Queenslands Sustainable Energy Program). Manuela looks after our logistic planning and booking confirmations to make sure everything runs smoothly on your trip!

Norberto grew up in the small rural village where our homestay program is based. He has travelled to Australia a number of times including on a 3 month scholarship studying English in Brisbane. For the last 7 years Norberto has worked as translator, driver, and guide for various educational groups visiting Timor-Leste. As our homestay coordinator Norberto's role is to liaise with our homestay families, facilitate activities in the community and assist with training sessions. Our homestay program allows families to diversify their source of income through sustainable tourism. Norberto is passionate about sharing his culture and proud to work in this key role. 

Kaka works behind the scenes to ensure that we impliment the best environmental sustainability practices avaliable. He assists with implimenting appropriate waste management solutions and meets with restaurants and hotels providers to assist them with meeting our minimum sustainability requirements. Kaka is currently studying engineering at university in Dili and in his spare time runs an NGO called 3Rs Timor-Leste. 3Rs aim to reduce pollution in Timor-Leste by increasing awareness through education. In 2019, Kaka started Timor-Leste's first environmental education centre. Kaka meets with all our immersion groups and provideds educational presentations on environmental conservation and challenges in Timor-Leste. 

For our immersion programs we employ passionate and enthusiastic guides who have graduated or are studying tourism at university. In Timor-Leste, there are few opportunities for tourism graduates to gain work experience in the tourism industry. On all our programs we aim to employ as many local staff as possible. School immersion groups provide an excellent opportunity for our junior staff to receive mentorship and training, practice tour guide skills and understand how to safely manage group travel programs. All our guides receive training in child protection, workplace health and safety, emergency procedures, safe driving practices, tour guide presentation skills, and sustainable tourism principles. We encourage diversity and employ people from all different backgrounds.