My name is John Van Thuyne, I was born in Switzerland on the 18TH June 1968. My father IS Guy Van Thuyne the son of a Belgium industrial businessman. My mother is Maxine Van Thuyne, the daughter of Mr Max Buchi, a Swiss General Council who was in function in Cape Town during the 40's, her mother was Reggina Annenberg a second generation English born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
I finished school at 18 in Lausanne, and then spent two years travelling between India , Tibet and China. I came back and went to live in London where I worked for The Global Mail newspaper and The Guardian newspaper for another two years. At the same time I became a Fellow member of The Royal Geographical Society, and studied Archeology at the Institute of Archeology at London University College. I married a beautiful Spanish artist from Barcelona with whom I have two girls and one boy.
Back in Switzerland I started working with my father as an independent advertising representative for the International Herald Tribune, The Guardian, L'Express and a few other international and well respected publishing groups. During these 12 years of professional work I was able to continue my studies of Archeology and Paleoanthropology at the University of Lausanne, I did 6 seasons of fieldworks, digging in Israel, Spain, Syria, Uzbekisran etc... Thanks to my work with the Herald Tribune in Switzerland I manage to create closer links with different people at the Headquarters of The World Wildlife Fund For Nature in Gland next to Lausanne. We worked for many years on numerous projects, partnerships, conferences, fundraising etc...This relationship developed a passion for the environment and in 2001 I was invited for lunch by the Duke of Edinburg at Buckingham Palace to thank me for the work I had done for the WWF International.
This interest for the environment brought me to the Okavango Delta in 1996, where I established a Trust called Okavango People Wildlife Trust. As Patron, we had the privilege to engage with the the actual President of Botswana at the time, Sir Ian Khama, who we met on a few occasions. We also had the privilege to meet with Chief Kgosi Tawana Moremi II who worked with us for three years. After six years of existence the Trust activity was handed over to the well known and well respected non governmental organisation, Conservation International, also based in Maun.
After 15 years in the advertising business, allowing me to raise funds for Research, I travelled around the world not only for the the Herald Tribune but also for archeological and geological interests, enabling me to acquaint with qualified and experienced professionals in many different scientific fields. I decided to stop working and to dedicate the following years of my life to understand the geophysical functioning of our earth. So at the age of 35 I went to study Geosciences at the University of Lausanne. I acquired a Bachelors Degree in Environmental Sciences and a Master Degree in Environmental Social Issues. For one year I was assistant in a class of Geological Mapping.
Along with my colleague and long time friend Rita Ridge, we came up with the conception and actualization of a Research Center, that has been operational since June 2014. From 2015 till the end of 2022 and did my PhD at the University of Lausanne at the Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics (IDYST) and completed my PhD in biogeosciences on “ Biophysical and biogeochemical dynamics of Macrotermes michaelseni termite mounds in a savanna ecosystem of Botswana” and obtain the title of Doctor in Earth Sciences from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. In 2018 we signed a convention between the Faculty of Geosciences and our Research center, then between the University of Lausanne and the Botswana International University for Science and Technology (BIUST) and finaly, a partnership was signed between Biust and the VTR research center in 2020. I am, since May 2015, a proud Botswana resident.
My Name is Rita Ridge, born and bred in Maun, Botswana, Africa. I have three beautiful daughters; Stephanie, Summer and Namanda and a little boy called Miguel. I completed my primary and secondary education in Maun where I then enrolled in different Tourism and conservation courses.
Over the last 22 years, I have been actively involved with various tourism and conservation projects and activities in Northern Botswana and moved on to being an Eco Tourism consultant for People and Nature Trust, a non government organization in Maun, offering training and capacity building programmes to people in rural areas such as getting them involved in community driven tourism enterprises and holistic range management programmes.
I met John Vanthuyne , co founder of our Scientific Research Centre, Chobe Enclave in the early nineties . With my great passion for the flora and fauna of Botswana, and a growing need to find ways of helping to care for sick and wounded wildlife, meeting John Van Thuyne and finding out that his passion was earth Sciences in the wilderness, i realised we had a lot of dreams in common and vowed that one day, given the opportunity, we would form a partnership and turn our wishes into reality. That was 18 years ago and the opportunity finally presented itself and thus after a lot of hard work and dedication, we opened the Vanthuyne Ridge Research Centre in 2014.