Founder and Guide - Oliver Rampley
Oliver Rampley created a guiding service focused on Florence’s Arno river in 2013. This business evolved to offer bird and wildlife watching across Tuscany.
Altana Europe was founded in 2016 to give predominant attention to bird and wildlife watching trips and create scope for specialist experiences based on: conservation management; the science and ethics of selective management hunting of hooved animals; discourses around sustainability and 'where food comes from'.
Feature-length articles on Oliver’s work in the field have been published in Financial Times Weekend (2014 and 2018), British GQ, How to Spend It (2018 and 2020), Country Life, Fieldsports, Country & Townhouse, Shooting Times, FlyFishing and Fly-Tying and Flyfishers' Journal read more...
Partner - Mark Hix MBE
Mark Hix is an internationally renowned chef, restaurateur and food writer known for his unique take on British gastronomy. For 17 years as Chef Director of Caprice Holdings, Mark held culinary responsibility for iconic London restaurants, including The Ivy, Le Caprice, Scott's and J Sheekey.
In 2008, Mark opened his first London restaurant, HIX Oyster and Chop House, and this was followed by HIX Oyster and Fish House in Lyme Regis, Dorset, and then HIX Soho, and then a further three restaurants and a boutique hotel, HIX Townhouse. In 2012, Mark founded the annual Food Rocks Festival.
Mark is the author of 11 cookery books read more...
Advisory Board
Lauren Scott
Lauren studied politics before joining Freud Communications, where she worked for 3 years in their New York and London offices. In 2010, Lauren bartered bed and board in Kenya and lived in the bush learning a lot about wildlife. Returning home, Lauren founded Scott Ideas, a PR agency that specializes in brand development and transatlantic communications.
Tessa Packard
Tessa worked in the commercial art world for four years before turning her hand to jewellery design in 2013.
A fervent lover of the outdoors and far-flung wildernesses, Tessa is passionate about wildlife (especially pine martens), conservation management, conservation policy and the rural landscape.
Katrina Lawson Johnston
Katrina is a freelance photographer, shooting for brand clients ranging from Beefeater Gin to Stella McCartney and COS. Katrina has a keen interest in wildlife inherited from her mother, and particularly enjoys foraging for ingredients.
Katrina is advisor on matters photographic to Altana Europe, and has been commissioned for diverse work on location with Ollie, including Mark Hix fishing at Il Pellicano hotel for British GQ, novelist David Profumo birdwatching for Country Life and restaurant critic Bill Knott foraging in historic Italian gardens for How to Spend It.