Who Are We?
Carolyn and Ally established The Bhutan Collective with the desire to share all that Bhutan has to offer as a country and its people with the business world. The company was designed with the sole intention of enabling businesses to be immersed in Bhutan and in particular introducing businesses to the alternative models through which Bhutan approaches business within a GNH framework.
Carolyn Hamer Smith (Co-Founder)
With a background in event management, Carolyn lived and worked in Bhutan for two and a half years managing communications for the UN World Food Program during which time she met and married her husband Kinzang Chhogyal. On returning to Australia with her husband she was appointed CEO of the Australian Himalayan Foundation managing a range of international aid programs across Bhutan, India and Nepal. Carolyn has continued her connection to Bhutan working closely with Her Majesty Sangay Choden Wangchuck to promote and develop Her Majesty’s NGO, RENEW, dedicated to the empowerment and development of women and girls, leading travel groups from Australia across Bhutan through her travel company ‘My Secret Bhutan’ and more recently training and mentoring a fledgling not for profit sector in Bhutan. Carolyn and her husband returned to live in Bhutan in 2019 when Kinzang took up a research position in Artificial Intelligence at the newly established Royal Bhutan Academy.
Allison O'Shea, aka "Ally" (Co-Founder)
Ally has been travelling to Bhutan since 2011 for personal retreats and more recently for business recognising after her first visit the wealth of unique knowledge, cultural and environmental lessons to be learned in Bhutan. She considers each journey to Bhutan as transformational to her thinking and wellbeing and is dedicated to sharing this experience and learning with others especially businesses and leaders globally. Ally grew up as a country girl in NSW, Australia on a large farm but considered herself a city girl throughout her corporate career in health, law and finance. In starting her own leadership and wellbeing consultancy in 2014 with a focus on small to medium and entrepreneurial businesses, Ally has consistently been drawn to the immense value to be gained by removing oneself from the VUCA world to focus on purpose, values and thought leadership. Ally is based in Sydney, Australia but is an avid traveller who is continually drawn back to her country roots and the peace and serenity of remote places balanced with a busy city base.