Atlas Obscura Rounds Out Leadership Team with Global Product, Transformation, and Marketing Leaders

Community-focused travel platform adds three senior executives and promotes three key leaders as company accelerates growth strategy

NEW YORK – Atlas Obscura, the leading community-focused travel platform inspiring wonder and curiosity about the world’s most remarkable places, today announced a significant expansion of its leadership team with three new senior executives and three strategic internal promotions. The moves position the company to accelerate its growth as it builds the world’s best travel community app for passionate, frequent travelers.

“Six months into my tenure as CEO, Atlas Obscura is highly profitable and ready to build for its future,” said Chief Executive Officer Louise Story. “This team of global leaders will help us to serve passionate travelers in fulfilling their travel dreams with tools and world-class content that shows off destinations in fresh and inspiring ways.”

Joining Atlas Obscura

Asmaa Quorrich joins as Global Chief Marketing Officer, bringing over two decades of experience building and transforming global brands across CPG and Travel & Tourism. Most recently, she served as Global Chief Marketing Officer for Jumeirah Group and Saudi Tourism Authority, where she built the brand and grew its conversion through solid strategies and award-winning campaigns. Her career spans roles at major brands including KFC as Chief Marketing Officer for MENA and Pakistan, where she led a $1 billion brand transformation, and marketing leadership positions at PepsiCo across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. She began her career at P&G and is the Founder & CEO of ThinkBig Consulting.

Natalie Moore joins as Head of Product, coming from the White House’s renowned Digital Services Office, where she created new products serving many groups of Americans. Her work included rebuilding the U.S. Refugee Program app, creating digital tools to better serve veterans, and improving SNAP benefit delivery for families in need. Before the White House, she worked at National Public Radio (NPR), where she focused on audience engagement and launching features to attract and retain new users through data analysis, A/B testing, and deep understanding of NPR’s diverse audience.

Kamilah Mitchell-Thomas joins as Chief People Officer, bringing extensive experience as a seasoned CHRO and board director who has led people strategy across industries ranging from media to technology to global turnarounds. She was previously Chief People Officer of Roku, Dow Jones, and SVP of People and Culture at A&E Networks, as well as Chief People Officer of a private equity-backed company, helping organizations scale, reinvent, and thrive.

Strategic Internal Promotions

Atlas Obscura also announced three key internal promotions that recognize exceptional leadership and position the company for transformation:

Lauren Johnston has been promoted to Chief Product Transformation Officer. Since arriving at Atlas Obscura as interim Executive Editor in June, she has accelerated the pace of change, innovation, and collaboration across the organization. With her rare combination of content expertise and product experience from leadership roles at Yahoo News, content strategy at New York Daily News, and reporting and editing roles at Newsday, amNewYork, CBS News, and People, she will lead world-class content teams and help transform of Atlas Obscura’s products for the AI era.  

Daniel Sobo has been promoted to SVP, Head of Engineering and Technology. This expanded role recognizes his essential leadership in scaling Atlas Obscura’s digital platform to serve millions of travelers, as well as leading the technical development and launch of the company’s native apps. He is deeply involved in transforming how AI supports both internal operations and consumer-facing products and serves as a key advisor on AI strategy. Before joining Atlas Obscura, he built products for startups in healthcare, data analytics, and travel.

Doug Baldinger has been named Chief Content Officer of AO Entertainment, the company’s unit producing extraordinary content that reaches millions of travelers through books, podcasts, and films. He has been at Atlas Obscura since 2018, leading all content at the company, including the video unit. Before joining Atlas Obscura, he was Vice President of Creative Development at Blue Man Group.

Revenue Organization Expansion

The company’s revenue growth continues under Sara Ewell, Chief Revenue Officer, who has driven Atlas Obscura’s significant advertising business growth over her 3.5 years with the company. She is currently building out a larger advertising sales organization and expanding the destination marketing organization (DMO) team. 

Lesli Krishnaiah recently joined as Director, Domestic DMO Sales, bringing over 20 years of DMO sales experience and deep travel-industry expertise, including roles at Mountain News and Outside Magazine. She leads domestic DMO sales alongside Jacquelyn Blackwell, Senior Manager, Travel & Tourism Partnerships, who joined last year.

The company will soon announce the addition of international DMO and international brand sales leadership, viewing international expansion as an area of significant growth opportunity.  They will join Alecia Dalessio who is leading domestic brands as our Senior Director of Brand Partnerships.

About Atlas Obscura

Atlas Obscura is the leading community-focused travel platform inspiring wonder and curiosity about the world’s most remarkable places. Through its award-winning content, unique experiences, and community-driven platform featuring more than 30,000 wondrous places, Atlas Obscura serves millions of passionate travelers seeking authentic, off-the-beaten-path discoveries. The company publishes bestselling books including the No. 1 New York Times bestseller “Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders,” and operates digital products that help people find amazing things to do when they are traveling.

For more information about Atlas Obscura, visit www.atlasobscura.com.