AWOL Co-Founders - Charity and Shanon

Cover Photo: An early start to beat the heat in The Grand Canyon, USA.

AWOL is the culmination of two adventures’ endless search to get away.  Both co-founders had experienced a well-spent youth full of self-determination, wild escapes into (and out of) remote regions around the world, and the desire to seek new experiences as frequently as life would supply.  Charity’s top exploit involved a Russian oligarch’s henchmen in frozen St. Petersburg while Shanon experienced the mind-bending effect of oxygen deprivation of the Nepalese Himalayas.  

Photo: Charity leaping from a Russian helicopter in Kizhi.

However, time stops for none.  In their 30’s Shanon built a career in business strategy and marketing while Charity built an eco-baby brand.  The outcome of both was the Global Financial Crisis that unleashed economic misery around the world.  The lessons of the GFC were the building blocks and guiding principles that drove both co-founders to upskill and expand their careers.  Charity spent the next decade in finance and accounting, working in manufacturing.  Shanon went to work using his business knowledge to create an economic development trust and two commercial operating companies that stimulated growth of some of the poorest parts of the Lower North Island.

AWOL takes these diverse career paths and creates an opportunity to blend personal passions with well-earned experience.  Both co-founders contribute their love of adventure, desire to challenge themselves, and a commitment to the Great Outdoors, to make kick-arse products and build a community that joins together to explore, escape, and build a world more closely aligned to their human spirit.