30 Under 30: Meet Tom Hawes, a young travel professional with an intuitive head for business

Tom Hawes exudes a passion for travel, even going so far as to turn down a position at his father’s successful company to forge his own career in the industry.

However, it was sport that Hawes, now business development manager at Intuitive, proclaims as his first love.

“I studied sport and business for my A-Levels and at Loughborough University I did my degree in Geography and Sport & Leisure Management.”

Whilst at university Hawes began to display business acumen, organising a Sunday league football team where he also acted as treasurer, responsible for the day-to-day finances of the club.

After graduation Hawes’s love of sport began to merge with travel when he journeyed to Canada and gained a ski instructor qualification before travelling in Australia, Thailand and Hong Kong.

Hawes’s appetite for adventure continued to grow and in 2010 he represented a team in an Indian tuk-tuk cross-country charity rally.

“The race was in Northern India and we did around 2,000 miles in a tuk-tuk. The whole thing took us two weeks. That was my best travel experience; there were no tourists, it was completely authentic,” he says.