Elite Traveler Spring 2024

INFLUENCE THE BIG INTERVIEW

Deborah Calmeyer on empowerment and her pet lioness The CEO and founder of Roar Africa, a luxury African safari company that creates custom itineraries, speaks to Elite Traveler ’s Irenie Forshaw about why women are integral to her business

Eventually, Calmeyer got her green card and began settling into her new life. People would often hear her accent and ask for help planning their itineraries for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Africa. She quickly realized she enjoyed advising them — and had a knack for it, too. When her father, then in his mid-60s, found himself out of work, she had an idea: “I told him to get his guiding license and that I would try and send him a couple of families a year,” she explains. “It was just going to be a bit of a side hustle in his retirement to help support him…” One thing led to another, and she ended up founding Roar Africa, running the business alongside her demanding sales job for six years. To say this time was challenging is an understatement; Calmeyer remembers this period as one of the toughest in her life. “When I think back to it, I’m like, ‘Who the hell was that?!’” she chuckles. Her evenings and weekends were spent poring over maps, comparing fl ight prices and vetting lodges. Perhaps most di ffi cult of all was the deeply ingrained sexism she faced trying to break into the male-dominated safari industry. “It’s a bit like working in the Wall Street of the bush,” she says with a wry smile. “It’s run by men who are a real pain in the ass with con fi dent, demanding women like me — it’s not what they’re used to.” Calmeyer refused to back down, instead placing women at the heart of her business. Her vision? “If African women rise, wildlife will thrive.” To this end, her company employs 85% female sta ff spanning every role from pilots to rangers, trackers and conservationists. Each year, she runs a Women’s Empowerment Retreat hosted by an all-female team, shining a light on the work of in fl uential and inspiring African women through a series of talks and excursions (the 2025 trip will take place in Botswana). It's been especially rewarding to watch the annual retreats open new career paths for women in the local community. Last year, for example, she brought demanding women like me — it’s not what they’re used to” “It’s a bit like working in the Wall Street of the bush. It’s run by men who are a real pain in the ass with con fi dent,

When Deborah Calmeyer was 12 years old, her dad came home to the family’s farm in Zimbabwe with a lioness cub he had found at a local rescue center. Carmel — as she was soon named — quickly became a much-loved member of the family. “She was like our third Labrador,” recalls Calmeyer with a smile. “She would come and pick me up from school. And then she grew and grew until she terri fi ed everyone. She was well-fed on the farm so she was never really hungry, but that didn’t mean she lost her instincts as a wild animal… one swipe and our other dogs would go fl ying!” Carmel eventually went back to the lion sanctuary, but she left an indelible mark on Calmeyer’s life. Now 51 years old, the entrepreneur runs an ultra-luxe safari business, Roar Africa, crafting bespoke itineraries for guests (Robert Redford and Leonardo DiCaprio are among her star-studded clientele). Calmeyer greets me warmly over a video call from her home in Cape Town (she splits her time between Cape Town, New York and Miami). She’s wearing a fl owing lime-and-cream linen dress, her hair perfectly coi ff ed. At fi rst, it’s hard to imagine her as a little girl growing up on the farm, water-skiing in lakes full of crocodiles and tracking elephants in the Zimbabwean bush. Scratch the surface, though, and it’s clear to see her deep a ffi nity with nature never went away. A profound respect for wildlife was instilled in her from a young age by her father, who worked as a zoologist. “Both my parents were, in their own ways, in love with the bush, as I think most Africans are,” she tells me. At 15, with mounting pressure under the Mugabe regime, Calmeyer and her family left Zimbabwe and moved to South Africa, settling in the coastal

Calmeyer in New York City

province of KwaZulu-Natal. But she had always yearned to live in New York and, at 24, fi nally moved with her boyfriend (now husband) to Manhattan. Nothing could have prepared her for how much she would miss home. “I didn’t expect to feel the absolute rip from Africa and this incredible tear in my heart,” she says. “It was a disaster. I had no money and didn’t know anyone. The homesickness just consumed me.”

Roar Africa and Emirates private jet tour

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