A little on the two Tims
The story of Curious Retreats can be traced back to the early 1990s when our founders Tim Ripman and Tim Cook first met. It began a lifelong friendship. Summer days building tree houses and exploring the weird and wonderful things our fine county has to offer gave way to respective London careers in finance and hospitality, before settling back in Suffolk with ever-growing families .
Curious Retreats is the product of everything that has come before it; a passion for the tourism and hospitality sector, a love and understanding of the beautiful coastal and in-land towns or villages that reside on our doorstep, plus a passion for business and delivering excellence.
As a company we recognise our responsibility to tread lightly in a part of the world we cherish and adore. We believe in leaving a better future for our kids than we inherited, adding to the ecology we surround ourselves in rather than taking. And creating a sustainable business that thinks carefully about the footprint it leaves behind.
But sustainability is more than this – we feel a duty to make a sustained, positive contribution to Suffolk and its people.
We believe the success of our company will be measured by the incredible network we create. Bringing together the very best of our region not just in respect to the luxurious array of properties we are fortunate to manage but by being bolder in our ambition in creating an ecosystem that benefits clients, owners, and local businesses who themselves have truly unique products we wish the world to see.
We have long felt that company’s need to work harder for their clients and Curious Concierge will be grander than anything that has come before in offering a truly bespoke getaway.
The Curious Team
We often talk about Curious Retreats and its partners being an extended family. And that’s because we know first-hand the importance of trust, respect, hard work and fun. These are core values we each share and as the company grows are characteristics we will look to uncover in future employees and all those we work alongside.
We’ve also taken the term quite literally as you will see from the early founding team! But out of acorns grow oak trees and we believe we have the perfect foundations to prosper. It is our delight to introduce you to the team….
Tim Ripman
Founder and Managing Director
Tim has spent the best part of 2 decades in the hospitality industry, spanning boutique hotels, luxury serviced apartments and stunning countryside getaways.
As a local lad and growing up in Woodbridge he knows our coastline like no other and what it takes to create the perfect getaways. Tim is a lifelong Ipswich fan with a young family of sporty individuals, in fact they say you are never more than one cricket or hockey pitch away from a Ripman!
Anyone who knows Tim knows they are in safe hands, he has an incredible network of friends, clients and business associates that he will draw on to ensure Curious Retreats reflects all that is great in our county and beyond.
Tim Cook
Founder and Director
With Tim R bringing knowledge of the tourism sector Tim C’s background is rather different. Graduating in Finance he’s spent his working career in the City of London, the last decade being involved specifically in Fintec start-ups.
This experience has been invaluable in understanding how to build successful businesses and navigating the pitfalls of early-stage companies. Also living locally, a resident of Woodbridge with Jules and his 3 boys Tim spends many weekends and weeks away along the Norfolk and Suffolk coast and knows exactly what he wants from his own family trips.
This and his attention to detail will ensure Curious Retreats grows on strong foundations. And the fact he’s a Norwich fan ensures the office environment remains competitive, in fact it’s one of the very few things he and Tim R disagree over.
Juliette Cook
Finance and Operations
Jules started her career in corporate finance at institutions including NAB and JP Morgan before a growing family got in the way of the long soulless city hours. Juggling a young family, she retrained as a property consultant and also studied Interior Design gaining a top qualification from KLC School of Design.
At Curious Retreats Jules runs FinOps, a perfect blend of her skills to date marrying business process discipline with a flair for beautiful properties and the knowledge of how to elevate them. You are just as likely to find Jules running business continuity reports as you would staging our wonderful properties.
If you look close enough, you will also see remnants of the kid’s breakfast covering her stylish attire! A South African by birth, Suffolk now runs in her blood, a place she is proud to call home.
Amity Manders
Property Portfolio and Concierge
Hollywood’s loss has been our gain with Amity coming from an acting background before moving to a teaching role in later years.
Amity has been on this journey with us from day one and as a holiday property owner herself has been instrumental in giving us the owner’s perspective, in fact her attention to detail and guest experience created the foundations to what we now know as Curious Concierge.
With 2 young boys, 3 dogs and a South African husband (yes, it does sound like a TV show) Amity knows first-hand what makes the perfect getaway, particularly as it relates to outdoor cooking and braais. You will never meet a friendlier warmer person and with Amity nothing is ever too much.
Laura Ripman
Brand and Marketing
Although Tim R would argue different, Laura is undoubtedly both the brains and beauty of the Ripman house. Spending most of her early adult years in London, Laura worked in marketing and events for huge multi-national brands such as IMG.
With a young family in tow and feeling the draws of Suffolk Laura returned to these fine shores and took up similar roles at locally based companies and charities.
As if the challenges of family and working life are not enough you will regularly find Laura training and completing marathons and ultra-marathons. Laura’s experience and energy are infectious and will ensure we are always on the front foot.
Sky
Chief Curiosity Officer
The most curious of us all! Loves people, food, tennis balls, walks, exploring and attention! Despite having a very limited vocabulary, she displays excellent communication skills; be it a furiously wagging tail, a wet nose, slobbery mouth or an unsolicited bark (acts and fails as a guard dog!!).
She has caused much jealousy internally as Sky appears to be a social media hit much to the disdain of her colleagues who feel she hogs the limelight.
That said everyone agrees she is the most kind and caring part of the team and after a hard day’s work offers the best hugs. (Even Cecil the Owl agrees).
