Lone Andersen

I have spent my professional life helping companies build solid, workable businesses, latterly in Thailand and the wider ASEAN region. My background is in Financial Services and FinTech, where I have led teams across continents, invested in startups, and advised governments on sustainable waste management. These days I work closely with founders and investors who want clear, practical guidance on how to grow in this part of the world. But the truth is that my story began long before my career. I grew up all over Asia, Africa and Europe, following my father’s United Nations postings to places most people never get to see. Those early years shaped everything. The smell of markets, the heat rising from dusty roads, the sound of unfamiliar languages, the way people welcomed us into their homes. These memories are woven into who I am. In the mid-1970s, long before smartphones and GPS, two friends and I packed ourselves into an Opel station wagon and set off overland from Scandinavia to Nepal. We spent eight months on the Pan Asian Highway, crossing borders, deserts and mountain passes, sharing meals with strangers and waking up in places we had only ever read about. It was the kind of journey that stays with you for life. It taught me resourcefulness, patience, curiosity and a deep respect for the many ways people create home in the harshest and most beautiful landscapes. I have continued my wanderings. I have always preferred the countryside to the tourist spots. I tend to find myself in places where life happens quietly, away from the crowds. I’ve spent time with Bedouins in Afghanistan before the Russian invasion, crossed the Okavango Delta, boated along the Limpopo and the Casamance, wandered the Golden Triangle, and stood on the steppes of Mongolia and the pampas of Latin America. I have returned to villages from my childhood and reconnected with people I had not seen for decades. And I have made many new friends along the way. Dusty Boots is a great place to share my stories, memories and small moments that have stayed with me.