TOP: Sarina Bratton, ABOVE: Sarina Bratton

Sarina Bratton is Managing Director of the company and lives on the Northern Beaches with her husband and daughter.

Her career has taken her from a nationally ranked teenage athlete to the first female founder of a shipping line.

Sarina Bratton will be guest speaker at the next Royal Motor Yacht Club’s Ladies Luncheon, the third in a popular series initiated this year.

Bratton has created Australia’s only world class, five-star expedition cruise line that is also rated as a world leader in maritime environmental sustainability.

Bratton is a hands-on business owner with a strong environmental conscience. Orion and its guests access many places where few have been able to visit before, such as pristine wilderness regions of the northwest Australia, the Antarctic, the Spice Islands and Papua New Guinea.

Bratton is also proud of the high level of cultural interaction developed with tribal chiefs and elders in remote destinations, ensuring that a visit by Orion’s guests does not hinder the ancient and primitive cultures that remain intact.

Bratton’s business acumen has led to several senior board positions within Australian state and federal governments.

In 2006, she was honored with the Veuve Cliquot Business Woman of the Year Award for her entrepreneurship and vision.

Also in 2006 she was recognised with an inaugural Australian Travel Innov-ators Award for “enhancing the way Australians, and the world, travel”. She received the Commonwealth Govern-ment’s Centenary Medal in 2003 for her business leadership.

Bratton turned her focus to tourism after an injury ended her promising sports career. At 17, she held national sporting titles in gymnastics, diving and trampoline.

The luncheon will be held at the Club on July 28. The cost is $55 for two courses, wine and coffee. Book on 9997 5511.

Barrenjoey Travel will host a cocktail party with Sarina Bratton as guest at RMYC on August 12. Contact 9973 4455.