Alumni >  

Jane Reifert

Jane Reifert
Jane Reifert

One incredible adventure

Instead of bringing music to people, Jane Reifert is leading them to incredible adventures.

So just how does a communication studies major get placed under surveillance by the FBI and mistaken at another time for a Russian prostitute?

If you're Jane Reifert, it's the result of an incredible journey.

As CEO of Incredible Adventures, Reifert ('93) matches adventuresome souls up with some of the most fantastic experiences you can image. Think taking the controls of an airborne Russian MiG fighter or diving the depths of the ocean to come up close and personal with sharks.

Or even skydive in front of the world's most famous peak, Mt Everest.

And to think that Reifert thought after graduating from Iowa State she would spend the next several years booking bands.

"I wanted to be a promoter," says the Sarasota, Fl., resident. "I interned at the M-Shop (at Iowa State) and booked bands for the MDA Dance Marathon on campus."

But sometimes our plans don't go exactly as planned. Reifert met some professional baseball players and thought working for a professional baseball team sounded fun. She set a resume to the Iowa Cubs and "surprise, surprise, I got the job," she says.

She later moved to Florida and worked for minor league teams in the White Sox, Cardinals and Mets organizations. It wasn't what she expected it to be however - instead of concentrating on communications duties, she was keeping the books and doing ticket sales.

So when her then-employer was leaving town, Reifert decided she wanted to stay in the Sarasota area and started to send out resumes. One went to a new firm called " MIGS etc." (The company's name was changed to "Incredible Adventures" three years later.)

"I've been here almost from day one," says Reifert, who worked her way up from the communications director to CEO. "In the beginning I would send out brochures and answer the phone. Now I'm president of the company."

And don't expect Reifert to leave anytime soon.

"What job could I possible do after this," she says. "After selling adventures it would be hard to find something to top this."

Ironically Reifert isn't all that keen to join her clients on many of the firm's adventures. She has flown a jet fighter across the Russian skies, raced a truck, jumped out of an airplane, been a Covert Ops hostage, gone eye-to-eye with great white sharks, and ballooned over the Sahara.

But she would prefer to stay in her simple Sarasota office decorated with mementoes of those experiences.

"I'm not an adventurer," she says. "I'm more of an adventure wimp. They let me fly the plane for a few minutes and that wasmore than enough.

"But if you run a company like "Incredible Adventures" you have to go and experience the adventure yourself. Most of the time however I'm there to help our customers have the best experience possible."

That's because the customers are paying from anywhere from just under a $1000 to dive with sharks to $20,000+ to fly a MiG. Soon the company will offer a chance to sky dive over Mt. Everest for a cool $36,500.

"We're adding new and exciting adventures all the time because we're continually looking for ways to make our adventures better," Reifert said. "I like to think that every adventure we have is life changing."

Reifert is also an expert in the field of incredible adventures She is the author of Executive Adventures, a guide for "excitement-deprived individuals" and offers advice to prestigious aerospace companies about space tourism. She has served as chair of the Space Tourism Subcommittee of the Space Colonization Technical Committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Her company has also been featured in virtually every major media outlet you can think of.

And she can't image doing anything else.

"After selling adventures it would be hard to find another job to top this one," she says.