As President of the 4 Deserts Race Series, Samantha Fanshawe has something of a natural flair for being a citizen of the planet. She was born to British parents in Peru, and went to school in Pakistan for a few of her younger years. After graduating from the University of Leeds with a joint honours degree in Maths and Biology she took some time out to see the world, including working in Sydney, Australia, before returning to the United Kingdom. She worked for two years in business development of corporate clients in the recruitment industry before being transferred to Singapore in 2002 with the same company for a regional management role, followed by Penang in Malaysia and then Hong Kong.

While living in Singapore Samantha volunteered at the Gobi March in 2005 when it was held in the Turpan Basin in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of north-western China. This experience captured her interest and she started to work for RacingThePlanet / 4 Deserts Race Series in 2008. In this time Samantha has worked at nearly 40 desert races in a management capacity and currently sits on the board of the parent company.