KENTON COOL MOUNTAINEER | ADVENTURER | SPEAKER Speaker Profile

Kenton Cool is one of the world’s foremost high altitude mountaineers, a sought after expedition leader, author and speaker.

As a mountaineer, Kenton’s list of com- mitting first ascents and classic alpine climbing style set him at the very pinnacle of his profession, gaining respect from his peers for his visionary and bold approach.

As an expedition leader, his record of success with clients on Everest is unparal- leled. With 13 successful Everest summits, his reputation has been built on a willing- ness to take on the seemingly impossible, provide an outstanding level of service and foster the determination in others to succeed. Kenton is an energetic and highly entertaining keynote speaker. While his sessions are inspiring, he also delivers a collection of thought-provoking messages.

He outlines how he leads a summit expedition, placing heavy emphasis on the critical success factors such as consistent leadership, building a high performing team, clear decision making, dealing with adversity, facing personal fears and maintaining momentum and motivation.

Audience members empathise with the importance Kenton places on mental strength and how self-belief and personal motivation, when combined as part of a strong team, can create a compelling and deeply successful formula.

His sessions are complemented with an awe-inspiring collection of photographs and video footage from his expeditions around the world. Kenton also often demonstrates how he uses vital pieces of technical equip- ment while on expedition such as crampons, downsuits, oxygen, ice axes and harnesses. This often involves audience participation.

Personal Accomplishments

Nominated in 2003 for the Piolet D’Or (climbing Oscar) for an audacious com- mitting first ascent on Annapurna III in .

In 2006, became the first Briton to ski down from the summit of an 8,000 metre peak (Mt , 6th highest mountain). The ski descent was done solo and unassisted, another first.

In 2007, Kenton became the first British Guide to lead a client successfully up the infamous North Face of the Eiger, commonly referred to as the ‘Death Wall’. The client was Sir and, in conjunction with ITN, they conducted a live interview from the mountain. In the process they raised over £2m for Marie Curie.

Sping 2007 The first person tosummit Everest twice in one week, a global first.

In 2009, a similar feat was achieved. Kenton assisted Sir Ranulph Fiennes in his third attempt on Everest and they achieved a successful summit, this time filmed live for the BBC. Ranulph Fiennes went on record saying ‘Kenton is the best guide in the World.’

Autumn 2010 saw Kenton return to Nepal to successfully attempt to ski down from the summit of Mount (8,156m), the world’s eighth highest peak. Personal Accomplishments

In May 2011, Kenton again made the record books by completing a 23 day return trip from the UK to successfully summit Everest and send the first ‘Tweet’ from the summit.

May 2012, Kenton returned to Everest to attempt to honour an 88 year old Olympic pledge. A promise was made in 1924 by Great Britain to Baron Pierre de Coubertin (the founding Father of the Olympics) that one of the Olympic Gold Medals awarded to the 1922 British Everest attempt team would, one day, be placed on the summit of Everest. Kenton honoured the pledge just four weeks before the London 2012 Opening Ceremony and was congratu- lated at Camp 4 over the telephone by Sir Sebastian Coe for ‘single handedly kicking off the Olympics for Great Britain’.

In May 2013, Kenton achieved one of his lifetime goals while also gaining an- other world first. Kenton, with his Sherpa Dorje, attempted to climb the Everest Triple Crown (, Everest and , the three peaks that sit together in the Everest valley) in one summit push without returning to base camp for rest or refuelling. This was a feat considered impossible by the global climbing community, the human body would not withstand the amount of time spent in the ‘death zone’.

May 2018, while ensuring that his client, Ben Fogle got to the summit of safely and successfully, Kenton stood on the summit for the thirteenth time, this time without oxygen assistance.

May 2019, successfully summits for his 14th ascent. Keynote Speech Example - The Three Principles of Peak Performance

Leadership | Teamwork | Execution “Really engaging, inspiring and thought provoking. You’d In this keynote speech, Kenton uses his 2013 ground-breaking Everest Triple Crown expedition as obviously given the themes a the backdrop for exploring the three vital components of peak performance. Kenton extracts lot of thought and it resonated real-time learnings from the expedition and transfers these into a practical framework than can very clearly with some of the easily be applied in the professional environment. issues we are grappling with

“When you are operating in the death zone everything must work, the margin for error doesn’t across the business (one team, allow delay in the execution...... without the team around me, I am nothing” leadership, risk taking etc.)”

Chris Dunford HR Director, CBRE Testimonials

“Kenton was excellent, superb! His talk was totally inspiring and motivating and his stories and footage of his summit trips were very impactful. He is so driven and passionate about what he does and this clearly came across to the team. They could relate to many of his examples of chal- lenges he has overcome when he is on his trips. Absolutely brilliant, I would definitely recommend Kenton to others!”

Meryem Brassington Head of Strategy and Planning - Lloyds Banking Group

“The world in which Kenton has such a distinguished record of achievement is, of course, very different from that inhabited by LSEG. Yet, as he compellingly made clear, the qualities required to overcome ob- stacles are in essence the same whatever the field. In what was a highly successful Leadership Forum, Ken- ton’s contribution was outstanding – as the volume of enthusiastic feedback I’ve had from members of the Other companies Kenton has enjoyed working with: team confirms. I have no doubt that, going forward, we’ll be drawing added strength from his words as we seek to reach our own challenging goals.”

Xavier Rolet CEO - London Stock Exchange Group KENTON COOL

MOUNTAINEER | ADVENTURER | SPEAKER /kentoncool