Tom Avery

Topics:

• Adventure
• Inspirational
• Leadership
• Motivation & Teamwork

As one of the freshest speakers on the circuit, Tom Avery is passionate, inspiring, personable, modest and entertaining.  But what makes Tom such a unique after dinner or keynote speaker is that before embarking on his exploration career, he worked in the City as an accountant with Arthur Andersen, meaning that as well as having a high level of professionalism in everything he does, he can directly relate to corporate audiences, subtly drawing out key business and personal lessons.

Love of Mountains

Tom's passion for adventure began at an early age when he first read about Captain Scott.  He knew then that his life wouldn’t be complete until he followed his hero’s footsteps to the South Pole.

His mountaineering career began at the age of sixteen with a series of rock and ice climbs in Wales and Scotland.  At university he organised and led expeditions to the Andes, New Zealand, the Alps, Tanzania, Patagonia and Morocco.  After graduating from Bristol University in 1998 with a B.Sc. in Geography and Geology, he began his working life an accountant with Arthur Andersen, but eventually forced to choose between the city and the mountains, Tom chose the mountains.

The Expeditions

As one of only 41 people in history to have reached both the North and South Poles on foot and a veteran of over a dozen mountain and polar expeditions, Tom Avery is one of the brightest stars amongst the UK's new generation of explorers. 

Tom is best known for leading the expedition described by the Guinness Book of Records as "the fastest surface journey to the North Pole", which retraced Robert Peary and Matthew Henson’s footsteps to the Top of the World.  To quote The Sunday Times, "Avery is shaping up to join the ranks of such British immortals as Sir Ranulph Fiennes and Dame Ellen MacArthur." 

In 2000, Tom led a pioneering British expedition to a previously unexplored 20-mile mountain range close to China’s western border.  His team scaled nine unnamed virgin summits up to 6,000 metres high. 

On 28 December 2002, days after his 27th birthday, Tom Avery became the youngest Briton to complete the perilous journey to the South Pole on foot.  His team also broke the South Pole Speed Record; using state of the art kites to power them across the ice, they covered the last 47 miles to the Pole in an amazing 31 hours. 

Tom electrified the exploration world by recreating Robert Peary’s disputed 1909 expedition to the North Pole.  The five-strong team travelled in a similar style to Peary with teams of Eskimo dogs and replica wooden sledges.  Tom's ambitious aim was to prove the sceptics wrong and match Peary’s 37-day journey to the Pole.  After an epic dash across the most unforgiving environment on the planet, Tom’s exhausted team rewrote the history books by making it to the Pole with five hours to spare.

A Born Leader

A born leader, this remarkable young man runs every expedition himself, organising everything from the fundraising to the training to the logistics to the selection of his teams.  His expeditions have received a huge amount of international print and TV media coverage, in the UK and the US in particular.  Tom's highly acclaimed book, Pole Dance, was published in 2003

Tom works as an ambassador for both the London 2012 Olympics and The Prince’s Trust and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Inspirational Speaker

Illustrated with a stunning collection of images and video clips, Tom’s uplifting and fascinating presentations bring the raw beauty of the polar regions to life and describe how his teams battled with the elements during their record-breaking journeys. 

Drawing on his own experiences in the worlds of both exploration and business, Tom involves each individual as he makes the analogy between Mother Nature's most extreme challenges, and the day-to-day challenges facing those of us in slightly less dangerous occupations.  Tom’s talks are guaranteed to inspire any audience, whether they are male, female, young or old.

Tom's presentations provide a unique and highly motivating lesson for any organisation by stressing how communication, planning, goal setting, creative thinking, patience, organisational skills, enthusiasm, flexibility to meet and overcome unexpected obstacles, risk analysis and individual determination are vital ingredients in achieving results when under extreme pressure.  Tom always puts building the right team and remaining highly motivated at the top of his list. 

After Dinner or Keynote

Tom adapts his talks not only to suit each audience or conference theme but also to keep up to date with his latest expeditions.  You can choose either a 20-minute after dinner talk or a longer spectacularly-illustrated hour-long presentation.  Tom is always happy to take part in Question and Answer sessions.

Clients

Tom has been working in the corporate speaking market for several years, giving motivational talks all over the world to a broad spectrum of audiences including Barclays Capital, ABN AMRO, Diageo, Lloyds TSB, HBOS, Dare, KPMG, Johnnie Walker, Hays MacIntyre, PWC, Pernod Riccard, the NHS, Barclays Bank, CSL Behring and the John Lewis Partnership to rave reviews.

TV & Radio

Tom’s profile continues to grow, with a number of TV presentation roles for the BBC and Channel 4 already under his belt.  He is currently working on a number of documentary programmes with Darlow Smithson Productions, makers of the award-winning Touching the Void. 

What Clients Say

Tom engaged an international audience of 200 highly talented and accomplished individuals.  He did this through his personal warmth, perfectly pitched humour and his clear commitment to adventure.  Tom's incredible achievements and subtle leadership messages had a hugely positive impact on them all.  Truly inspirational.
ABN AMRO

Thank you very much for coming to speak at our conference.  Of the 41 delegates who have so far returned their evaluation sheets, 39 rated your talk as "excellent" - the highest result we've ever had for our speakers in the ten years we’re been running this event.  Your session contributed enormously to making the conference such a great success.
NHS

You have a natural gift for touching an audience.  You were fabulous – a million thanks.
HBOS

Thank you so much for the talk that you gave last week at our European Strategy Group event in Paris.  It was the perfect end to our day of discussions about the future direction of the business.  It was fascinating and thought-provoking, as well as hugely inspiring to hear from someone who has achieved so much at such a young age.  To add to this, your presentation style was superb, backed up by dramatic slides and video.  The feedback has been tremendous and I will definitely be recommending you for other events within the firm.
PWC

A very big thank you for sharing your great passion with us and making our conference so memorable.  Your desire for challenge and indefatigable spirit were truly inspiring to the team and everyone went away in a hugely positive frame of mind. 
John Lewis Partnership

A massive thank you for a truly inspirational talk.  I found it even more riveting than the last time I heard you speak!  You totally captured the mood of the day and the imagination of everyone in the audience.  I will definitely be recommending you to others.
Dare Digital

Thank you for being such a good speaker and a delightful guest at our conference at Villa d’Este.  You were brilliant and we’ve received a lot of hugely positive feedback from our clients from around the world.  We hope that you will be able to speak for us again one day.
Barclays Private Bank

Just a quick note of thanks for Tom's talk yesterday. He was just fantastic and right on the mark for what we required. The attention he commanded from the audience was palpable - from where I was sitting at the back I could see everyone was transfixed. I would not hesitate in recommending him to colleagues within the Lloyds TSB Group. 
Lloyds TSB

For further information or to book Tom Avery, call us on +44 (0) 20 8365 3200 or email info@speakerscorner.co.uk