Ricky Munday

Ricky Munday is an Everest summiteer, Chartered Accountant, and Mountain Leader who combines extreme endurance with lived experience of overcoming adversity to inspire resilience and self-belief. Having grown up on a council estate near Glasgow, he has completed over 30 mountaineering expeditions in his quest to become the first Brit to climb the Triple 7 Summits, whilst spending six years deployed with the Red Cross across Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean. Through his award-winning social enterprise Inspire Alpine, Ricky delivers inspirational talks and outdoor adventures that help disadvantaged young people raise their aspirations, build confidence, and develop the mental toughness needed to overcome life's challenges.

After facing redundancy, Ricky Munday entered the Marathon des Sables, a 150-mile ultramarathon across the Sahara desert known as the toughest footrace on earth, transforming his mindset and igniting a journey that would lead him to summit Everest in May 2018 and pursue one of mountaineering's most ambitious goals. Growing up on a council estate near Glasgow, he has since completed over 30 mountaineering expeditions to the greater ranges in his quest to become the first Brit, and second person in history, to climb the Triple 7 Summits: the three highest peaks on every continent. His path has been shaped by resilience in the face of setbacks, including coordinating the rescue of a seriously injured teammate from Everest's Chinese Base Camp, whistleblowing on fraud at the UK's national polar research organisation where he served as the youngest ever executive team member, and overcoming the mental health challenges that followed.

Ricky qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2005 before leaving corporate banking to spend six years deployed with the Red Cross across Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, discovering his true purpose in helping the most vulnerable people. His professional expertise spans the private, public and third sectors, and he holds prestigious recognition as a Churchill Fellow and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. As a qualified Mountain Leader and STEM Polar Ambassador, he has led hundreds of clients to the summits of the UK's highest peaks and on international high-altitude trekking expeditions. His authentic understanding of adversity, combined with technical mountaineering knowledge and humanitarian experience, positions him as a powerful voice on mental toughness, resilience and living with purpose.

In July 2018, shortly after summiting Everest, Ricky founded Inspire Alpine as an award-winning social enterprise dedicated to closing the attainment gap faced by disadvantaged young people. Through inspirational talks and purposeful outdoor adventures, he helps students raise their aspirations, build confidence and develop the resilience needed to overcome life's challenges. His presentations draw directly from his experiences of extreme endurance, professional setbacks and personal recovery, offering audiences practical strategies for developing mental toughness and self-belief. Whether speaking to corporate teams about bouncing back from adversity, educators about raising aspirations, or young people about pursuing ambitious goals, Ricky creates lasting impact by demonstrating that background does not define potential and that setbacks can become the foundation for extraordinary achievement.