Adrian Hayes Speaker | Well-being & Mental Health & Adventure

Adrian Hayes

Record-breaking polar explorer & adventurer, author, keynote speaker, business coach, documentary presenter and campaigner.

Watch Adrian in action here

Adrian Hayes is an internationally acclaimed thought leader, extreme adventurer, author, speaker, coach & consultant, social commentator, documentary presenter and campaigner.

An Arabic and Nepalese speaking former British Army Gurkha Officer, who also spent two years in a Special Forces regiment, his adventuring achievements include summitting the highest three mountains in the world (Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga – the latter in April & May 2025); trekking from respective coasts to both Poles; crossing the length of Greenland and crossing the Arabian Desert, setting two Guinness World Records, writing two books and featuring in three documentaries to date.

A former Airbus Middle East sales director, in his primary work Adrian has been a global speaker and professional leadership, team and executive coach, consultant & mentor for over 18 years, delivering speeches, seminars, programmes and workshops worldwide.

In his social commentator role, he is a regular panellist and interviewee on British TV and speaks, writes and commentates on many contemporary world issues. As a campaigner, he is a patron of three international charities and involved with several other causes and campaigns – including speaking & writing for many years on economic, social and environmental sustainability. As a former qualified Paramedic, he additionally set up a project providing medical treatment in the remote areas of the Himalayas.

Adrian has featured in or presented three documentaries to date: The Greenland Quest for the National Geographic Channel, and Footsteps of Thesiger and In Inner Mongolia for the Discovery Channel and is now an establishing television and documentary presenter. His first book, Footsteps of Thesiger, was published in 2013, followed by his second, One Man’s Climb: A Journey of Trauma, Tragedy and Triumph on K2, in 2019. He is in the process of writing his third book on human development and society, which will be published in the next two years.

Testimonials from Teachers

"We enjoyed having Adrian down - he certainly was an inspirational character! His assembly slides,and talks with the students were great! Overall, a great speaker, and a great event at Wildern, so we were very happy"

– Mr J Collings, Careers and Personal Development, Wildern School

"The event went really well and the feed back from parents was excellent. Thank you very much, as always, for your help."

– Mrs Lesley Gundersen, Registrar, Barnardiston Hall Preparatory School

“Adrian Hayes is nothing short of an inspiration. His talks draw on experiences that few other people on earth will have enjoyed or endured. His lively and engaging presentations are underpinned by messages and values that all young people can learn great deal from. I would wholeheartedly recommend Adrian to other schools”

– Nick Eatough, Deputy Head, Marlborough College

“Adrian Hayes is an engaging and inspirational speaker. He connects effortlessly with a diverse range of people through his amazing experiences as a professional adventurer and skilfully uses these to highlight key business themes such as team building and leadership development, drawing on his considerable professional knowledge in the field. His stories and anecdotes pull no punches. They are often simultaneously funny and tragic, but above all, they are accounts of human endeavour that move his audiences and ultimately leave them with the belief that they too can achieve beyond their normal zone of comfort”

– Adrian Mateo, MBA Programme Director, University of Nottingham

“Many thanks for braving Hong Kong's heat and humidity to come and talk to our students at South Island School yesterday. I have had so much great feedback from both staff and students and everyone took some valuable and important lessons away with them as well as hearing about a terrific adventure about your exploits on K2”

– Andy Morris, DofE and CAS Coordinator, South Island School, Hong Kong

Adrian was brilliant. He was really engaging and the children were very excited to hear from him. We’d love to have him back in real life in the future!

– Nicky Black, Head of the Junior School, Cokethorpe School

"Adrian was absolutely brilliant! His inspiring talk last week, was excellent, and I know all the children enjoyed it and learnt so much from it. They were fascinated listening to his stories and the advice you gave them priceless. We are all thankful that could join us, and we wish him luck with his next adventure."

– Rob Dilworth, Co-curriculum Lead, Highfield School