Ranulph Fiennes
- ‘The World’s Greatest Living Explorer’ – The Guinness Book of World Records.
- Expert Speaker on Leadership, Teamwork, Planning, Resilience, Change, Setting & Achieving Goals.
- Europe’s most booked and in-demand inspirational speaker.
- Completed 23 expeditions and raised over £24m for charity.
- Summited the Eiger’s North Face, Everest Aged 65 and at 71 the 2015 Marathon des Sables, 6 marathons in 7 days across the Sahara Desert.
- Author of 24 books including Fear, his autobiography– Mad Bad and Dangerous, Cold and The Feather Men.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes BT OBE, is the worlds most famous living explorer, author and motivational speaker who amongst many first achievements, at age 65, climbed Mount Everest despite an impending heart ailment and suffering vertigo. He is the only man alive ever to have travelled around the Earth’s circumpolar surface.
Ranulph was born in the UK in 1944, just after his father was killed in the war. Then brought up in South Africa he returned to the UK to study at Eton College where he was unsuccessful and failed his A Levels. He joined the British Army driving tanks during the Cold War and became the Youngest Captain in the British Army serving with the SAS. In 1968 – 70 he fought Marxist terrorists and received the Sultans Bravery Medal from HM the Queen. He then spent six years as VP of Public Relations for the Chairman the of Occidental Petroleum Corp.
Notably, Ranulph made the final six to play James Bond, 007 in Diamonds Are Forever. Producer Cubby Broccoli rejected Ranulph for the part and selected Sean Connery on the grounds that;
‘Broccoli took one look at me and said to (Director) Hamilton, ‘This one looks like a farmer. Look at his hands.’ Even though I had proper fingers in those days, they apparently weren’t what they were after.’
But in a twist of fate, Ranulph used the same trip for the interview to go to the Ministry of Defence, where they were looking for an ex-officer to lead an expedition in Canada. Sir Ranulph went on to lead the Headless Valley Expedition, undertaking the first cross of Canada north to south, inland and over water.
On losing out on James Bond, Ranulph said:
“Still, I got the expedition and we never looked back.”
During this period with his first wife Ginny, they launched a series of record-breaking expeditions that kept them ahead of their international rivals for three decades.
He has braved the ice and extreme weather conditions to become the first person to visit the North and South Poles by means of no surface transport. A solo expedition to the North Pole in the year 2000 led to severe frostbite on all fingertips of his left hand. Aged 55 he was forced to amputate his own fingers with a hack saw and spent two days hacking through his thumb in a vice before putting them in a tin which he later lost.
Ranulph epitomises leadership. He has been a front runner for 30 major expeditions and broke the trail across Antarctica on foot. The Guinness Book of World Records described him as the ‘World’s Greatest Living Explorer’.
Ranulph travels around the world inspired both by his competitive spirit and a drive to raise money for charity Marie Curie after the death of his beloved first wife, Ginny. He has selflessly helped many other organisations and charitable institutions worldwide including the Multiple Sclerosis Society, Breakthrough Breast Cancer, the British Heart Foundation. He has raised over £18m for good causes and is named the UK’s top celebrity charity fundraiser by Just Giving.
Sir Ranulph Fiennes – Achievements & World Records
- First to reach both Poles (with Charles Burton).
- First to cross Antarctic and Arctic Ocean (with Charles Burton).
- First to circumnavigate the world along its polar axis (with Charles Burton).
‘This 3 year, 52 000 mile odyssey took intricate planning, 1900 sponsors, a 52 person team to handle, complex communications, meticulous planning and iron determination mixed with flexibility. The circumnavigation has never been successfully repeated. - Led the first hovercraft expedition up the longest river in the world (the Nile) in 1968/1969.
- Achieved world record for unsupported northerly polar travel in 1990.
- Led the team that discovered the lost city of Ubar on the Yemeni border in 1992 (after seven previous search expeditions over a 26 year period).
- Achieved world first in 1992/1993 by completing the first unsupported crossing of the Antarctic Continent (with Mike Stroud). This was the longest unsupported polar journey in history.
- In 2003, only 3½ months after a massive heart attack, 3-day coma and double bypass, Ranulph Fiennes (with Mike Stroud) achieved the first 7x7x7 (Seven marathons in only seven days on all seven continents).
- March 2005, climbed Everest (Tibet-side) to within 300m of summit raising £2 million for the British Heart Foundations new research MRI scanner.
- March 2007, Sir Ranulph climbed the North Face of the Eiger and raised £1.8 million for Marie Curie Cancer Care’s delivering Choice Programme
- Winner of ITV Greatest Britons 2007 Sports Award (Other nominees included Joe Calzaghe and Lewis Hamilton)
May 2008, climbed Everest (Nepal-side) to within 400m from summit raising £2.6m for Marie Curie Cancer Care – Delivering Choice Programme Marie Curie 2008 ‘Above and Beyond Award’ Winner - Successfully summited Everest May 2009 becoming the oldest Briton to do so. £6.3m raised for M.C.C.C.
- In 2010 Sir Ranulph Fiennes was named as the UK’s top celebrity online fundraiser by Just Giving, the UK’s most popular online fundraising platform. Having raised more than £2.5 million online for Marie Curie Cancer Care over between Jan 2009 and Dec 2010.
- He was involved in the planning of The Coldest Journey in 2012 and in 2013 over £1.8m was raised for
Seeing is Believing. - Another £1 million was raised for Marie Curie through successfully finishing the Marathon des Sables (2015).
Sir Ranulph Fiennes – Keynote Speaker
Sir Ranulph Fiennes is no ordinary man. One of the world’s most famous lecturers, he continues to inspire with his passion for life and adventure, imparting wit and wisdom on every speaking engagement. Each time, he highlights the importance of leadership, teamwork, determination and discipline in fulfillment of his role as a motivational speaker.
Ranulph is regarded by many as one of the world’s Top 10 leading public speakers, without doubt, the most interesting, devoting the majority of his entire life to setting and achieving major world firsts. From an audience’s perspective what is particularly remarkable is that he continues to seek out new challenges in his seventies from climbing Everest to completing the Marathon des Sables in 2015.
Books
24 books including the UK bestseller (Times and Telegraph) in 1991 The Feather Men, and in 2003 the top-selling biography (Times) of Captain Scott. My Heroes was published in 2011 and The Feather Men was released as a major motion picture Killer Elite (www.killerelite.com). Fear is the latest addition.
Recent Media
Sir Ranulph Fiennes to deliver AHIC 2018 closing speech in UAE, April 19th 2018 – Link
The Daily Telegraph: ‘Ranulph Fiennes tells how failed Bond audition kick-started his career’
Europe 