Experience

• 

  One Step Beyond Worldwide

  • Canmore, Alberta, Canada

  • Founder & President

    • Jan 1983 - Present
    • Canmore, Alberta, Canada

    In 1982, I was a leader and principal organizer of Canada's first ever expedition to attempt to climb Mount Everest. We were successful in putting 6 people on the top of the world, but only after two tragic unpredictable accidents early in the climb in which 4 people died. After the climb, a decision was made to incorporate a company called One Step Beyond, which would represent adventure speakers who could articulate the metaphor of adventure and apply the adventure philosophy to everyday life. Since then, our associates have addressed well over 1 million people around the world and inspired them to meet the challenges of a changing world.

• 

  2000+ corporate & professional events on 6 continents.

  • Keynote speaker

    • Jan 1983 - Present

    The amazing thing about the life and death experience that I faced on Everest is that it is universally applicable to life - in fact, it is a story about life that just happen to have occurred in the arena of Mount Everest. We all operate in different arenas of challenge, but the lessons from Everest are universal. No matter what field of endeavour you operate in, the lessons of Everest are applicable.

• 

  Keynote presentations at corporate & professional meetins for 35 years.

  • Full-time professional speaker

    • Jan 1983 - Present

    Here are some countries in which I have spoken since 1983: China, Egypt, Italy, UAE, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand, Qatar, South Africa, Mauritius, Morocco, Spain, England, Mexico, Chile, Trinidad & Tobago, St. Kitts, Canada, Sweden, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, Hong Kong, Austria, Indonesia, Monaco, France, Indonesia, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, Scotland, USA - 49 countries to date and still counting!

• 

  Everest expedition leader, manager & climber

  • Mountaineer

    • Jul 1982 - Present

    In the summer of 1965, together with two companions I made the first ascent of Europe's highest, vertical rock wall, the 5,000 foot "Vertical Mile" Troll Wall in Norway. This climb was feted around the world and opened up "a door of possibility" that eventually led to Mount Everest in 1982. Mountains have made me the person I am and I have a passion for sharing so that others can climb the "mountains" in their lives.

• 

  Banff Mountain Film Festival

  • Founding Director

    • 1976 - 1986

    In November 1976, during my work at The Banff Centre (Banff National Park, Canada), I organized a 3-hour package of mountain climbing films for the local community. Some 500 people showed up! Now the Banff Mountain Festivals entertain hundreds of thousands and the award-winning films travel to all 7 continents, including being screened at the US scientific base at the South Pole in Antarctica!!

• 

  Banff Wilderness Seminars

  • Director & Instructor

    • Aug 1976 - Aug 1984

    Based in the remote Skoki Lodge in the Canadian Rockies, the Banff Wilderness Seminars for senior executives were a unique combination of the "inner journey" and the "outer journey" - the inner being the psychological study of negative stress in climbing the psychological "mountains" in life ... and the outer being the positive experience of climbing the real mountains of the Rocky Mountains.

• 

  Banff Centre School of the Environment

  • Manager

    • Jul 1975 - Dec 1980

    The Banff Centre for Continuing Education (as it was then known) was built on three pillars - the world-renowned Banff School of Fine Arts, the Banff School of Management, and the Conference Division. The then Director, Dr. David S.R. Leighton, wished to add a fourth pillar (given the location in Banff National Park), and that was to be the Banff School of the Environment. I was recruited from my teaching position at the Banff High School to head up that effort. Over the next five years, we developed a year-long series of programming that aimed to bring together the corporate sector, the private sector and public interest groups in promoting comprehensive environmental decision-making in all sectors.

• 

  Teacher in Elementary, Junior High & Senior High

  • School Teacher

    • Sep 1968 - Jun 1973

    Nothing special! I enjoyed the kids and I think the kids enjoyed me, in a relationship based upon mutual respect.