Andrew Lock OAM

Andrew Lock is an extreme adventurer and a uniquely authentic leader. The only member of the British Commonwealth to have summited all fourteen of the world’s 8,000 metre mountains, he specialises in creating, leading, and managing teams in highly adverse and uncertain environments – precisely the environments that organisations face today in our rapidly changing financial, political and technological world.

A highly relevant and insightful keynote speaker, Andrew’s clients include State and Federal Government Departments as well as organisations in the finance and banking, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, wholesaling, insurance, and construction sectors.

His keynote presentations provide invaluable advice to help audiences perform with agility, proactively manage risk and change, deal with uncertainty, cope with adversity, and instill resilience.

More about Andrew Lock:

Andrew Lock has summited all fourteen of the world’s 8,000 metre mountains and was the first Australian to lead a commercial expedition to the summit of Mt Everest. Since then, he has trained and led members of the Australian Government’s National Antarctic Research Expeditions on multiple Antarctic expeditions, and guided commercial groups across Antarctica and the sub Antarctic.

Andrew has survived avalanches, crevasse falls, frostbite, bivouacs at extreme altitude without equipment, and he’s lost more than twenty of his friends to the mountains.

Andrew’s story is exceptional because he comes from a humble, urban background, with no family links to the mountains. Yet he pursued his dream of climbing all of the world’s highest mountains for sixteen years, actually living on the sides of those frozen monoliths for four years! His exceptional achievements in the face of such adversity have demanded supreme levels of resilience, perseverance and leadership.

Andrew’s adventures have been documented in Discovery’s six-episode mini-series Everest: Ultimate Survival, in over 100 magazine interviews and in his own book SUMMIT 8000. He is a regular guest on Channel Nine’s Today Show, Channel Seven’s Sunrise, the ABC 7.30 Report, as well as news programs, radio and newspapers.

Andrew has received many awards in recognition of his achievements. He has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), an Australian Commendation for Bravery, an Australian National Police Service Medal, an Australian National Medal, and an Australian Defence medal. He was twice awarded the Mount Everest medal by the Government of Nepal. Andrew was an Australian of the Year nominee in 2010 and he was recognised as Adventurer of the Year in 2009 and 2010.

Andrew Lock talks about:

• Summit secrets: Leading to succeed – Andrew Lock’s sixteen year project to climb every 8000 metre peak on earth, including Mt Everest and thirteen other ‘death zone’ mountains,
  without guides, oxygen or Sherpas, demanded project management, goal setting, perseverance and team skills. But when climbers died and the teams he joined failed, he developed the key leadership skills necessary to drive both his own success and those of his teams.
• Risk: Is it worth it? – Andrew’s practical insights into understanding risk attitudes and human response processes, managing risk and building a culture of safety leadership are tools that ever person can use, and his clear analogies show how great leaders succeed where so many others fail.
• The Alpine style organisation: embracing uncertainty and harnessing innovation – Today’s corporate world is one of constant change. While that creates enormous opportunity, it can be exhausting and fraught with uncertainty. Developing flexibility, self leadership and resilience, are key to surviving and succeeding. In this keynote, Andrew identifies the tools used to create a modern, light and fast, ‘alpine style’ approach, that facilitates agile responses to threats and opportunities, and comfort with uncertainty.
• Summit ready: creating high performing teams that succeed from the start – Few of us have the luxury to develop teams slowly. Today’s teams come together remotely, quickly and are required to perform immediately. Andrew’s practical tools for creating high performing teams with purpose, resilience and camaraderie, in the shortest amount of time, can be used by any person, right now.
• Summit 8000: the farthest goal – An inspiring and extraordinary account of Andrew’s journey. Learn of the resilience, motivation and self leadership required to continue, as over 20 of his friends perished along the way. Laugh, cry and be inspired by the extraordinary stories of sacrifice, success, loss and joy, and the insightful leadership lessons he draws from the experiences.