Adrian Hayes
Most leadership development is built around ordinary conditions. The conditions that most affect an organisation’s future are the ones those frameworks were not designed for. Teams strong in stable environments often fail the moment information thins and the usual playbook stops applying.
Adrian Hayes is a former Airbus Middle East sales director and record-breaking adventurer who helps senior leaders make judgment calls that hold up under pressure.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Adrian Hayes
- A senior commercial career running in parallel with the expedition record. Six years as Airbus Middle East sales director is the kind of credential adventure-only speakers cannot produce, and it changes how executive audiences engage with the material.
- ICF-accredited executive coaching behind every session. Audiences leave with frameworks they can apply to decision-making and team performance back in the business, beyond the story they will remember.
- Direct experience of serious failure and life-threatening decisions. The 2013 K2 attempt ended in a fatal avalanche for his teammates. The 2025 Kanchenjunga summit ended in a near-fatal descent and a Sherpa-assisted rescue. His position on risk comes from having made those calls himself.
- Arabic and Nepalese fluency, with residence in eight countries and operational work in more than a hundred. The cross-cultural perspective comes from years inside those cultures at the working level.
Biography highlights
- Former British Army Gurkha officer, commissioned through the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, with eight years in the Brigade of Gurkhas and postings in Hong Kong, Brunei, and Oman.
- Two Guinness World Records: fastest male completion of the Three Poles Challenge (Everest, North Pole, South Pole) in 1 year 217 days, and the longest unsupported Arctic kite-ski expedition for a 67-day crossing of Greenland in 2009.
- Summited the world’s three highest mountains: Everest (2006), K2 (2014), and Kanchenjunga (2025).
- Former Airbus Middle East sales director for six years, followed by over fifteen years as an ICF-accredited executive coach and keynote speaker.
- Author of Footsteps of Thesiger (2013) and One Man’s Climb: A Journey of Trauma, Tragedy and Triumph on K2 (Pen and Sword, 2019).
- Presenter or featured subject in broadcast documentaries for National Geographic Channel (The Greenland Quest) and Discovery Channel (Footsteps of Thesiger; In Inner Mongolia); Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.
Biography
An avalanche at Camp 3 on K2 killed New Zealand climbers Marty and Denali Schmidt on 27 July 2013. Adrian Hayes was due to begin his own summit push the next day. The expedition stopped. He returned a year later and reached the top.
That sequence, the halted attempt followed by the return and summit on 26 July 2014, says something about how Hayes approaches his work with senior leaders. He teaches what decision-making looks like when the cost of mistakes is absolute and the ordinary conditions for clear judgment have gone.
The experience behind that work is unusually broad. Eight years in the Brigade of Gurkhas, including training and operational roles across Hong Kong, Brunei, and Oman. Six years as Airbus Middle East sales director, running a major commercial portfolio in one of the world’s more complex regions. Two Guinness World Records: the fastest male Three Poles Challenge in 1 year 217 days, and the longest unsupported Arctic kite-ski expedition for his 2009 crossing of Greenland.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an ICF-accredited executive coach. His two books, Footsteps of Thesiger and One Man’s Climb: A Journey of Trauma, Tragedy and Triumph on K2, sit alongside documentary work for National Geographic and Discovery. In May 2025, he summited Kanchenjunga, the world’s third-highest mountain, completing the three highest peaks on earth. He was injured on the descent and rescued from Camp IV by Sherpa climbers.
Key speaking topics
- Leadership decision-making under uncertainty
- Team performance under sustained pressure
- Cross-cultural leadership in complex markets
- Resilience and mental endurance
- Risk management and recovery from setback
- Responsible leadership and sustainability
Ideal for
- CEOs and executive teams facing major strategic change or commercial pressure
- Boards navigating crisis, setback, or leadership transition
- Sales and commercial leadership in complex international markets
- Senior leadership development programmes, particularly cohorts preparing for cross-cultural or high-stakes assignments
Audience outcomes
- A method for making decisions when information is limited and the cost of error is high
- A view of what resilience looks like in practice, distinct from its motivational framing
- Leadership lessons drawn from senior roles in the Gurkhas, at Airbus, and on major expeditions
- A clearer picture of what separates teams that hold under sustained pressure from those that fracture