Alex Staniforth
Organisations ask leaders to deliver through disruption while simultaneously protecting the mental health of their teams, and most try to do both by keeping them separate. That separation is the problem. When wellbeing is treated as a risk to manage rather than a resource to build, the cost accumulates invisibly until it shows up in burnout, disengagement, and teams that have stopped performing. The question is not whether leaders value their people’s mental fitness; it is whether they know how to build it alongside performance, not instead of it.
When performance cultures start breaking people, they’ve misunderstood performance. Alex Staniforth, adventurer and co-founder of Mind Over Mountains, gives leaders the tools and the argument to build both.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Alex Staniforth
- Both of Staniforth’s Everest attempts (2014, 2015) ended in catastrophe, which means his argument about resilience, failure, and redefining success is not constructed from triumph. That credibility is difficult to replicate.
- His personal mental health disclosure; depression, anxiety, eating disorders, epilepsy, and a lifelong stammer, is specific and public. It allows him to reach parts of a leadership audience that pure performance speakers cannot, including people who are privately struggling.
- The ‘Resilience Rucksack’ gives audiences a named, practical framework to take away: not just an inspiring story, but a set of tools mapped to real workplace pressures.
- As co-founder of Mind Over Mountains, a national UK charity combining outdoor experience with professional mental health support, he brings an institutional track record to conversations about psychological safety that extends well beyond the stage.
- His Honorary Doctorate (DLitt) from the University of Chester, awarded in 2025 for his contribution to young people’s mental health, positions him credibly across both the performance and the clinical ends of the wellbeing conversation.
Biography highlights
- Survived the 2014 Khumbu Icefall avalanche and the 2015 Nepal earthquake, the two most significant disasters in Everest history, on consecutive attempts, as a teenager
- First and fastest person to complete all 446 Nuttall mountains in England and Wales under human power in 45 days; fastest ever ascent of all 100 UK county tops (72 days)
- Author of Icefall (Coventry House Publishing, 2016) and Another Peak (2019)
- Co-founder, Mind Over Mountains: national UK charity restoring mental health through therapeutic outdoor programmes (est. 2020)
- Honorary Doctorate (DLitt), University of Chester, 2025: for outstanding contribution to young people’s mental health services
- Prime Minister’s Points of Light award, 2023; Pride of Britain Granada Reports Fundraiser of the Year, 2017; over £150,000 raised for charity across endurance challenges
Biography
Everest has a way of clarifying what resilience actually means. Alex Staniforth attempted the summit twice – the 2014 season ended by the Khumbu Icefall avalanche, the 2015 attempt halted by the Nepal earthquake – and returned from neither having reached the top. Both experiences form the foundation of his argument to organisations: that the most useful preparation is not for success, but for what happens when things go wrong.
Since those expeditions, Staniforth has completed a series of documented endurance records. He is the first and fastest person to run and cycle all 446 Nuttall mountains in England and Wales in 45 days and holds the record for the fastest ascent of all 100 UK county tops. He is the author of Icefall and Another Peak, and in 2020 co-founded Mind Over Mountains, a national UK charity that combines outdoor experience with professional mental health support.
What separates his contribution from most adventure-based speaking is where it goes beyond the summit metaphor. Staniforth has spoken publicly about depression, anxiety, and eating disorders experienced as an endurance athlete: alongside epilepsy and a lifelong stammer. This specificity allows him to speak credibly in mental health conversations where most performance speakers cannot go. His practical framework, the ‘Resilience Rucksack’, translates that experience into tools that leadership audiences can name and apply.
His keynotes have been delivered to Rolls-Royce Submarines, Samsung, Bank of America, Accenture, FedEx, and the NHS, among others. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate (DLitt) by the University of Chester in 2025 for his contribution to young people’s mental health, and received the Prime Minister’s Points of Light award in 2023. He is an ICF-trained coach and certified Gazing Red2Blue practitioner.
Key speaking topics
- Resilience under pressure
- Mental fitness and sustainable performance
- Leadership through adversity and change
- Burnout prevention and psychological safety
- Goal setting and redefining success
- Team performance in uncertainty
- Wellbeing as a performance foundation
Ideal for
- Senior leadership teams navigating organisational change or post-disruption recovery
- CHROs and people leads building mental health or wellbeing programmes with senior buy-in
- Leadership development and high-potential programmes requiring a resilience anchor
- Corporate conferences where performance and wellbeing are a combined agenda item
Audience outcomes
- A practical, named framework (the ‘Resilience Rucksack’) for maintaining performance during setbacks, change, and high pressure
- A more specific understanding of the relationship between mental fitness and sustained performance – not as a trade-off, but as the same investment
- Increased confidence among leaders in modelling openness around mental health, and in recognising early warning signs in their teams
- A shift in how failure and setback are framed – from evidence of inadequacy to material for growth
- Reference points from extreme conditions that translate directly to the pressures of demanding professional environments
Talks
A keynote exploring how teams can move beyond coping with challenges to using setbacks and change as a platform for growth, with content tailored to the audience’s specific brief.
Key takeaways:
- Practical perspectives on responding constructively to setbacks and change
- Approaches that move teams from resilience to forward momentum
- Insights mapped to the audience’s own challenges and context
Drawing on ultra-endurance and extreme conditions, this keynote reframes resilience as a preparation and recovery discipline – not a capacity for endurance – and introduces the ‘Resilience Rucksack’ toolkit.
Key takeaways:
- A working definition of resilience focused on preparation, recovery, and forward momentum
- Practical tools to sustain performance under pressure, failure, and uncertainty
- Strategies for keeping teams moving when goals feel distant
A keynote on sustainable high performance and the role of wellbeing, drawing on Staniforth’s own mental health journey to open the conversation and challenge stigma.
Key takeaways:
- The link between mental wellbeing and sustainable high performance
- Practical steps to build mental fitness and manage stress proactively
- How leaders can model openness and create the conditions for team support
A keynote focused on building mental fitness to protect performance and prevent burnout, with a practical toolkit for recognising warning signs and supporting colleagues.
Key takeaways:
- Practical tools for strengthening mental fitness in high-pressure roles
- Increased confidence in recognising early signs of deteriorating mental health
- Clear steps for managing stress, supporting others, and avoiding burnout
Videos
Testimonials
Books
Fees
| EUR | GBP | USD | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Country | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Asia Pacific | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Europe | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Middle East & Africa | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| South America | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| United Kingdom | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| US East Coast | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| US West Coast | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |
| Virtual | Under €12000 | Under £10,000 | Under $15000 |