Mark Pollock – Keynote Speaker

Explorer, Innovator and Collaboration Catalyst

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Specialist Subjects

  • Adversity & Challenges – Maintaining a Resilient Mindset Under Pressure
  • Leadership & Motivation- Leading Through a Crisis and Developing Intrinsic Motivation to Move Forward
  • Mindset & Performance – Challenging Expectations to Perform at a Higher Level
  • Collaboration & Teamwork – Creating and Motivating Dispersed Teams Across Disciplines and Geographies
  • Human Enhancement – Exploring the Intersection Where Humans and Technology Collide During the 4th Industrial Revolution.

Language

  • English

Biography

Over the last 20 years, Mark Pollock has studied how to build resilience and collaborated with others so that they achieve more than they thought possible.

Unbroken by blindness in 1998, Mark became an adventure athlete competing in ultra-endurance races across deserts, mountains, and the polar ice caps including being the first blind person to race to the South Pole. He also won silver and bronze medals for rowing at the Commonwealth Games and set up an international motivational speaking business.

In 2010, a fall from a second story window nearly killed him. Mark broke his back and the damage to his spinal cord left him paralysed. Now he is on a new expedition, this time to cure paralysis in our lifetime by exploring the intersection where humans and technology collide.

Chairman of Collaborative Cures and founder of the global running series Run in the Dark, Mark was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, served on the Global Futures Council on Human Enhancement and as a UBS Global Visionary. He is on the Board of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation (USA) and is a Wings for Life Ambassador (Europe).

Author of ‘Making It Happen’, Mark is the subject of the acclaimed documentaries ‘Blind Man Walking’ and ‘Unbreakable – The Mark Pollock Story’. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and also from Queens University Belfast. Furthermore, he holds a diploma in Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century from Harvard University, degrees from Trinity College Dublin and UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School. As a speaker Mark is best known for his 2018 TED Talk focused on resolving the tension between acceptance and hope, delivered jointly with his fiancée, Simone George. It gathered over 1.5 million views in It’s first six months on TED.com, and has been translated into 12 languages.

Popular Talks by Mark Pollock

Adversity & Challenges – Maintaining a Resilient Mindset Under Pressure

Sometimes we choose our challenges, sometimes our challenges choose us. What we decide to do about them is what counts. Deciding to be a competitor, a realist and a collaborator offers your people a chance of maintaining a resilient mindset under pressure. Mark Pollock’s keynote on adversity and challenges uses the power of active decision making to deal with challenges, regardless of where they come from, to help your people become more resilient.

Leadership & Motivation- Leading Through a Crisis and Developing Intrinsic Motivation to Move Forward

Uncertainty and change typify a crisis and it’s difficult to lead in such circumstances. By providing your people with insights into the resilience, attitude and decisions of others facing extreme circumstances you will help them to develop the intrinsic motivation to move forward. Mark Pollock’s keynote on leadership and motivation delivers deep insights for leaders to navigate through the crucible moments they face and lead others to achieve more.

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