Nick Goldsmith

Nick Goldsmith is a former Royal Marine Commando who served 11 years for his country,
from 2007 to 2018.
Now an international speaker and author, he is also the co-founder & CEO of Hidden Valley
Bushcraft, an award-winning outdoor activity company powerfully changing the way in
which we approach positive mental health.
After completing six operational deployments in some of the most hostile & demanding regions
in the world, Nick founded & led the team behind the Woodland Warrior Programme, a
globally recognised initiative featured in a 2022 BBC documentary. Supported by Invictus
Games & the Veteran’s Foundation, among other prestigious organisations, the programme is
now entering its 7th year. Drawing on his deeply personal experience of overcoming a
diagnosis of Complex PTSD, it harnesses the healing power of nature to support the
rehabilitation of Armed Forces & Emergency Service Personnel within a woodland setting.
Nick’s first book, Re-Wild Your Mind, published by Wellbeck, launched in March 2023.

Aldo Kane

Aldo Kane is a World Record Setting Adventurer, Explorer, a Fellow at the Royal Geographic Society, Producer, Author & TV Presenter with a penchant for the world’s most dangerous, extreme and remote locations.

A former Royal Marines Commando Sniper, Aldo is an expert in all environments, making him the go-to man for TV & Film companies around the world. Aldo has operated and filmed in well over 100 countries so when things get tough in TV land, it’s Aldo they call.
Over the last 7 years, Aldo has worked on well over 45 TV & Film productions, many of which were ground-breaking and fairly “tasty”, as he would have it. Aldo has been held at gunpoint, Charged by black Rhino, Abseiled into an active volcano, escaped Ebola, rowed across the Atlantic and dived on Captain Kidd’s pirate ship, and that’s just the last year or two.
Aldo has been on screen around the world on many broadcasters from the BBC, to Discovery, Nat-Geo, Channel 4, PBS, ITV, Channel 5, History Channel and many more. Aldo has appeared on Discovery with Hollywood A-Listers like Tom Hardy, Adrien Brody & Henry Cavill in some of the most extreme environments on earth. With an inquisitive mind and an extremely unique skill-set, Aldo is well set up for hard-hitting investigative journalism missions.
Aldo runs a company called Vertical Planet providing technical safety consultation & risk management for TV & Film crews operating in remote, hostile and high-risk environments around the world. Aldo was recently the on-screen Expedition Leader for National Geographic’s latest flag-ship feature length Natural History series One Strange Rock, hosted by Hollywood star, Will Smith. This saw Aldo lead a prominent American Scientist deep inside one of Africa’s most dangerous volcanoes whilst it was erupting.
Aldo joined the Royal Marine Commandos at the age of 16 and went on to become one of the youngest Elite Commando Reconnaissance Snipers in the UK armed forces. No mean feat with the hardest, and longest infantry training in the world. Aldo saw active military service from Northern Ireland to the Middle East and became a survival expert in many environments. Aldo has become an instructor in many outdoor fields including Mountain Leader, professional climber, Skydiver, re-breather diver, SIA bodyguard & qualified medic.
In 2021, Aldo wrote his first book ‘Lessons From the Edge: Inspirational Tales of Surviving, Thriving and Extreme Adventure’ published by Yellow Kite.

Ness Knight

Ness Knight is a presenter, explorer and adventurer who has travelled to extreme environments all over the globe. Driven by her upbringing in Africa, Ness is determined to raise awareness of cultural and ecological topics through her conservation work and has undertaken some truly incredible challenges along the way.

Among her numerous achievements, Ness was the first female to swim the length of the Thames back in 2013 as well as completing the longest stand-up paddle board journey by a female with a 1,000 journey down the Missouri River. Ness has cycled 2,000 miles across the USA solo and once ran 15 marathons in 15 days.

Ollie Ollerton

Ollie Ollerton joined the Royal Marines at 18 years of age where he embarked on operational tours of Northern Ireland and Operation Desert Storm in Iraq. Following five years service with the Marines, Ollie was recommended for Special Forces selection. He would go on to become one of just five candidates to pass selection from his intake, which originally numbered 250. Having passed selection Olllie joined the Special Boat Service where he trained as a Combat Frogman. Through his 6 years of combat he undertook a number of high profile missions both on land and sea ranging from hostage rescue, counter narcotics, counter terrorism and homeland security. 

Upon leaving the Special Forces, Ollie was a key member of the inaugural Directing Staff alongside fellow ThruDark Ambassador Jason Fox on Channel 4’s SAS: Who Dares Wins – a television show that brought the realism of elite military service to the fore of public perception. Ollie has used his extensive Special Forces experience to educate and inform as a public speaker, bestselling author and founder of Break-Point Academy, a workplace programme designed to maximise team performance.

Louise Minchin

Louise Minchin is well-known and respected TV presenter, journalist, author and podcaster.

She presented the UK’s most watched morning TV programme BBC Breakfast for 20 years, covering all the major news stories of the last two decades. Before that she was an anchor on the BBC’s One O’clock News and the BBC News Channel having also presented Five Live and The One Show.

She is a keen athlete and has represented the Great Britain Triathlon team in her age-group in World and European Championships. She has competed in one of the toughest races in the world, Norseman.

In 2021 she was a contestant on I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here, and has also taken part in Channel Four’s immersive history show Time Crashers and Celebrity Masterchef. She currently presents two successful podcasts, Push Your Peak from Watt Bike, and Her Spirit.

Her new book Fearless, Adventures with Extraordinary Women reflects her passion for celebrating women’s success. In each chapter Louise takes on a difficult challenge with a different courageous woman to tell their incredible stories. As part of it she has swum from Alcatraz, free dived under ice in the dark in Finland, and cycled across Argentina.

Rachel Bigsby

Considered to be a leading wildlife photographer amongst her contemporaries, Rachel Bigsby is carving an awe-inspiring career whilst representing young and self-taught photographers. She is best known for her fine-art work with seabirds, badgers and polar bears, and by the young age of 26, Rachel had achieved a wealth of accolades in five of the world’s leading wildlife photography competitions.

In addition to her work as a photographer, Rachel has filmed wildlife for BBC Earth, and presented a number of wildlife films on television for the likes of BBC Springwatch and The One Show.

Michaela Strachan

Michaela Strachan is a BAFTA-Award winning TV Presenter, and public speaker. Having started her career on children’s TV, Michaela has grown to be one of Britain’s most loved Presenters. Michaela is extremely passionate about animal welfare, and has extensive experience of wildlife conservation around the world. Her natural effervescence and engaging humour endear her to all audiences, be it as a presenter, or public speaker.

She has worked extensively as a presenter, and has been part of the regular presenting team on Springwatch, Autumnwatch, and Winterwatch since 2012, and spent fifteen years presenting The Really Wild Show, as well as ten years on Countryfile, alongside many other shows. Strachan has also starred in multiple National Geographic productions, fronting Safari Live, Adopt a wild animal, and more. In April 2022, she starred as a contestant on ITV’s ‘All Star Musicals’. It has also been announced that Michaela will co-present Channel 5’s new series ‘Ice Age’, release date to be confirmed.

Deon Barrett

Bio:

I had a very conflicted childhood due to a lack of identity through racial and discrimination, bullying and the lack of a positive role model. Over time this caused deep depression and anxiety, which led to suicide attempts at an early age.

Growing up in the urban outskirts of the Southwest of London and due to my environment, I found myself descending on the wrong path, leading to being embedded in the local gang culture. Luckily through my mother’s passion to travel and bring me along I was able to be exposed to new landscapes.

Acquiring academic education in school was not my forte in my early years, except for getting into trouble. Learning has always been a difficult endeavour for me, and this continues to be a challenge. After I was diagnosed with Dyslexia this enabled me to adopt an unorthodox approach to learning.

In January 2022 I set out to inspire the younger generation through my own adversity that I have faced, in doing so created the “True North project” and with that sharing the idea of being able to “find your true north”.

I joined the British Armed Forces in May of 2015 where I had gone into phase one training. This drove me to being resilient but most of all reinstalled my love for the outdoors.  I had the opportunity to travel the world and enjoyed some fantastic roles that a lot of people may not get to experience.

After eight years I had decided to leave in pursuit of growing and scaling up the True North Project. I felt it was time as I knew there was a lot of work to be done in creating outdoor opportunities for others.

As a black man interested in the outdoors, I have set out to empower others like me through my various expedition. I am undertaking extreme expeditions into some of the world’s most remote and high-risk environments. The reason for choosing these areas is because there is an underrepresentation of black people within outdoor spaces and across many different disciplines, and this is something I want to challenge. I am working on becoming one of the first black brits to stand at the summit of mount Everest by 2025.

I believe that it is in our best interest that we endeavour to bring outdoor education to the forefront of all young minds. With this thought in mind I set out to research what our nations schools have in place to bring outdoor learning to their students through what I call the “YOUTH INITIATIVE”. It came to my attention that schools rarely have the support or have the backing to implement this within their curriculum. Unfortunately, these efforts are currently arranged by the schools independently with very limited assistance from outside resources, leaving it up to the teachers to arrange days out in their own time. The caveat being that there is also not enough time spent training staff throughout the established schools in becoming outdoor leaders themselves at some capacity. This is an ongoing effort of mine with plans to make an impact to public schools in cities around the UK.

I feel that outdoor education is as important to students as other subjects we currently teach and it is paramount to bring awareness to this. So my campaign to work with government and the Department for Education will hopefully make the difference needed.

I am also available to help in creating opportunities, safe trips to the mountains to further develop the schools aim to increase the value of their students within the great outdoors. I believe that this campaign will boost self-esteem, maturity and provide essential life skills by equipping young people with the right tools and attitude to promote their own mental resilience.

Rhiane Fatinikun

Rhiane is an outdoors advocate, with a passion for human empowerment and challenging the status quo. A keen cross-country runner at school, Rhiane rediscovered her appreciation for the great outdoors relatively recently, realising the positive effect getting outside and into nature could have on herself and the wider community.

A proud Mancunian, Rhiane previously worked in the Civil Service for several years, where she was also a trade union representative. She currently sits on the Equity Steering Committee for the British Mountaineering Council, focussing on creating better opportunities for people through social change.

In 2019 Rhiane founded Black Girls Hike, a charitable organisation and hiking group seeking to address the lack of representation and inclusion of people of colour in the outdoor community and to provide a safe environment for black women to enjoy the natural world. The group also run training days and skills weekends in leadership and teamwork, which also address the under-representation of black instructors in the industry. Rhiane hopes to continue the growth of BGH across the UK, which also includes chapters in London and the Midlands, and to work with likeminded groups internationally.

Helen Glover MBE

Helen Glover MBE is a British double Olympic champion, triple World champion and quadruple European champion in rowing.

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With Heather Stanning they won Britain’s first-ever Olympic Gold Medal in rowing at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Since 2011, Helen is undefeated internationally and holds the World Record in the women’s pairs category. Helen was awarded an MBE in 2013 for her services to rowing.

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At the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, Glover’s reign continued with Stanning when they retained their Olympic title. Meticulous planning, science and commitment to leave no stone unturned all played significant importance in Glover’s success.

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Remarkably Helen only took up rowing in 2008 when she was identified through the UK’s Sporting Giants recruitment scheme designed to identify and train athletes of a suitable size. She is a gifted sportswoman and competitor and prior to rowing had competed internationally in cross country and trained with the England Hockey Satellite Squad.

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Following the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, she married BAFTA winning TV wildlife presenter Steve Backshall and had their first child, Logan and later twins Kit & Willow. In 2017 she entered and won the 125 mile Devizes to Westminster ultra-endurance kayak race. Six days later she ran her first marathon in 3 hours 5 minutes. Later that year she qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Cape Town.

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The Covid-19 pandemic saw Helen return to training with an aim of competing again, alongside Polly Swann. The pair won the European Coxless Pairs title in April of 2021.

Incredibly, just 18 months after the birth of her twins, Helen competed at the Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first British mother to row at an Olympics.

Megan Hine

Megan Hine is a TV Presenter Survival Consultant, Celebrity Expedition Leader, and Adventure Catalyst.

Her vast wealth of experience and knowledge, gained from leading hundreds of expeditions and consulting for TV survival shows across the globe enables her to organise unique experiences for clients to untouched and wild places. Megan has spent time working and living with native communities all around the world, from the San bushmen in Africa to the Sami reindeer herders in the Arctic to the Iban jungle dwellers in Borneo and many more. Most of her expeditions involve working closely with native peoples and she always aims to support local communities where possible.

Megan’s primal drive to travel and explore means she can often be found breaking trail through waist deep snow, swinging in her hammock in the depths of a jungle or sharing stories sat around a campfire under the desert stars. Megan’s Knowledge and skills make her a world leading expert in all aspects of remote wilderness area expeditions, survival and TV filming. In front of the camera, Megan’s most recent credit is as co-host of 6 part series airing on Sky History, The Curse of the Lost Amazon Gold. Megan’s first book ‘Mind of a Survivor’ was first published by Coronet in May 2017.

Leo Houlding

World renowned climber, alpinist & explorer of steep terrain. Leo has led major expeditions & hard first ascents on every continent from El Capitan to Everest and the Amazon to Antarctica.

With roots on the rock, these days he is as much a 21^st Century explorer as a climber taking modern action sports to the most remote corners of Earth. Skydiving and BASE jumping in the high arctic, epic polar crossings using power kites to reach obscure summits and journeys deep into the jungle sharing skills with indigenous locals to access giant cliffs and reach the top together.

Most of these trips have been documented to the highest standard producing jaw dropping imagery and multiple award winning films.

A father of two whose family adventures must been seen to be believed Leo is passionate about enabling access to adventure for all through his work as a trustee of Outward Bound.

Lucy Mills

A curious storyteller, Lucy believes in people at the heart of everything around us.  Alongside her full-time role as Head of Talent producing and casting for documentaries and branded campaigns, she is a presenter at live sport events such as the Olympics, UCI Mountain Bike World Champs, Turf Games, Battle Cancer and Hyrox.

Lucy’s mission is that no one goes unnoticed and encourages people, through her own vibrant energy, to connect with one another, celebrate and recognise the power of human connection.

Polly Shute

Polly Shute is the Co-Founder of Out & Wild, the UK’s first Wellness and Experience Festival for LGBTQ+ women. She combines running her own business with being the partnership lead for PinkNews, the world’s most read LGBTQ+ media group.

Out & Wild Festival, takes place in Pembrokeshire during Pride month (June), and has a big focus on wellness and the outdoors, with activities ranging from wild swimming, bushcraft, foraging and hikes and walks.

Polly is an Award Winning Inclusion and Partnership Specialist and a recognised public speaker on LGBTQ+ and allyship. Polly has been active in the LGBTQ+ space for over 10 years, including 4 years on the Board of Pride in London.

Her love of the outdoors and frustration at the lack of events for LGBTQ+ women led her to set up Out & Wild, with business partner Becky French. Their vision is both create and curate inclusive experiences across the world.

Polly’s commitment to D&I has been recognised through various awards, including being listed in the Top 20 Not for Profit LGBT+ Leaders List by The Financial Times and more recently in The Guardian’s Pride Power List. She is also recognised as a leader in Profit for Purpose at the UK Sponsorship Awards. Polly sits on various inclusion committees, including Intermedia and Trans in the City.

Sean Conway

Born in Harare, Zimbabwe, Sean had an adventurous upbringing in the Mana Pools National Park with his conservationist game ranger father, Tony. He spent his early years climbing trees and chasing elephants out of his garden, and this unique childhood has been the fuel for his adventurous ambitions.
Well-known for his quirky take on endurance sports and adventures, Sean came to the UK in 2002 with just £100 in his wallet and started working in Cambridge cutting 12,000 cabbages a day and then as a freelance photographer in London, whilst living in a tiny room in London with 7 other people, spending any cash he earned on various travels and bonkers adventures.
Sean famously sold his photography business for just £1 to pursue his dream breaking the world record for cycling around the world, Sean gained sponsorship and set out on this epic adventure on 18th February 2012. After three weeks he was ahead of schedule averaging nearly 180 miles a day. His dreams were shattered in America when a driver hit him causing severe whip lash, concussion, torn ligaments and a compression fracture to the spine. Despite this, Sean continued on dropping to 140 miles per day, changing his goal to get back to London in time for the Olympics and raise money for charity. He made it back with a week to spare, having covered 16,000 miles – 12,000 of them with a fractured spine.
In 2013 he became the first person in history to swim the length of Great Britain, having previously cycled it in 2008. After battling the weather, currents and seemingly endless swarms of jellyfish, Sean and his legendary beard wrote history on November 11 2013, after 135 days at sea.
in 2015, after a failed first attempt at running Britain, he completed the Ultimate British Triathlon when he finished his run from John O’Groats to Land’s End, without undergoing any kind of training in advance.
In 2016 Sean raised the bar once more when he took on the greatest challenge of his life. Starting in April 2016, he completed a self-supported 4000+ mile, continuous Ultra Triathlon that circumnavigates the entire coast of mainland Britain and Discovery Channel followed Sean’s incredible and dangerous journey.
He holds the world record for cycling unsupported across Europe. He completed the 4000 miles route in 24 days, 18 hours and 39 minutes. The documentary can be found on Amazon – Sean Conway’s Europe or Bust. Most recently Sean broke the world record for the most number of Ironmans completed in a row – 102!

Despite these extraordinary successes, Sean knows what it is to struggle and face set-backs.  Endurance challenges really drive Sean forward to learn and improve.  His experiences give depth and power to his engaging presentations on motivation, challenge and developing resilience.

Photograph credit Justin Fletcher Photography

Danny Bent

Danny Bent was voted one of the 100 happiest people in the UK and one of the 50 most inspirational people in London. He is an award winning author and journalist, Guinness World Record holder, and celebrated adventurer and community leader.
Danny helps people who feel chained by life to break free, come together, and realise they are capable of the incredible. His passion is fostering happier lives, more powerful leaders, and encouraging the artists of life to create.

Belinda Kirk

BELINDA KIRK is an explorer, mum and campaigner promoting the benefits of adventure on wellbeing and mental health. 

In 2009, Belinda established Explorers Connect to spread the word about the life-changing impact of adventure. Through the network she has encouraged 30,000 ordinary people to engage in outdoor challenges. In 2019 she launched the Adventure Mind conference and network to explore and further promote the positive impact that adventurous activity has on our wellbeing.

She wrote Adventure Revolution: The life-changing power of choosing challenge, the first book to explain the psychology of why adventure is essential to our wellbeing. Drawing on lessons learnt from leading groups into the wilderness and the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology, Belinda shows how adventure has the power to transform the timid into the confident, the addicted into the recovering, and the lost into the intentionally wandering.

Over the last twenty-seven years Belinda has led dozens of international expeditions. She’s walked through Nicaragua, sailed across the Atlantic, searched for camels in China’s Desert of Death, discovered ancient rock paintings in Lesotho and gained a Guinness World Record for rowing unsupported around Britain. She has led numerous youth development challenges, pioneered inclusive expeditions for people with disabilities and managed scientific research missions in the Amazon, Sinai and Alaska.

Ben Fogle

Ben Fogle is an award winning Broadcaster and adventurer. He has written 9 Sunday Times Best selling books and is the United Nations Patron of the Wilderness.

Ben has climbed Mount Everest, Rowed across the Atlantic, Raced across Antarctica to the South Pole and crossed the deserts of the Empty Quarter in the Middle East.

He has presented numerous programmes for the BBC, ITV, C5 and Discovery including the hit series New Lives in the Wild
A fellow of the Royal Geographic Society. He is ambassador to WWF, Tusk and Hearing Dogs for the Deaf and Patron of The Red Cross and United Nations.

Ben has presented numerous programmes including Animal Park, Countryfile, Wild in Africa, Wild on the West Coast, Crufts, One Man and His Dog, Country Tracks, Extreme Dreams, A Year of Adventures, Storm City, Harbour Lives, Countrywise and Fisherman’s Lives, New Lives in the Wild.
Ben has made documentaries on Prince William in Africa, disease in Ethiopia, Captain Scott in Antarctica and Crocodiles in Botswana.

Ben has travelled extensively in South and Central America and has toured the world for various broadcasting assignments to more than 200 places including Tristan da Cunha, Pitcairn, St Helena, East Timor, Nepal, Namibia, Kenya, the Arctic Circle, Zambia, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Libya, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Tahiti, Maldives, Tanzania and Morocco.
Ben has worked as a special correspondent for NBC News and has published nine bestselling books, The Teatime Islands, Outposts, The Crossing, Race to the Pole, The Accidental Adventurer, The Accidental Naturalist, Labrador, Land Rover, English

A keen sailor, Ben has run the Marathon Des Sables, swam from Alcatraz to San Francisco and is also a Marathon runner, boxer and cyclist.

Ben married Marina in 2006 after meeting her in the park while the couple were walking their dogs, Inca and Maggi. They have a young son, Ludo, a daughter, Iona, and a black Labrador, Storm