The Polar Race Organisers

David Hempleman-Adams is a founder of Polar Adventures Ltd, organisers of the Polar Race. Though no longer involved on a daily basis, he still acts as an advisor.

He was born in Swindon, Wiltshire and educated at Writhlington Comprehensive School. He is a graduate from Manchester and a postgraduate from Bristol.

He has successfully climbed the highest peak in each of the seven continents Aconcagua (South America), Carstenz Pyramid (Australasia), Elbrus (Europe), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Denali (North America), Mount Vinson (Antarctica) and Everest (Asia).

In 1984 he was the first person to successfully walk solo and unsupported to the North Magnetic Pole. In 1992 he led the first team to walk unsupported to the North Geomagnetic Pole. In 1996 he became the first Briton to walk solo and unsupported to the South Pole and in the same year sailed to the South Magnetic Pole. In 1999 he walked to the North Pole and in so doing became the first and so far, only, person to have completed the Explorers' Grand Slam.

In 2000 he piloted the first balloon to the North Pole.

He lives in Box, Wiltshire and is married with 3 children.

Scotsman Jock Wishart is a founder of Polar Adventures Ltd, organisers of the Polar Race.

He was born in Dumfries, Scotland and educated at Dumfries Academy. He is a graduate of Durham University where he was President of the Union.

He has represented his country at rowing and yachting and is a veteran of the 1980 America's Cup as well as being a former European Dragon Boat Paddling Champion. At University he was a British Universities champion in rowing, sprint canoeing and power lifting.

He was formerly sponsorship director for Hill and Knowlton, one of Britain's largest P.R. companies and in 1991 was Head of Public Relations for the Rugby World Cup.

In 1992 he was a member of the team that first walked unsupported to the North Geomagnetic Pole and in 1996 organised the Ultimate Challenge, the first ever televised trek to the North Magnetic Pole, an expedition comprising largely of novice explorers, during which they successfully measured the position of the pole for the Canadian authorities.

He rowed the Atlantic in 1997, headed the team that broke the Round the World Powered Record in 1998, captained the crew that broke the London-Paris Rowing Record in 1999 and in 2000 led the Shackleton's Steps expedition which replicated for a TV documentary, Sir Ernest Shackleton's traverse of South Georgia in May 1916. In 2001 he was navigator on the winning American yacht in the 12-metre World Championship in Cowes.

He lives in Kingston-upon-Thames with his wife and two children and enjoys skiing and watching rugby.

Richard Bull is one of the Arctic advisors for the Polar Race.

He was born in Reading and was educated at Highdown School, Emmer Green. After leaving school, he became manager of a newsagent business.

His Arctic expertise was gained on numerous expeditions to the area, including several trips to the North Pole, meeting up with David Hempleman-Adams and Neill Williams on the way.

When not leading or advising on trips to the Arctic he runs his own business, based in Wiltshire, supplying the motor trade. He set up this business at the age of 22 after 3 years of military experience.

Richard is also involved with the Mitchemp Trust that has run camps for over five years in the Brecon Beacons for disadvantaged children between the ages of 11 and 15.

Richard is married to Vicky who has also been involved with the Polar Race previously. They have one child of 2 years old, and another on the way.

Simon Marshall is one of the Arctic experts for the Polar Race and is now involved in the organisation on a daily basis.

He was born in Harrogate, North Yorksire. He's had a varied career, working 4 years as an assistant golf professional, 5 years as a restaurant manager, and 11 years in the Fire Brigade where he worked as Station Officer in its Research & Development Group. Simon now works as UK Sales Manager for a large multinational company, supplying firefighter protective clothing to the UK, Scandinavia, Middle East and South America.

In 1996, Simon met up with David, Jock and Neill on the Ultimate Challenge expedition to take 10 novices to the North Magnetic Pole, during which he took on the reins of Base Camp Manager at Resolute Bay.

Liking the Arctic so much, in 1998 he went back to spend 4 weeks there. Alone!

In his spare time Simon enjoys many sports, including playing cricket for North Petherton Cricket Club, and following rugby. He also collects polar literature.

Simon is married and lives in Wembdon, Somerset with his wife and two children.

Steve Pinfield is responsible for organising and running the Arctic training for the Polar Race.

Steve has spent his whole life in the outdoors, initially in outdoor education centres and worldwide outward bound schools, and then into full time guiding.

He is equally at home in the rainforest, desert, mountains and polar regions, where he has run a number of successful guiding companies.

Steve's wealth of Arctic experience includes leading three expeditions to the North Magnetic Pole, and eight seasons working in Antarctica as Head Field guide and Base Commander. Amongst his clients have been National Geographic and the BBC.

He currently lives in Penzance, Cornwall, where he can frequently be found climbing on the granite cliffs, surfing or paragliding. That is, of course, if he's not off galavanting somewhere else in one of the more remote and inhospitable regions of the world!

Rob Sleep is responsible for organizing support gear for the race.

Rob is a devoted globetrotter and has spent the last fifteen years working and travelling extensively and independently all over the world.

With a core career skippering on superyachts he has gained his Master Class 4 Captain's license with well over 60,000 miles at sea, sailing and racing all around the world as well as 9+ transatlantic's. During his travels he has worked, amongst other things, as a rafting guide in the Himalayas and New Zealand, in the Alps as a bar manager and all over as a dive master. He also has a history of numerous adventure hobbies from kite boarding and windsurfing, through paragliding and skiing, to trekking and mountaineering.

He runs his own business installing water makers into yachts.

Geoff is a highly experienced polar traveler and performs a function of advisor and trainer for the racers and organisers.

He has 29 years of experience in Polar travel, guide and as a trainer. He has coverered 16,000 miles overland in Arctic and Antarctic.

He has completed several “Firsts”, including the first and only traverse of the entire Antarctic Continent by its greatest axis – a seven month, near 4,000 mile (6.200 km) journey. Purely for training his team completed longest unsupported Arctic journey, 1,400 miles (2000 kms) traversing by dog sled South to North of the Greenland Ice Cap. On foot and ski he has travelled some 14,000 miles in the Arctic and Antarctic.

During both these adventures, each with an international team, he was responsible for the logistics and navigation and, driving the lead team of husky dogs.

Later, he was a co guide on the first commercial expedition to the North Magnetic Pole and, guided the first self supported commercial expedition skiing 700 miles (1,120 kms) to the South Geographical Pole.

Geoff has lectured to some five hundred groups around the world, from local venues, schools, the Royal Geographical Society to universities and businesses. He has presented Inspirational, Motivational, Leadership, Risk Assessment and Team Work to numerous companies, relating his experiences of international cooperation and prolonged detailed planning to succeed in supposedly impossible conditions where team work was not an option but essential for survival.

Mike Whiteside is one of the Polar Race doctors.

He is currently an SHO in general medicine in Sheffield. Brought up in Birmingham, he qualified in 2001 and since then has worked in general medicine, genitourinary medicine, A&E, infectious diseases and, most recently, diabetes.

He has just come back from a year out of the UK medical scene, gaining a diploma in tropical medicine, travelling through China, mountaineering in the Alps and working in Uganda. He's managed to avoid the normal career path of a typical medic by not taking exams but rather going on expeditions -- he has experienced as a medic jungle, high altitude and diving expeditions.

Mike is a keen mountaineer, and has trekked and climbed in the Himalayas, China, Europe, Canada and the UK. This year he will complete his mountain leader award.

He is also a keen musician. He was a founding member of the internationally acclaimed(?) band "The Flaming Pies", but now plays the guitar on his own, and intends to inflict his musical talent on everyone out in Canada!

Mike lives in Sheffield with long-term girlfriend Cariad, and three goldfish.

Neill Williams is one of the core team members in charge of organising the Polar Race since its inception in 2002. His main responsibilities for the 2005 expedition are clothing, equipment and training.

Neill is Managing Director of specialist graphics manufacturer, Polycrown Limited in Yatton, Avon.

He was born in Manchester, later moving to the Southwest where he was educated at Gordano Comprehensive School in Portishead. He subsequently formed his own successful graphics company, Polycrown Ltd, with his sister, Wendy, which specialises in product branding and I.D. emblems.

His first expedition was as a member of the 1992 team which first walked unsupported to the North Geomagnetic Pole. He was a co-organiser of the Ultimate Challenge, "the expedition with a difference", which successfully took 10 novice explorers on the first televised trek to a Pole. Neill has since taken part in or organised 12 Polar expeditions including 5 to the North Magnetic Pole. He has climbed Mont Blanc, Elbrus (the highest mountain in Europe), Kilimanjaro (the highest in Africa) and Aconcagua (the highest in South America).

He is a passionate supporter of Manchester United and in 1992, 93, 94, 96 and 98 "survived" the legendary Tough Guys competition.

He lives in Clevedon, Somerset and has 2 children. In his spare time he keeps fit through running, cycling and five-a-side football.

Tony Woodford is responsible for the video filming during the race.

Between the ages of 18 and 28 Tony spent 6 of the ten travelling and working internationally. The first was a back packer trip to Australia. He hitch-hiked all round Australia taking in as much as possible visiting everywhere except Broome. After completing a dive course on the Great Barrier Reef he even drove the 3000 miles across Australia on a GSX1100 motor cycle. That spawned an idea that would later prove the most challenging of his overland exploits. Gaining work at a city hotel he quickly found himself managing the complex and was even offered sponsorship to stay in Australia.

The travel bug had a firm grip so New Zealand was next on the list. This time buying a car and exploring the North and South Islands taking in the many Kiwi experiences such as climbing, pot holing, bungee jumping and the slightly risky bridge pendulum jumping all with the amazing New Zealand backdrop of mountains and in one of the most volcanically active places in the world.

After returning to Australia for an additional six months Tony returned to the UK to plan a trans-continental motorcycle trip, "The London to Sydney Marathon". The logistics proved to be difficult to organize but after many months of planning entrants were ready. Departing in late 1993 with seven motor cycles, he crossed 27 countries and 3 continents. Four of the entrants made it to Sydney, Tony included, and he spent a further six months in Australia working at a back packers in Surfers Paradise. He returned to the UK and continued his travels by plane.

More recently he returned to India and lived and worked there for over a year. Realising the lack of business knowledge and western customer service he helped many locals start new tourist companies and activities. This including guided dolphin and crocodile tours, a new Chinese restaurant, co-authoring the "Goan Guide" and overseeing the building of a mansion house. Previous attempts at dolphin watching had often ended in failure but Tony used his hand-held GPS to track and locate schools of dolphins in open water. A record of their movements and activities was built up for a less hit-and-miss approach.

Returning from India, interest in a new kind of trip was sparked by Jock Wishart. (The Polar kind!)

Greg Wishart, has the position of "Odd Job Man" for the Polar Race. This entails getting involved in almost every aspect of the race and it's preparation!

Greg lives in Kingston, Surrey and has always enjoyed outdoor activities and travelling - hence his eagerness to get involved in the race. He has been an avid winter-sportsman since he started skiing at age 3 and progressed to snowboarding by 12. He also enjoys playing Rugby and played county rugby for surrey and district rubgy for Scottish Exiles.

In 2001 he was a member of the winning 12m American Yacht in the 12 Metre World Championship in Cowes with his Dad, Jock Wishart.

Chris Walker is the IT organiser for the Polar Race, maintainence of the website and email links.

Chris works for Eclipse Internet (a south-west based ISP now owned by Kingston Communications), but has been doing freelance Web Design since 2000. Taking over the website from Paul Theobald for the 2007 Polar Race, Chris has given it a fresh new look and is now responsible for it's upkeep.

Chris is also a keen snowboarder. He learnt to ski at the age of three and spent many a happy family holiday on the slopes. At about 14 snowboarding arrived and after some stubborn time in a great deal of pain, Chris learned to love snowboarding and switched from skiing. He spent the winter season a Val Thorens, a ski resort in the Alps, in 2002-2003 where he met his partner, Rosie, who he now lives with in Exeter.