Mike Baker

I was born in Plymouth in 1961, at the age of 6 months we moved to Malaysia, I spent most of my childhood travelling with my father who was in the Armed Forces. At the tender age of 17 I joined the Army and continued my travelling spirit. During my army years I was a keen sportsman; following the army career I attained a blackbelt in karate, studied law, psychology and financial services.

I now run a successful mortgage brokerage in the South East. The Polar Race is a great opportunity to celebrate my 50th birthday in style! 

Mignonette Erasmus

Having grown up with African mud between my toes I thoroughly love hiking, climbing rocks and African Safari's where all you have with you is what you can fit onto a short wheel base Defender. Granted, lions aren't bears and 4X4's aren't pulks and sub-zero temperatures are not the African heat &ndsh; but an indomitable spirit is an indomitable spirit and Africa grows some hardy souls! I currently live in London and between working as an HR Programme Manager and sipping cocktails, I still make ample time to practises bikram yoga and run or cycle to work and back.

The North Pole is the first part of our incredible adventure for 2011 as our team plans a double polar assault in a single year, but even more so because of the work we do with the British Schools Exploring Society to expose young people from less financially advantaged backgrounds to the world of outdoor based adventure education. Please click onto our website http://www.lmcpolar.com and we'll keep you updated on our progress on this amazing journey on twitter and facebook. 

Ray Hanly

Of Irish decent I come to the UK in 1996 to complete my degree. Post Graduation I was offered an opportunity within the Finance industry that was too good to turn down. Over the past twelve years I have held senior operations management positions across the UK and today I am the Operations Director with Ginsters. I joined Ginsters in 2003 and live in Tavistock with my wife Rebecca. Both within work and sport I am extremely self-competitive and consistently strive for the next challenge. My core values are based around honesty and team work.

Lauren Lee

It's gonna be cold, repetitive and exhausting. So why am I doing this ...? I was born in 1976 in West Berlin to RAF linguists, raised in Gloucestershire from the age of 2, indoctrinated in outdoor survival by my older brother and his merry gang, spending many school nights on the Cotswold Hills under the stars, cooking over log fires, and rushing to school late in the mornings. Jumping from my state-school into Cheltenham College to do A-levels I was sponsored to enter the Cutty Sark 1993, with the STA on Sir Winston Churchill, an old tea clipper. We won our class of race from Norway to Denmark, braving winds, hail, sleet and incredible seas. My taste of adventure was assured. Since then my life has been jammed with sailing, mountaineering and rock-climbing. I aspire to satiate this all-pervading hunger for adventure by battling it out against next year's selected Polar Racers. I hope that as a result of this apparent madness, I will be happy to settle down a bit, and, if I actually have one by then, to put my partner out of his long suffering misery. I may even be content to spend evenings in. Watching telly. Stranger things have happened? I am a Professional Risk Manager. Watch this space...

Jonathon Lewis

I am a family man with three children under 4 so I am looking forward to the relative tranquility of a month's Cold Camping. In my daily life, I run a company that invests in charities to help them help more people in ever better ways and in my non-work life I am a keen cyclist and wrestler. I am incredibly excited about the race and about getting out into the super wilderness of the north.

Rob MacAlister

I was born in 1973. I am married to my fantastic wife Helen and have two wonderful daughters Enid, aged 2 and Dulcie born early this year! I work for services and solutions provider, Computacenter and specialize City Banks realize best business benefit from IT. I have been at Computacenter for 10 years and will return there after the sabbatical.

I enjoy adventures having kayaked around uninhabited islands in Mexico and dog-sledding in Sweden. I was brought up in the Northeast (Newcastle fan) and Lymington, Harts and spend a lot of time on the water. I love all sports including Rugby and Golf, I love eating and cooking and my idea of a good night is food and wine with friends and family.

If my life was to be made into a film, Brian Blessed would play me well! 

Lucy Maizels

I just qualified as a doctor from the University of Bristol and I am currently working in St. George's Hospital in South London, which has an enormous learning curve but extremely rewarding. In fact it was during a quiet period on a night shift about 3 am that I discovered and applied for this race!

Most of my family have a wonderful spirit of adventure so travel has always been a part of my life. My grandmother, an inspiration to us all as she still skis and walks the dog daily, introduced me to trekking on an expedition in Nepal several years ago. I have subsequently undertaken several other challenging expeditions, including a memorable one with my younger brother in Tiber a couple of years ago.

I am privileged to be a part of this race and am raising money for Marie Curie Cancer Care, an excellent charity that is sadly extremely close to my heart. 

Ryan Malfara

I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada and I am proudly part of the first and so far only all Canadian team. Currently 25, I am a very determined young man. I choose to challenge myself whenever and wherever possible. I have completed in a wide variety of sports and events including swimming, rowing, running, etc. I love the challenge of pushing myself to news levels daily. I hope that my actions will help inspire and empower others to succeed.

Jari Ovaskainen

I'm a married Finnish man, 45 years of age and father of three great boys. We are currently living in Geneve, Switzerland, which I find an excellent place to live. I'm fairly active in life and like to do lots of stuff; various sports, travel, wide scope of reading, hiking in nature, fine dining and wines, and when it comes to work – I'm into private equity by investing and creating new businesses, and real estate developments.

Polar Race is such an adventure, that its hard not to join – so I joined o;))) !! 

Robert Platt

I come from Sheffield, UK. I run an Internet company that sells professional audio equipment. I love my job but I love exercising and being outdoors more. My interests include cycling, hiking, rowing and red wine. I have always enjoyed physically demanding challenges, so for me the Polar Race will push the boundaries of what I can achieve.

Charlie Taylor

I was born in Edinburg and spent a childhood at school in Scotland and England enjoying sailing, hillwalking and many different sports. I studied Philosophy at university before teaching for a year, running a group of orphanages in Bombay for a year and then joining the army, where I won the army middleweight judo title in 2000. I fought in Iraq for a year with the Black Watch amongst other operations. I left in 2006 to seek new challenges in the worlds of publishing, ocean rowing, banking and long-distance running. My greatest interest is trying to work out what is going on in other people's minds and having a positive influence on it.

Dave Varty

I blame my parents!

They gave me a great stable upbringing, supported my education and exposed me to the outdoors. Since then I have continued studying and exploring. I can get interested in a huge amount of activities and thoughts - many of which I have pursued. I work for a US based Company looking after European Accounts, during the week that is. Weekends are mine to play outdoors - walking, diving, wakeboarding, skiing, climbing, canoeing... or even some voluntary DofE expedition work so that the next generation finds the same inspiration I have. My training is coming along perfectly - already overweight, I just need the fitness!! 

Ed Vincent

Ed has been running marathons since 2002 and has done them on most continents - having done the Marathon des Sables (6 marathons in 6 days in the Sahara) and 100Km in the jungle marathon in the Amazon. The pole was the obvious progression. He has raised over £30,000 for charity - Help the Heroes - over the course of 2 years.

Jo Winchcombe

Having focused the last 15 years on my family (John, my ever supportive husband and fabulous kids, Annie -14, Sam - 13 and simon - 11) and my business (Simply Stuck - producing personalised labels for everybody else's kids) I needed some different challenges to stretch me physically and mentally and prove I can still reach great achievements - even in my mid-forties! The Polar Race will take me to the limits and allow me to experience a landscape and environment that few people have had the opportunity to explore.

Rob Young

Rob Young is a father of 4 children. He is the founder and owner of Franchise U Inc. and Complete Utilities Contracting Inc. Rob is racing to raise awareness for the Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness.