Mark Pollock

It is tough to deal with change and uncertainty. Your people won’t do it by chance. With a high impact catalyst you can help them lead with courage and make it happen. Mark Pollock is that catalyst.

Red Bull UK’s Managing Director describes Mark as “awe-inspiring”. Google’s Head of SMB Salessays that he “…started a conversation about challenging conventional wisdom that is ongoing at Google”.

Acknowledged as an expert in resilience, innovation and collaboration, Mark says “The reason to bring in a speaker is to move the audience emotionally. It can never be about the speaker, rather it must be about engaging the audience to help them achieve more than they thought possible – that is what I aim to do every time.”

With this in mind, Mark has used his hard-earned expertise to help people in over 500 organisations worldwide including at Davos, the Web Summit, the World Economic Forum, EG, Wired and TEDx Hollywood.

Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, described Mark as one of “the most inspiring people I met” after they discussed the ways in which technology is changing how people learn. Following Mark’s contribution to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos, the Head of Public Engagement and Foundations said “Mark doesn’t just talk about the transformative intersection of technology and humankind. He lives it. His exploration of a cure for paralysis helped people understand the human dimension of the fourth industrial revolution.”

As he explores the intersection where humans and technology collide, Mark is developing a deep insight into human enhancement and performance. Through his Centre for Radical Collaborations he is a catalyst for connecting people across science, technology, venture philanthropy and marketing to fast-track a cure for paralysis.

Topics covered include:

• Adversity and Challenge – resilience and attitude under pressure.
• Passion and Leadership – goal setting and leading with passion.
• Collaboration and Teamwork – creating and motivating dispersed teams across disciplines and geographies.
• Innovation and Technology – creating relationships at the intersection where humans and technology collide.

Mark helps people achieve more than they thought possible. Unbroken by blindness in 1998, Mark went on to compete 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 a motivational speaking business.

In 2010 Mark was left paralysed after falling from a second story window. He is now exploring the frontiers of spinal cord injury recovery combining an innovative electrical stimulator over his spinal cord and a drug super-charging his nervous system, whilst walking hundreds of thousands of steps in his Ekso Bionics robotic legs. Through the Mark Pollock Trust he is on a mission to find and connect people around the world to fast-track a cure for paralysis.

Selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader and appointed to the Global Futures Council on Human Enhancement, Mark is on the Board of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation (USA) and is a Wings for Life Ambassador (UK). He is the subject of the acclaimed documentary called Unbreakable, is a TED Global, Davos, Wired and EG speaker and is co-Founder of the global running series called Run in the Dark.

He has been awarded honorary doctorates by The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and also from Queens University Belfast. And, he holds a diploma in Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century from Harvard University, degrees from Trinity College Dublin and The Smurfit Business School.