Mark Pollock specialises in helping individuals exceed their expectations. He understands that achieving world-class performance is difficult and cannot be left to chance. By serving as a high-impact catalyst, Mark empowers people to act boldly and realise their aspirations. Despite losing sight in 1998, Mark became an adventure athlete, competing in gruelling endurance races across challenging terrains such as deserts, mountains, and polar ice caps. He even became the first blind person to race to the South Pole. Mark's remarkable achievements include winning silver and bronze medals for rowing at the Commonwealth Games and establishing a successful motivational speaking business. However, in 2010, a tragic accident left him paralyzed after falling from a second-story window and breaking his back. Undeterred, Mark embarked on a new journey as the Co-Founder of the global running series called Run in the Dark. His resilience and determination have earned him recognition as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and a former Global Futures Council on Human Enhancement member. Mark is also a UBS Global Visionary, a Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation board member, and a Wings for Life Ambassador. Moreover, he has been featured in acclaimed documentaries like "Blind Man Walking" and "Unbreakable – The Mark Pollock Story." As a speaker, Mark covers a range of topics, including overcoming adversity, maintaining resilience under pressure, leadership and motivation during crises, challenging expectations to enhance performance, fostering collaboration and teamwork across disciplines and geographies, and exploring the intersection of human potential and technology during the 4th Industrial Revolution.
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.
Uncertainty and change typify a crisis and it’s difficult to lead in such circumstances. By providing leaders and their teams with insights into the resilience, attitude and decisions of others facing extreme circumstances Mark helps people to develop the intrinsic motivation to move forward.
