Kevin Biggar Travels from Auckland, NZ

Topics

Adventure Sport
After Dinner
Goal Setting
Inspirational
International Speaker
Motivational

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Kevin Biggar is a modern day adventurer, author and an award winning public speaker. Using hilarious stories and photos from his adventures Kevin talks passionately about goal setting, risk management, teamwork, breaking out of your comfort zone and achieving excellence.

Kevin was a strategy consultant with The Boston Consulting Group when an unusual pizza ordering experience triggered a quarter life crisis. Finding himself spending too much time sitting on the sofa he decided to take part in the trans-Atlantic Rowing Race, one of the world’s toughest endurance events - a 5000km epic between the Canary Islands and Barbados in a 7m plywood dinghy!

Kevin decided that he was going to win - an ambitious goal given that he had never rowed before! His secret weapon was his business skills which he used to great effect, identifying and innovating on the most critical elements of the preparations. In a desperate and thrilling race he not only went onto win but also set a new world record.

Kevin Biggar was a management consultant working in Australia and New Zealand, until a combination of strange events led him to leaving the corporate world to take part in arguably the world’s toughest endurance event – the Trans-Atlantic Rowing Race. An unusual choice for anyone, but particularly for someone who had never rowed before and was prone to sea sickness.

Despite this, and after overcoming many hurdles and setbacks, he went on to win the race and set a new world record.

He then teamed up again with his rowing partner Jamie Fitzgerald to attempt the first ever unresupplied return trip from the Antarctic coast to the South Pole and back. During which they had to battle gaping crevasses, brain numbing cold, starvation, snow ‘ninjas’ and girls in bikinis.

Kevin shares his experiences and the learnings that have come from applying his business skills into the world of adventure, and what his adventures have taught him about achieving in business.

His account of an absolute underdog taking on one of the world’s toughest endurance races will have you laughing out loud and leave you feeling inspired.

Kevin has a physics degree at Auckland University and a Master’s degree in Environment & Development from the University of Cambridge. He has worked at The NZ Treasury, Telecom and as a strategy consultant with The Boston Consulting Group. He has also worked as a giant chicken mascot, a brick layer in Nepal, and as a truck driver for medical waste in London. He has worked as the CEO of a small software startup and most recently as the host of the TVNZ series ‘First Crossings’ recreating historic adventures in NZ.

Kevin has written three books ‘The Oarsome Adventures of a Fat Boy Rower’ ‘Escape to the Pole’ (2010), and ‘First Crossings’ all published by Penguin Random House.