Alan Hobson

Featured Keynote Programs

It happens to everyone. You establish a goal, but fall short of achieving it. You try again, but a competing priority suddenly requires you to shift your focus, or your resources. Then, you finally succeed, only to be blindsided by the unexpected. Alan Hobson faced all of these situations while climbing Mt. Everest and confronting life-threatening illness. In his spellbinding custom-built presentations, he draws invaluable connections between his challenges and the similar obstacles we all face in our personal and professional lives and synthesizes from his experiences the priceless lessons from which we all can benefit.

After more than a decade of preparation, Alan Hobson's first expedition to Mt. Everest missed the summit by 3,000 feet when his team's high camp was blasted off the mountain by hurricane-force winds. Instead of giving up on his goal, he used his hard-won lessons to begin again more intelligently. Alan inspires audiences to learn from setbacks and come away with smarter solutions for achieving their objectives.

Hobson’s second Everest attempt missed the summit by just two city blocks when the expedition's lead climber came down with life-threatening high altitude sickness. Alan’s team worked for 33 continuous hours and saved the man’s life, but it meant postponing their goal. Discouraged, but not defeated, he walked away again with another set of precious lessons and started over with renewed determination. With today’s tough choices and competing priorities, instant adaptability is crucial to success. Alan shows audiences how to rise to the challenge of change and effectively re-prioritize without losing sight of their goals.

After almost two decades of preparation, an experienced Alan Hobson finally reached the summit of Mt. Everest during his third expedition. It was a true triumph of tenacity. Alan shows audiences that, even when times are hard, if we remain focused on executional excellence and continuous improvement, we can achieve our goals. His powerful personal example resonates on an individual and organizational level.

Three years after Everest, Alan faced his biggest mountain. Diagnosed with acute leukemia (an aggressive cancer of the blood) and given less than a year to live, once again, he never gave up. Today, he is one of less than a dozen people to achieve an elite level of fitness after a blood cell transplant to eradicate the disease and he is officially medically cured. In today’s environment of uncertainty, Alan’s messages are more important than ever. He offers practical steps for managing the unexpected, as well as those challenges we can more easily predict, and his hard-won wisdom has real world relevance, applicability and power.