Jim lives in Princetown, Dartmoor, UK, with his wife Samantha. He has a son, Mac (27), two daughters, Helen (39) and Kirsty (43), and two grandsons, Louis and Lachlan.
Professional Qualifications Include:
Fire Officer for the Royal Household – extensive emergency planning for the seven UK Royal Palaces - Crew Manager for Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service - specialist in Road Traffic Accidents - Graduate of The Institution of Fire Engineers: 1998 - Elected as Emergency/Rescue Personnel Member of the Faculty of Pre-Hospital Care at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh - Rescue Emergency Care Level 4/5 - Associate Member of the British Association for Immediate Care Scheme – BASICS Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Certificate – Pre-Hospital Emergency Care Certificate, November 1996.
Involvements
Former Chair of British & Western Europe Chapter of The Explorers Club, Consultant and Mentor to UK Ministry Of Defence, Elected as Fellow Royal Geographical Society 1992, FRGS, Ambassador for Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme since 2000, VP Arctic Expeditions for The Sea Research Society, Director of Arctic Expeditions for The Frozen Isthmuses Protection Campaign, Member of The Captain Scott Society, James Caird Society, South Georgia Society, Ambassador for Hauser Bears charity, Friend of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Member of Royal Scottish Geographical Society, Member of the American Polar Society
Safety and Logistics Consultancy for the film industry
Safety planning - Safety management in polar, mountainous and desert regions - Safety audit - Risk assessment - Dynamic risk assessment - Safety team selection and provision - Safety training - Medical emergency planning, training and exercising - Critical crisis management - Key person safety - Contingency planning - Equipment specification, testing and procurement - Location selection and advice - Medical team selection and provision - Fire team selection and provision.
Credits – Safety Consultant Adviser, Presenter, Trainer and Guide
BBC - Frozen Planet, BBC - Human Planet, BBC – Last Explorers, BBC – Rowing the Arctic, Channel 4 – Predators in Paradise, BBC Natural World – White Falcon, White Wolf, BBC Natural World – Highland Haven, BBC Natural World – Orinoco, Nature Conservation Channel, BBC - How Earth Made Us, BBC – Orbit, Earth’s Incredible Journey, Marvel Entertainment – Captain America
Performance Training Consultancy– Senior Leadership Teams
The Warrior Way – a series of performance courses, Warrior Selection - Individual Performance, Warrior Team Performance, Warrior Leadership Performance, Warrior Development - Sustaining Performance
Clients include: UK National Police Improvement Agency - NPIA (Strategic Command Course), The Colour Works International Limited, Footdown, PWC, BT Openreach, Irish Rugby Football Union, Pfizer, P&G.
Notable Expeditionary Work
1984 to 1994, extensive Arctic travel by ski, snow mobile, dogsled, living with the Inuit of High Arctic Canada for 3 months a year - establishing his knowledge and experience.
2007 - 23 days, polar bear counting expedition – circular route from Longyearbyen to the east coast and return on a more northern route
2007 – 14 days, snowmobile recce, Spitsbergen 2010 - 14 days training Longyearbyen area
Baffin Island
1995 – 20 days, Penny Ice Cap crossing
1996 – 32 days, Northeast Baffin Island Expedition May – To establish and report on the feasibility of Adventure and Wildlife Tourism in the region, for the Canadian Tourist Commission. This involved leading a party of four persons – 2 mountaineers, 2 Inuit – on a recce expedition involving 750km of sea-ice travel around the coastline and into the fiord and hinterland areas, by snowmobile and kommatik – ascending an unclimbed peak, identifying mountaineering, ski routes and wildlife viewing areas. Report written and presented to the Canadian Government. 1997 – 18 days, Northeast Baffin Island Expedition to Salem Island to recce the potential for climbing in the region – summated two unknown peaks
1998 - Pangnirtung Pass, 20 days of solo exploration 1999 – 10 days, Arctic Bay and environs by ski, solo
Ellesmere Island
2004 - 40 day expedition through the Sverdrup Pass from Eureka and up the eastern coast to the Darling Peninsula and the Geomagnetic North Pole
2007 – 72 day expedition following a pack of eight wolves
2008 – 66 day expedition following a pack of three adults and 6 cubs Cornwallis Island
2003 - 73 days expedition around the island exploring other islands offshore 2005 – 30 day expedition in the Northwest Passage
2006 – 12 day acclimatisation expedition to Polaris Mine site and return Arctic Ocean
2003 – Northern Pole of Inaccessibility – First attempt thwarted due to contracting necrotising fasciitis (a flesh eating disease) of his left ankle – did not leave base
2006 – February Northern Pole of Inaccessibility – Second attempt initially postponed 6 days from leaving Isachsen due to an un-crossable lead over 20 miles wide. Later in March, having re-grouped in Resolute he was flown out to the other side of the lead and lasted 17 days before the condition of the sea-ice became so bad he abandoned the attempt. Jim was measuring sea-ice parameters for the US, National Snow and Ice Data Center and reporting for UK news broadcaster ITN (also syndicated to NBC, CNN France 2 and others around the world).
Ice Warrior Project
This involved comprehensively training ordinary novices from all walks of life and echelons of society to become polar competent so that they could live, work and adventure in the polar regions.
515 people were trained between the years of 2001 and 2022 - 7 major expeditions were undertaken and the project were cited as data-gatherers for the scientific community in scientific papers, publications and magazines, globally.
2022 May - Jim McNeill publicly announced that his long time wish of reaching the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility was no longer viable or tenable - the depletion of the sea ice was so great.
Global Warrior and Ocean Warrior
In October 2022 the Ice Warrior Project was expanded to become Global Warrior Project to include the other extreme environments Ocean, Desert, Mountain and Jungle.
The next domain was the ocean and the soft launch of Ocean Warrior in January 2023. Tasked with finding out exactly what is happening to our oceans the programme will consist of three vessels undertaking a total of 20,000 nautical miles of sailing expeditions starting in June 2025 and repeated every year for the next 10 years. These will be known as the #ResoluteExpeditions and will bring together a mix of scientists, students and citizen scientists to conduct critical ocean exploration at what undoubtedly is a crucial time. Core partners to date include: Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Marine Biological Association and the University of Plymouth.
Keynote Speech Testimonials
“Jim presented his amazing Ice Warrior program at our annual company conference. During his speech, he shared the key values that he feels are paramount to a high performing team. He appeared to all of us, as a person with a rich life history, brilliantly sharing genuine experiences, and thus hugely helped us reinforce the theme of our conference: One Team, One Ambition.” Bertrand Steip Moet Hennessy UK MD
“By reducing the time for real syndicate formation by at least four days (according to the instructors), Jim McNeill and Ice Warrior made a profoundly positive impact on the Strategic Command Course for our Senior Police Officers. So much so that even seven weeks after the event the participants are still talking about it. We will be booking Jim and his team in the future.” Dr Mark Kilgallon, Consultant to The National Police Training College
“Nothing less than inspirational... an authoritative blend of raw experience with practical coaching... energised an already highly motivated group of senior executives.” PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP
‘We were delighted when Jim agreed to speak to our Executive Team and we were completely gripped when he shared experiences from his truly-remarkable career, from funny and emotive to absolutely terrifying. Jim has a wonderful insight into people and how to motivate them which coupled with his strong determination to succeed makes him an excellent leader. He was an inspiration to all of the team and certainly put into perspective how minor our challenges are when compared to the challenges of surviving a polar exploration.” Emma Clancy, CEO, Certsure
“I cannot recommend involvement with Ice Warrior highly enough. This is an extremely professional, committed and driven organisation which has much to teach people about how to achieve their personal and business goals” Jonathan Geldart, Global Director Marketing Communications, Grant Thornton International Limited
“Can you pass on our thanks to Jim for giving us such an entertaining and fascinating account of his remarkable adventures. He is an excellent speaker and engaged with our audience throughout the whole of his talk. He was very friendly and amenable to work with and I really appreciated his patience in meeting our sponsors, committee and members. It was a pleasure to have him with us and I hope he enjoyed his time with us too. Over 750 of our members were in the audience and I think they all thoroughly enjoyed the evening.” Ascot Arts and Literature Society
“Excellent – very engaging, very relaxed style, with a good level of humour. Jim talked about overcoming adversity by working as a team, but also respecting each other as individuals and working with their strengths to help them and the team achieve why this was important. The audience were very captivated and energised – lots of questions at the end and I’m sure the questions would have kept coming if we had the time. Jim was very happy to stay and chat to people at the end, a very approachable person who is obviously very passionate about what he does which very much came across in his presentation. I think a few people were even tempted to find out how to be part of one of his expeditions.” Pfizer
"An excellent presentation and content to his talks. Unfortunately this voyage has only allowed for 2 talks to be held due to so many additional lectures with the Trunk show & port talks etc, but I believe Jim would also hold an excellent Q&A which I would be keen to include next time. I received only really positive feedback in regards to Jim’s talks." Cunard – RMS Queen Victoria
"Considering the extreme danger inherent in the environments in which Jim McNeill is required to work he calmly turns his experiences into an enthralling, engaging and often very amusing talk which had everyone on the front of their seats throughout – most of whom were surely thinking “I’m glad it was Jim out there, not me”. Jim is evidently very skilled and very brave and he reached both the young and adults in the audience." Event Organiser, The Binfield Winfield and Warfield Arts Week
“Anyone with a genuine interest in or love of the Arctic Polar Regions who has not had the pleasure of sitting through Jim's superb talk 'Exploring the Polar Regions' has missed out on something special. The photography is stunning, particularly the landscapes and wildlife, his narrative is enthralling, informative and at times amusing but this is no sanitised version of the realities of life in such an environment. This is how it is. By the end, it seems as if you have experienced the harsh difficulties with him, lived through the trials and tribulations and you will be left looking around for your jacket as it feels as if the extreme cold of the freezing landscape photos has been reaching out to envelop you. Cannot wait for the book to come out!”
"What Jim McNeill and his team are doing is pioneering of the most advanced kind..what he is planning pushes man beyond the boundaries and will take him to the most inaccessible places on Earth." Lord Robert Winston
"Jim McNeill offers his audience an entertaining and fascinating insight into his truly remarkable adventures. His courage, unyielding determination and dedication to achieving the seemingly impossible left all those in the room feeling humbled and inspired. Any business serious about success should hear his message." MD, TV
"The children thought that you were brilliant - the best yet - and there has been some tough competition! I always think that even if you only change one persons life for the better and set them on the right path, then it is worthwhile." Head Teacher
"The tales of Jim’s many Arctic expeditions are unique and thrilling. They are relevant to everyone that has undertaken a personal challenge, the fear of failure or the sacrifice for success each connect very powerfully with the audience. There are some powerful learning’s for the commercial world." Chairman
“Jim McNeill was our guest speaker for our aptly entitled ‘Ice Warrior Seminar’. Our aim was to headline the seminar with leading figurehead, advocate and spokesperson Jim McNeill, accomplished Arctic traveller, presenter, speaker and ITN Ice Warrior."
"We talked to Jim about addressing the effects of global warming on the Arctic ice cap and bringing the reality of global climate change to our audience of invited VIP guests - comprising our most valued city firms, whose CSR policies were starting to become more specific in addressing their efforts to reduce their carbon footprints. From the moment he took centre stage, he connected with the audience when he started at the very beginning, many years ago - an essential part of getting their attention and impacting upon them later with key messages. I suspect this made him even more credible and authentic.
He cleverly conveyed what he had to say with real passion, honesty and sincerity; his speech was motivational and inspirational, serving to educate, entertain and enrapt our audience. He also cleverly weaved humour into a speech which, ordinarily, dealt with a very serious subject matter – climate change. I believe this all helped to create a bond between him and his audience, which made what he had to say all the more authentic and impactful. It goes to show how thought-provoking someone can be, when every one of their audience of invited guests takes the time to express their gratitude and thanks for having been invited. Thanks Jim!” Elior UK
“Thank you so much for a really interesting and entertaining evening last night. I thoroughly enjoyed myself - and, although not quite the last to leave, I was very nearly the last! I thought Jim McNeill's talk was fascinating.
“Thank you for hosting the event last night; a truly inspirational presentation that really makes you sit up and think. Please pass on my thanks to your team."
"The Ice Warrior talk was fascinating. The points Jim made about climate change were well made. It was quite a positive note at the end as long as we continue to work on reducing our emissions. Can you please pass on my thanks to your team."
“Jim was a very entertaining speaker, I didn't know about him previously and was impressed with his endeavours. The photos were great, I'm glad I saw his talk.”
“Thank you very much for such an interesting and worthwhile event”
“Jim’s presentation was fascinating – just the right length and enough time for questions, he is a very engaging speaker.”
“The background information as to how Jim McNeill became an explorer and why he does it. This gave the presentation some context and made sense of the scientific elements.”
Why it worked for us: Jim McNeill with Ice Warrior has helped turn ordinary people's dreams into a reality. An extraordinary man enabling ordinary people to take the ultimate challenge of Arctic exploration.
Arctic Exploration: The tales of Jim's many Arctic expeditions are unique and thrilling. They are relevant to everyone that has undertaken a personal challenge, the fear of failure or the sacrifice for success each connect very powerfully with the audience.
Commercial Connection: There are some powerful learning's for the commercial world. Here Jim draws strong parallels to the business arena and provides some compelling insights into the key areas of leadership and teamwork that provide some invaluable and graphic lessons. John Gillett - Chairman Candour Event Marketing
Jim proved a highly amusing and engaging speaker who enthralled our audience with his tales of modern adventure. His personal insights into the effects of climate change were delivered with passion and detail. Everyone was both entertained and educated; we will definitely use him again. Chairman - Sign-Up.To
Jim McNeill's presentation to the Captain Scott Society on the subject of his "Ice Warrior" endeavours was colourful and entertaining but most of all it was thought provoking. Jim gave an honest and unsentimental view of the difficulties he faced in his quest for the four North Poles and also a clear assessment of how global warming is changing the face and nature of the Arctic. The extraordinary images used to good effect during the presentation were graphic, evocative and often dramatic. The knowledge Jim has acquired of the Arctic was obvious and allowed him to speak with authority and assurance. Julian Salisbury - Chairman, The Captain Scott Society
“Just to say thank you again for taking the time to meet with us yesterday and to help us to think about our team effectiveness in a new way along with inspiring us with your fantastic work and experiences. I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions which you took us through and I know others did too. We wish you the very best for your next expedition and the valuable scientific work which you are contributing too. I’ll be following with interest.” Helen Dunn, Fundraising Director, The Cricket Foundation
“Jim has an incredible knowledge and understanding of how to survive and work in extreme climates, which he is able to communicate very effectively” Mark Beaumont
Explorer, Super Cyclist and BBC Scotland Expedition Cameraman
“Many thanks for the wonderful lecture you gave to the Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute. It was fascinating to learn so much about Sir Hubert Wilkins and all of his achievements” Celene Pickard, Secretary Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute, Cambridge University.
“Your thought provoking contribution has been greatly appreciated and enjoyed by all and, without question, helped make the event the success it was”. Rhonda Bedford, Business Director, Chief Fire Officers Association
“Anyone with a genuine interest in or love of the Arctic Polar Regions who has not had the pleasure of sitting through Jim’s superb talk ‘Exploring the Polar Regions’ has missed out on something special. The photography is stunning, particularly the landscapes and wildlife, his narrative is enthralling, informative and at times amusing but this is no sanitised version of the realities of life in such an environment. This is how it is. By the end, it seems as if you have experienced the harsh difficulties with him, lived through the trials and tribulations and you will be left looking around for your jacket as it feels as if the extreme cold of the freezing landscape photos has been reaching out to envelop you. Cannot wait for the book to come out!” Ian, Mary and Shaka the Dog
"Absolutely brilliant" Clacton Arts: “Thank you so much for a really interesting and entertaining evening last night. I thoroughly enjoyed myself - and, although not quite the last to leave, I was very nearly the last! I thought Jim McNeill's talk was fascinating.
“Thank you for hosting the event last night; a truly inspirational presentation that really makes you sit up and think. Please pass on my thanks to your team."
"The Ice Warrior talk was fascinating. The points Jim made about climate change were well made. It was quite a positive note at the end as long as we continue to work on reducing our emissions. Can you please pass on my thanks to your team."
“Jim was a very entertaining speaker, I didn't know about him previously and was impressed with his endeavours. The photos were great, I'm glad I saw his talk.”
“Thank you very much for such an interesting and worthwhile event”
“Jim’s presentation was fascinating – just the right length and enough time for questions, he is a very engaging speaker.”
“The background information as to how Jim McNeill became an explorer and why he does it gave the presentation some context and made sense of the scientific elements.”
“Entertaining and fascinating... left all those in the room feeling humbled and inspired... any business serious about success should hear his messages.” CEO, ITN Source
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