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Mark  Pollock

Mark Pollock

Explorer & Researcher

Mark Pollock

Explorer & Researcher

Biography

Everything Mark Pollock does is about inspiring leaders and their teams to build resilience, optimise performance and collaborate with others so that they achieve more than they thought possible.

Unbroken by blindness in 1998, Mark became an adventure athlete competing 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 an international motivational speaking business.

In 2010, a fall from a second story window nearly killed him. Mark broke his back and the damage to his spinal cord left him paralysed. Now he is on a new expedition, this time exploring the intersection where humans and technology collide to cure paralysis in our lifetime.

Chairman of Collaborative Cures and founder of the global running series Run in the Dark, Mark has been involved in catalysing collaborations worth over $100 million on his mission to cure paralysis. He was selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader, served on the Global Futures Council on Human Enhancement and the Advisory Board of Cybathlon. In addition, he is a Wings for Life Ambassador (Europe) and was on the Board of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation (USA) for a decade.

Currently Mark is pursuing a Professional Doctorate in Elite Performance (Sport) at Dublin City University, he is author of Making It Happen and is the subject of the acclaimed documentaries Blind Man Walking and Unbreakable – The Mark Pollock Story. Mark has been awarded honorary doctorates by The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and also from Queens University Belfast. Furthermore, he holds a diploma in Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century from Harvard University, degrees from Trinity College Dublin and UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School.

Speaker Videos

Mark Pollock Speaking Highlights

EG Clip

When the Challenge Chooses You

Speech Topics

When the Challenge Chooses You

Sometimes we choose our challenges. Sometimes the challenge chooses us. What we decide to do about them is what counts.

In this keynote, Mark Pollock focuses on the power of active decision-making in difficult circumstances. He challenges your people to deal in facts, redefine what’s possible, and work together to achieve more by using his framework to be a competitor, a realist and a collaborator.

Audience outcomes:

  • Develop a more grounded and resilient mindset under pressure

  • Make clearer, more effective decisions in uncertain situations

  • Apply a practical framework to respond to adversity in real time

Expect Problems, Explore Possibilities

Leading, performing and working with others is straightforward when conditions are stable. It becomes far more difficult when unexpected challenges strike and the path forward is unclear. What matters in those moments is how your people respond.

In this keynote, Mark Pollock focuses on how to respond like explorers when unexpected challenges strike. He demonstrates how your people can develop clear, repeatable ways of responding in high-pressure environments by providing a framework focused on deciding to be a competitor, a realist and a collaborator.

Audience outcomes:

  • Lead themselves and others with greater clarity under pressure

  • Raise performance standards and collaborate more effectively across teams

  • Apply a practical framework to lead, perform and work together effectively

Where Humans and Technology Collide

Technology is reshaping how we live, work and perform.  What matters is how your people respond to that change.

In this keynote, Mark Pollock focuses on the intersection where humans and technology collide, drawing on his work using AI, robotics, neuro-modulation and Brain Machine Interfaces to cure paralysis. He challenges your people to understand how to adapt and respond by providing a clear, repeatable framework for responding like explorers when unexpected challenges strike.

Audience outcomes:

  • Build the mindset required to adapt to rapid technological change and disruption

  • Reflect on how to remain relevant and effective in an evolving environment

  • Apply a practical framework to respond to emerging opportunities and challenges

Turning Challenges into Opportunities – The Resilience Cycle

The positive mental attitude industry requires us to be optimists. Yet optimists rely on hope alone and leave themselves open to becoming disappointed and demoralised if the best-case scenario doesn’t play out.

In contrast, realists manage to confront the brutal facts while also keeping hope alive. The realists have resolved the tension between acceptance and hope by running both in parallel.

During this masterclass focused on how to adapt and build resilience, participants develop a deeper understanding of how to rapidly adapt to change and deal with uncertainty.

The masterclass prompts participants to reflect on how to:

  • Respond to expected and unexpected challenges

  • Confront the facts of their current reality

  • Anchor themselves with a sense of control

  • Chart a path through uncertainty

Exploring Performance Potential – The Competitor’s Mindset

In a world where challenges are inevitable, some people are held back while others are propelled forward. Either we sit on the side lines as spectators, or we step into the arena as competitors. Competitors find a way to pursue success and risk failure. They define themselves by their willingness to try, displaying a mindset that values the endeavour as much as the outcome.

During this masterclass, participants reflect on the science of human performance and why recovery is a non-negotiable in reaching their potential.

The masterclass prompts participants to reflect on how to:

  • Embrace a competitor mindset to reach their potential

  • Use clarity, commitment, and connection for optimal performance

  • Create the conditions to enter the high performance flow state

  • Treat recovery as a peak performance non-negotiable

Collaborating to Solve Complex Problems – The Trust Imperative

It is easy, even for world class performers, to work in isolation as soloists. Yet it is when we find a way to galvanise a disparate group of people around a common goal that we have a chance of making major breakthroughs. The question is how do we create the conditions for people to become collaborators?

When we’re operating in a stable environment, we need structure and hierarchy to scale existing solutions. But when challenges appear and the path forward is uncertain, we need something different. We need flatter collaborative approaches with people working together to achieve more.

The masterclass prompts participants to reflect on how to:

  • Choose to be a collaborator not a soloist

  • Create the conditions for collaboration

  • Build trust with other people

  • Develop high-trust teams

Testimonials

Books & Media

Books

Making It Happen