Oli France

Oli France is best known as an adventurer, expedition leader, and keynote speaker specializing in leadership, resilience, risk, and performing through uncertainty. For more than 15 years, his expeditions have taken him through deserts, jungles, mountains, conflict zones, and remote regions across more than 80 countries. He has led teams in environments ranging from Iraq and Syria to Congo, Yemen, Somalia, and Siberia. These experiences provide the foundation for his keynotes, where he translates lessons from high-risk expeditions into practical perspectives on leadership, teamwork, decision-making, and achieving ambitious goals.

Oli France draws leadership lessons from situations where poor communication, planning, or decision-making can have serious consequences. His expeditions have required him to assemble and lead teams through mountains, conflict zones, jungles, and other unpredictable environments across more than 80 countries. His leadership approach emphasizes calm decision-making under pressure, intensive planning, open communication, and understanding the human factors that influence team performance. In his keynotes, France connects these expedition principles with organizational challenges, helping leaders consider how they can create resilient, supportive, and high-performing teams when conditions are uncertain.

Oli France’s Ultimate Seven is an ambitious project in which he aims to become the first person to travel entirely by human power from the lowest geographical point to the highest point on each continent. In September 2023, he completed the 28-day African stage. In May 2024, he became the first person this century to complete a fully human-powered journey from Death Valley to Denali, covering 3,588 miles in 64 days. He completed the 34-day South American leg in February 2025. The project provides real-world examples for his speaking themes of resilience, risk, planning, leadership, and pursuing bold goals.

Oli France approaches uncertainty through lessons learned in environments where circumstances can change rapidly and leaders cannot eliminate every risk. Over more than 15 years of expeditions, he has encountered situations involving minefields, avalanches, earthquakes, severe dehydration, interrogations, and conflict zones. His keynotes examine how preparation, calm decision-making, communication, and an understanding of people can help teams continue operating when conditions become unpredictable. France translates these experiences into a business context, making his approach particularly relevant for organizations navigating transformation, disruption, ambitious projects, or other situations where leaders must make decisions without having complete certainty.

Oli France’s “Leadership on the Edge” keynote draws on his experience guiding teams through high-risk environments, including the highest mountain in Iraq, the jungles of Congo, and the streets of Aleppo in Syria. The presentation examines how leaders can rapidly develop high-functioning teams when pressure is high and circumstances are uncertain. France focuses on calm decision-making, detailed planning, open communication, and understanding the human factor within teams. The keynote translates these expedition lessons into methods that leaders and organizations can use when building resilient, collaborative, and high-performing teams.

Oli France approaches resilience through firsthand experience of operating in some of the world's most demanding environments. Across more than 15 years of expeditions, he has faced situations including avalanches, earthquakes, meningitis, severe dehydration, arrest, and travel through conflict zones. His speaking explores how people can maintain perspective and continue moving toward an objective when circumstances become difficult or uncertain. Rather than separating resilience from performance, France connects it with preparation, confidence, decision-making, and teamwork. These themes allow him to translate extreme expedition experiences into lessons relevant to people facing pressure and uncertainty in professional environments.

Oli France combines extensive expedition experience with formal qualifications in outdoor leadership. He holds a BA in Outdoor Leadership from the University of Central Lancashire and is a qualified Winter Mountain Leader. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Scientific Exploration Society. Over more than 15 years, his expeditions have taken him across more than 80 countries and through environments ranging from deserts and mountains to jungles and conflict zones. This combination of practical expedition leadership and formal training underpins his speaking on risk, resilience, leadership, and high-performing teams.

Oli France’s keynotes are particularly relevant for leaders, teams, and organizations focused on leadership, resilience, high performance, risk, and navigating uncertainty. His speaking experience includes work with organizations such as Google, Rolls-Royce, HP, KPMG, AXA, EDF, and the England Rugby Team. His presentations translate more than 15 years of expedition leadership into lessons for professional audiences, particularly teams working toward ambitious goals or operating through significant change. His sessions can also be tailored to an organization’s specific leadership and resilience challenges, making the content applicable across different industries and organizational contexts.

The short answer is: It depends on the event and the scope of the individual assignment.

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