Cathy O’Dowd is renowned as the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest from the North and South sides of the mountain. Completing feats that many mountaineers have never before, Cathy is deemed a true inspiration in the field of mountaineering. With countless other inspirational expeditions under her belt, including being the fourth woman to climb Mount Lhotse, Cathy is now highly sought after as a keynote speaker to share her story. When hired as a keynote speaker, Cathy has two tailored speeches – Think Like an Explorer and Reaching New Heights. Don’t miss her exciting and inspirational story at your next event!
Having been an avid climber since leaving school, both in rock climbing and alpinism, Cathy was destined to achieve impressive results. Passionate about adventure and exploration, some of Cathy’s first expeditions saw her explore Africa and the Andes. Going on to explore the Alps for a year, Cathy returned home to achieve a Master's Degree in Journalism and began a job as a Junior Lecturer at Rhodes University. Having seen an advert for a position in the team of the first South African Everest expedition, Cathy enrolled and soon became the first South African to summit Mount Everest. Just three years later, Cathy achieved her career-defining goal, becoming the first woman to summit Everest from both the North and South sides. She later attempted to summit the Kangshung face, but this was unsuccessful.
Since then, Cathy has completed a variety of other expeditions, including a dog-sledge expedition through the Norwegian Arctic and countless technical rock climbs, canyoning and sea kayaking adventures. The insights that she discovered during her time as a mountaineer have allowed her to become a highly sought-after motivational speaker – having been awarded the Professional Speaking Award of Excellence and Fellowship of the Professional Speaking Association UKI. To further share her incredible story of summitting Mount Everest, Cathy has also authored the bestselling book Just For The Love of It.
Having spent almost three decades as a motivational speaker, Cathy O’Dowd is a fantastic choice when looking to inspire audiences to achieve the impossible. With her story focusing on running successful projects and getting the best out of a team, Cathy is also an expert on performing under intense stress and in the face of challenges - topics expertly covered by Cathy O'Dowd when hired via Champions Speakers as an official speaker agent. Teaching her audiences about why plans fail and how teams can crumble under pressure, Cathy is also hired to share her knowledge on high-risk and high-stress environments. A speaker whose life experiences are perfectly translatable into business contexts, don’t miss your opportunity to hear Cathy O’Dowd’s story of pushing boundaries of possibility.
In honour of her dedication and determination in becoming the first woman to summit Mount Everest, Cathy O'Dowd was recently named as one of the Top 20 Trending Growth Mindset Speakers - read more to discover why you should hire Cathy as a growth mindset speaker!
In March 2024 Cathy O'Dowd conducted a Keynote Speech discussing what you can do to stand out and differ from your peers. Watch this Exclusive Keynote Speech from Cathy O'Dowd here.
Social Media
Books
Just For The Love Of It
Reviews
Cathy O'Dowd received a 4.5 star rating across 6 events in 2023
Agent Recommendation
"Cathy O'Dowd's unparalleled achievements as the first woman to summit both sides of Mount Everest, combined with her gripping tales of resilience, make her an exceptional motivational speaker. Her insight into overcoming life-threatening challenges and making critical decisions under pressure is invaluable for corporate teams seeking to enhance teamwork, innovation and strategic decision-making."
Cathy O'Dowd's official speaking topics are listed below:
- Think Like an Explorer - A dramatic story of managing uncertainty while navigating a new route in the high Himalayas. Cathy has turned this extraordinary experience into a case-study of the challenges of being a pioneer, and she takes the audience with her in this interactive presentation. Your people will be on the team, experiencing the uncertainty, participating in the key decisions and living with the consequences. An adventure keynote experience unlike anything you have seen before.
- Reaching New Heights - The place where mountains and business meet is with people: ambitious people tackling overwhelming challenges in high-risk, high-stress environments – high achievers whose natural ambition drives them to competition rather than cooperation, yet who need to collaborate effectively in high-performing teams. With honesty and humour, Cathy shares the ways in which we create our own disasters and shows how we can overcome our mistakes, refocusing teams to push upwards to summit success.
Official Feedback from In-Person & Virtual Events
Feedback from In-Person Events:
"Very professional in her preparation and engaging the audience with interactive tools, we discovered the 'climbing world' has changed. With the support of great images, she made us live her unique and extraordinary story. Her motivational speech was highly praised as the situational examples she used were also relevant to business." - Patricia, Head of Events, Roche Diagnostics
"A fully interactive, audience-engaging experience that offers the opportunity to adventure along with Cathy and her expedition team. That provides an exceptional framework for the event to follow within which business concepts like risk, decision-making and strategy can be explored in context." - David, Leadership Partner, Gartner
"Cathy was the keynote speaker at our annual convention and she was outstanding... she has a rare talent of associating her achievements with one's business challenges." - James, Chief Executive, ASAP
"A fantastic presentation that more than fitted what I wanted... the feedback has been very positive" - Tom, Event Organiser, ProcureCon Eu
"More than one delegate described you as the best conference presentation they had ever experienced." - RCGP Wales
- 2024 - Keynote on differentiation strategies
- 2023 - Explored Zion, Escalante, Capitol Reef canyons (Utah); canyoning in Switzerland; kayaking in Sweden and Norway
- 2016 - Patron, Extreme Medicine Advisory Panel
- 2015 - Co-Founder of Mitra Music for Nepal
- 2014 - Published 'Just For The Love Of It'
- 2013 - Earned CSPGlobal designation
- 2012 - Founded Rwenzori Women for Health
- 2011 - Founded and joined the board of the Voice of Women Foundation
- 2010 - Awarded Professional Speaking Award of Excellence (Professional Speaking Association UKI)
- 2004 - Completed a 650km dog-sled expedition in the Norwegian Arctic
- 2000 - Fourth woman to summit Lhotse
- 1999 - First woman to summit Everest from both north and south sides
- 1998 - Assisted climber Francys Arsentiev on Everest’s north side
- 1996 - First woman to summit Everest from the south side
- 1995 - Joined the First South African Everest Expedition
- 1994 - Junior Lecturer at Rhodes University
- 1990 - Climbed the Ruwenzori range, Central Africa
How to hire Cathy O'Dowd
Contact the Champions Speakers Agency to provisionally enquire about hiring Cathy O'Dowd for your next event, today. To get in touch, simply call an official booking agent on 0207 1010 553 or email us at [email protected] for more information.
** We do NOT accept requests for autographs, signed merchandise, fan mail, birthday messages or any other non-commercial contact with the speakers or acts. Each speaker on the website may not have necessarily worked with Champions in the past but are known to perform such engagements within the industry.
