Cathy O'Dowd Profile Picture

Keynote SpeakerCathy O'Dowd

The first woman in the world to climb Mount Everest

Cathy O’Dowd is the first woman in the world to climb the world’s highest mountain from both its north and south sides. Her first ascent of Everest happened in the midst of the chaotic events that form of the basis of the ‘true story’ behind the Hollywood movie Everest. Cathy,... Read More

Biography

Cathy O’Dowd is the first woman in the world to climb the world’s highest mountain from both its north and south sides. Her first ascent of Everest happened in the midst of the chaotic events that form of the basis of the ‘true story’ behind the Hollywood movie Everest.

Cathy, who grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, has climbed ever since leaving school, both rock-climbing and alpinism. `Her first expeditions were to central Africa and the Andes, followed by a year exploring the Alps.

She was completing her Masters degree in Journalism, while working as university lecturer, when she saw a newspaper advert for a place on the 1st South African Everest Expedition. Six months later she became the first South African to summit Everest.

Three years on she became the first woman in the world to climb the mountain from both sides. She made one last expedition to Everest to try a new route on the Kangshung face. She has written a book about her Everest experiences, Just For The Love Of It.

The years she spent in the Himalaya were for her a degree ‘in living’. The insights she discovered about herself, and about individuals and teams under intense stress in the face of overwhelming challenge, are ones she has been sharing with her corporate audiences ever since.

Her stories touch on themes of importance to anyone trying to run successful projects and get the best out of people.

Surf ski in South AfricaCathy canyoning in SpainCathy climbing in SpainCathy ski mountaineering in CanadaCathy O’Dowd jumping into the Ordiso canyon in SpainCathy on Nanga ParbatCathy trail running in AndorraCathy O’Dowd on a sea kayak trip in the Finnish archipeligoCathy on the summit of Everest

Cathy has been a professional speaker for 27 years and has presented her message to companies in 46 countries on six continents. She is a Fellow of the Professional Speaking Association of UK/Ireland, who have given her their highest award, the Professional Speaking Award of Excellence.

Cathy’s most challenging Himalayan epic was as part of a team attempting a new route on an 8000 metre peak. Although Cathy herself did not reach the summit, two of her teammates did, doing the first ascent of Nanga Parbat via the Mazeno ridge, and winning the prestigious Piolet d’Or for their achievement.

She has turned this experience into a fascinating interactive case-study of successful project execution of truly innovative goals.

Cathy lives in Andorra, in the Pyrenees mountains, from where she pursues her speaking career, and explores the mountains of Europe. In her free time she does technical rock-climbing, ski-mountaineering, canyoning and sea kayaking.

In 2023 Cathy is focused on canyoning and sea kayaking adventures, with trips to places including Morocco, Madeira, Utah and Crete. Through the summer she is travelling through Scandinavia with her sea kayak.

“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 Mayer, Leadership Partner, Gartner
“I cannot remember the last time I was so impressed by a speaker who had such strong, relevant and inspiring messages.” David McNeill, Enterprise Holdings
“Very professional in her preparation and engaging the audience with interactive tools, we discovered how 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 Lhopital, Head of Events at Roche Diagnostics
“I have hired hundreds of guest speakers and I found that Cathy is one of the few that is able to tie her amazing climbing experiences tangibly back to business management and strategy.” Sara Mueller, WBR
“Cathy was the key note speaker at our annual convention and she was outstanding…. she has a rare talent of associating her achievements with one’s own business challenges.” James Foice, Chief Executive, ASAP

Popular Talks by Cathy O'Dowd

  • Think Like An Explorer
    A dramatic story of managing uncertainty while navigating a new route in the high Himalaya. 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...
  • Reaching New Heights
    Teamwork and leadership from the slopes of Mount Everest. 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....
  • Adventure
  • Leadership
  • Teamwork
  • Risk Management
  • Project Management
  • Women in a man’s world
  • Overcoming obstacles
  • Achieving goals