Pete Goss
Outstanding yachtsman, inspirational adventurer, author.
Profile
Pete Goss is an outstanding yachtsman, inspirational Adventurer, company director and author of best-selling book Close to the Wind. He competed in seven transatlantic and two round-the-world races and has sailed more than 300,000 nautical miles.
Pete has taken on numerous endeavours that share the same four principles; innovation, technology, challenge and adventure. An acclaimed International Speaker, he draws on his experiences to offer leadership and management talks, team-building exercises and training sessions, inspiring individuals and groups to achieve beyond what they thought possible.
Whether Pete is taking on the next sailing challenge or heading expeditions to the North Pole he combines a competitive tenacity with a keen ‘will to win’.
From design to completion Pete managed every aspect of the 15 projects he took on. His stories create an interesting, motivating tapestry through which he weaves business lessons learned. A natural communicator with a dynamic but informal style, Pete never ceases to amuse, entertain and inform.
Current work
A regular lecturer at business schools, he is an Associate Fellow of Said Business School Oxford University.
Previous experience
Sailing: Recently Pete built the 37’ Cornish Lugger ‘Spirit of Mystery’ (as seen on BBC Coast) which he sailed with family members, including his fourteen year-old son to Melbourne. This recreated the voyage of the smallest migrant vessel to make it to Australia 150 years ago. Rowing out of harbour and navigating by the stars, they faced many challenges including a ferocious Southern Ocean storm that rolled them upside-down and broke a crewman’s leg. However they still reached Australia together. In addition to this Pete circumnavigated Tasmania by sea kayak; with limited communication he was exposed once again to the Southern Ocean and the notorious Bass Strait.
REscue: Pete first captured global headlines whilst competing in the Vendee Globe single-handed non-stop round the world yacht race. Risking his own life in the midst of a fierce Southern Ocean hurricane Pete turned his yacht around to rescue French sailor Raphael Dinelli. Once Pete had dropped Raph off in Tasmania he completed the race, coming fifth. In recognition of his courage Pete was awarded the Legion d’Honneur and an MBE and voted World Sailor of the Year.
Training: He trained and led the original set of amateur crews for the British Steel Challenge (generally regarded to be the toughest yacht race in the world). Pete talks positively and with passion about leading teams through exciting but often complex, difficult and dangerous situations.
World Record: Always keen to defy convention he attempted a world record with a revolutionary catamaran, Team Philips (which was sadly brought to a halt by a freak storm in the Atlantic). This was a five-year project where Pete headed up a workforce of more than 100 employees, brokered multi-million pound sponsorship deals and assisted with the creation of several new companies. Handling these complex and often conflicting pressures, gave Pete a unique insight into the challenges that face every organisation.
Media
Feedback
I have just spent the morning listening to you speak at the Mid Yorkshire
Hospitals Leadership Community Forum. I just wanted to say thank you for presenting to us today, I don’t think I have heard such an inspiring
presentation. Few people in life make you stop and think but your story
made me re-appraise the way I approach my role. I left the forum feeling
inspired and energised.
“Pete was superb, a genuinely brilliant inspiration. For the most the best talk on Leadership they’d heard in their entire career - to put this into perspective Pete was briefing to 280+ officers from across the armed forces, 80 of whom are international, all of whom live and breathe ‘Leadership’ daily. By my calculation that’s an audience with over 4000 years of Leadership experience (!), all of whom were immensely motivated, inspired and humbled. What a great bloke”.
“Pete was recommended to us as a motivational and leadership speaker. We wanted to put him in front of our customers, a senior group of no nonsense operational management. Having not seen Pete speak before, I was apprehensive. His session was a keynote, the audience was tough, but one minute into his speech, the attention was 100%. You could hear a pin drop, everyone related to his adventure and story of determination in business. We were all truly motivated by it. In our feedback survey everyone voted 5/5 for Pete, we would definitely hire him again!”
