A personal narrative of transformation, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of what lies beyond the horizon.
I was born in Qatar in 1979. From a young age I have had the opportunity to travel, and I have always experienced a deep desire to be immersed in wild surroundings, especially high mountains, and to seek adventure as well as seeing wonderful sights.
A pivotal experience for me came in my early 20s, when I went solo traveling in south-east Asia, including wild adventure and making friends with other young backpackers from around the world. The experience confirmed to me that adventure was to be an integral part of my lifestyle; while conversations with fellow travelers encouraged me to become focused on my career. I decided to specialize in banking, having started working in a bank in the early 2000s. I completed a BA in banking and finance at Bangor University in Wales in the UK, and in 2007 I completed an MBA at Durham University.
While progressing in my banking career, I felt the pull of the mountains and outdoor spaces. Since 2018 I have engaged in several mountaineering expeditions.
As with other mountaineers, for me the desire to ascend a summit emerges deeply from within. I feel most alive when I am in wild spaces, and climbing a mountain deepens this further. Mountaineering deepens my respect for nature and offers lessons in perseverance, teamwork and humility – lessons which influence me in my career and personal life. The discipline of mountaineering instils a strong sense of humility: understanding our relatively small presence in the world. I do not feel that I have ever ‘conquered’ a mountain – rather, I will scale it, if it permits me to.
The link between my professional life and mountaineering is the issue of leadership: in both my professional role and in a push for the summit, I work in a close team. I have learned that many of the subtler skills – such as ability to communicate, empathize and show trust – are among the most important, both in helping a business team achieve its goals, and in seeking to summit a high peak and descend safely.
In a climbing team, the issues of trust, communication, guidance and leadership can mean the difference between survival and perishing. In international finance, the principle remains: there is little we can do as individuals, so the way in which we nurture highly collaborative teams through shared values and goals is key to ensuring we serve our clients effectively, and often exceed our expectations.
In 2021, on the descent from the summit of Broad Peak, the 12th highest mountain in the world, close to K2 in Pakistan, a succession of incidents caused a group of climbers, myself included, to become stranded for several hours at an extremely high altitude. I had symptoms of altitude sickness, including disorientation and hallucinations. As we resumed the descent, I became isolated from the other climbers, and was scarcely able to move for a prolonged period of time. I eventually managed to descend with help to High Camp, and then to Base Camp. As a consequence of these events I suffered severe frostbite and later had five fingers amputated, four of them on my left hand.
Since these traumatic events, I have had to engage in deep reflection on my life, career and sense of purpose. Although I nearly died and was badly injured, I sometimes reflect that the accident on Broad Peak may have been the best thing that happened to me: I emerged more reflective and fully appreciative of all that life has to offer. I was offered the opportunity to begin my life again.
I have sought to use these reflections as the basis for the content of public and private talks that I am often invited to give, and to inform the advice I give in my volunteering work, which includes coaching. I aim to inspire others, to help people who have never climbed a mountain identify with the themes of recovery from setbacks and realizing their ambitions. Everyone experiences loss, trauma and obstacles in life – so while my story is distinctive and unique to me, I have found that my reflections resonate widely. I have learned to adapt to daily life without the full use of my left hand, and I have resumed mountaineering, including reaching the summit of K2 just one year after the accident.