Ed Coats

Ed Coats was chosen to be the third member of team QinetiQ alongside  Ben Fogle  and  James Cracknell  on their journey to the South Pole. His experience has led him to become an accomplished and inspiring  adventure speaker  in addition to his day job as a Doctor.

Ed joined team QinetiQ in order to compete in the race to the South Pole with fellow team-mates James Cracknell and Ben Fogle. It was the first time the race had taken place since Captain Scott was beaten by Norwegian Amundsen in 1912; Ed took part in a two-day training day and aptitude test and proved he was the third member they were looking for, beating 650 applicants in the process.

Six teams were involved in the race, skiing 470 miles across the Antarctica; the team faced numerous obstacles including crevasse fields, frostbite, serious blisters and hallucinations. Their days of cross country skiing were 16 hours long and in temperatures as low as -40 degrees Celsius. Eventually they finished in second place to the Norwegians; it took them eighteen days, five hours and thirty minutes.

Ed was a keen adventurer even before he took part in the race to the South Pole, he captained two teams that swam the English Channel, has completed the Karrimor Mountain Marathon and has also represented Great Britain as a decathlete. Ed participated in the ’30 at 30’ challenge, where he took on thirty gruelling activities including a Thames Swim and an endurance marathon. His incredible challenges have been documented by BBC World.

In addition to his numerous outdoor achievements, Ed has a degree in Aerospace Physiology and is a Doctor in a hospital in Bristol; he also completed a law degree in his spare time.

Ed is an adept and intelligent speaker with the ability to focus on his QinetiQ team adventure, drawing on the importance of team work and collective responsibility and relating this to business; he believes good relationships between team mates and colleagues are vital in order to achieve a successful outcome.