

World Class Yachtsman
More astronauts have circled the Earth than the number of people who have sailed single-handed non-stop around the world without assistance. Pete Goss MBE is one such sailor.
Biography
A former Royal Marine, Pete first came to public attention in 1998 when he raced across the Atlantic alone in a 26 foot catamaran. He is now one of Britain’s most experienced racing captains, having sailed more than 300,000 nautical miles (460,000 km) in the past quarter century.
Pete’s most recognised achievement is for being the first British sailor to sail single-handedly round the world during the 1996 Vendée Globe. He was also awarded an MBE from the Queen Elizabeth, and the Legion d’Honneur from President Chirac of France for rescuing fellow sailor Raphaël Dinelli, whose boat sank 1400km off the shore of Perth.
Pete’s most recent adventure saw him complete the 1500km circumnavigation of Tasmania by sea kayak. In 2011, his team took two 6-metre, Suzuki-powered RIBS from Scotland to the Arctic Circle. Prior to that, Pete entered into the historic Route du Rhum race; a gruelling 3,500-mile single-handed race across the Atlantic in 2010. In 2009 Pete and his team built ‘Spirit of Mystery’ to recreate and celebrate the heroic journey of seven Cornishmen who sailed a 37ft wooden lugger to Australia more than 150 years ago.
He is the author of best-selling book Close to the Wind (Headline, 1999), which details his experience of the 1996 Vendée Globe race.
Topics
You may want to go deeper into a topic for your audience. The keynote topics can be tailored and developed to suit your audience needs, be it a 90 minute Masterclass, half-day, full-day workshop or a full online or face to face programme we can help. Please contact one of our expert team to discuss.
- DEALING WITH CHANGE
- WORKING ACROSS BORDERS AND CULTURES
- INNOVATION
- TECHNOLOGY
- ADVENTURE
- LEADERSHIP
- TEAMWORK
Testimonials
“Absolutely First Class. We were mesmerised. Without doubt the most interesting, stimulating and motivational speaker we have experienced… Pete Goss has excellent management motivation.” – Peek Plc
“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!” – Robert Nehme, Director of Corporate Marketing, TECSYS Inc. USA.
“Pete’s work with executives exhibits his ability to reinforce important business lessons. These include, how to move on from having an idea to making it happen and how to manage risk. He always remains humble and grounded – reinforcing the concept of the team approach. Pete’s sessions provide the ideal backdrop for global senior executives to challenge their capability, whilst remaining true to their values’” – Steve Mostyn, Associate Fellow Said Business School University of Oxford
Azur Productions: ‘‘During a lunch event held in Monaco, Pete Goss gave one of the very best keynote speeches we have heard. He inspired the audience with his lively, well organised and thoughtful presentation, which was delivered with a fun and appealing approach. Members of the audience were inspired and could easily relate Pete’s incredible experiences to their own day to day business challenges’’ – Kevin Marsh, Azur Productions
“Pete’s presentation, like the oceans he has sailed, has an underlying calm, while on the surface the audience are hit with waves of ideas, advice and emotions that leave a lasting and valuable impression in the business world. An amazing speaker.” – ICAP plc:AP plc
“Pete Goss made an enormous impression on our audience. He had the right mixture of “adventures”, pertinent leadership and teambuilding delivered in a relaxed and personable manner which left our audience with a lot to think about.” – Institute of Management & Volvo Trucks
BT Retail: “Pete was simply one of the most inspirational speakers we’ve ever had, and his messages about the importance of teamwork and innovation were very relevant for our business. He’s a great story teller, and an incredibly humble and likeable guy. The feedback from our event was overwhelmingly positive about him and his message, so I’d strongly recommend him.” – Richard Cameron, CFO, BT Retail
“If you need a team to be re-energised or inspired, this is your man. Pete delivered his talk to an audience of project and IT staff who had been grinding through exhausting and seemingly endless delivery for the past eighteen months, and who were hugely tired and dispirited as a consequence. At the end of the session all were awestruck and uplifted by the sheer magnitude of Pete’s team’s accomplishments and attitude. We have never had feedback like this before : – everyone felt personally connected to Pete’s challenges and totally inspired by him. He was the centre of discussion for the remainder of the evening. What an amazing man. What a remarkable ability to connect at such a profound level with people in the audience. We would have him back tomorrow without a second’s reservation.” - Lesley Morgan, Group IT Director, Hachette UK
Devon Local Medical Committees: “We found Pete to be one of the nicest, most inspirational, enlightening and empowering speakers many of the audience had ever heard.” - John Baker, Devon Local Medical Committees
“I have to say that Pete’s presentation was absolutely first class, his presentation skills were spot on, mixed with a sense of life experiences, challenges and real business issues that he has overcome during his obviously challenging career. I am pleased to say that everyone in my audience has remarked at how impressed they were with his presentation and that it put a lot of the issues that my business is facing, into context and how uplifted they felt after his presentation.” – Avaya UK & Ireland
“Just wanted to drop you a note to say thank you very much for the fantastic talk you gave. Everyone really enjoyed it and found it very inspirational and learnt a lot from it. The groups all made reference to it as well as using several of your quotes when they were reflecting back on the learning’s from the 2 days.” – Julia Luker, BP International Limited