Tori James Keynote Speaker

First Welsh woman to climb Everest
First all-female team to complete a 360 mile race to the Magnetic North Pole
TED Speaker

Tori James's Biography

Tori James is the first Welsh woman, and youngest British woman at the time, to climb to the summit of Mount Everest which she achieved aged just 25. She is a record-breaking adventurer who has skied to the Magnetic North Pole, cycled the length of New Zealand and holds the record for the longest sea kayak in UK waters.

Tori’s outstanding storytelling ability is engaging and uplifting. She talks about risk, resilience and how you and your team can realise your potential.

Tori is an accomplished speaker who has delivered over 600 keynote presentations inspiring audiences across the globe. Tori talks about what it takes to be a high performing team and deliver under pressure, exploring the strategies, mindsets and beliefs that contributed to her team’s success.

Speaking at team development days, sales kickoff events and annual conferences she shares her experiences of life in extreme environments in a way that is inspiring and utterly compelling to listen to.

Tori starred in the BBC documentary ‘On Top of the World’ which was produced using footage she captured on her Everest climb.

In 2025, Tori launched the First Females podcast, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first female ascent of Everest by sharing stories of pioneering climbers worldwide. She also joined an expedition to Nepal’s Yala Peak, retracing the steps of Junko Tabei, the first woman to summit Everest.

Tori’s Beeline Britain challenge is documented in the multi award- winning documentary film called ‘As The Crow Flies’ and her book ‘Peak Performance’ describes the incredible journey she took from growing up in Wales to reaching the summit of Mount Everest.

Tori holds a ‘Points of Light’ Award, awarded by the Prime Minister in recognition of her outstanding volunteering and fundraising.

Tori is the President of Girlguiding in Wales. She is an ambassador for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award and a Fellow of British Exploring.

Tori is an advocate for active travel initiatives and passionately promotes school ‘bike buses’ enabling children to cycle to school and experience everyday adventures by bike.

Altitude & Attitude

Survival in extreme environments requires so much more than speed, strength and stamina. It’s a growth mindset that really counts, both in the wild, and in work - our ability to reframe challenging situations, redefine failure and embrace uncertainty to achieve our goals.

Teams in the Extremes

Building high performing teams in a hyper-connected, yet often remote-working world, is hard. It requires us to prioritise human connection more than ever before. Team Development is about building relationships, developing trust and propelling others to success.

Risk, Resilience & Realising Your Potential

Fear of failure is often what stops us taking on ambitous goals and ideas. Explore how we can embrace the things that scare us, drive sustained individual and collective performance and go beyond what we thought was possible.

keynote speaker showreel

AS THE CROW FLIES - feature documentary

Books by Tori James

Peak Performance: The first Welsh woman to climb Everest

Comments & Testimonials

“Very authentic, humble, positive and engaging. There are so many great analogies between explorations Tori talks about and endeavours we all face in business. This made her talk so relevant for our work.”

Dr Olaf Coenen VP Global Commercial Management EA Games.

“Exceptional public speaker with such engaging, thought provoking content.”

Matt Hewett Swoop Travel

“Spot on. My team had never seen anything like it and are s'll talking about it”

Emma Fardell Director Richborough

“Tori is warm, funny and engaging. Her style really draws you in and it's impossible not to join her on the journeys that she describes”

Bryn Kentish Improvement & Communica;ons Manager, Climb Summit