Paul Niel is an Adventurer, Explorer and Technology entrepreneur.
For more than two decades, he has undertaken expeditions to all corners of the globe, from Antarctica to the deserts of Mongolia, from the jungles of Central Africa to the Himalayas. He has used drones to search for dinosaur fossils, employed virtual reality to solve a World War II mystery, and solved a Rubik’s cube on the summit of Mount Everest.
On his expeditions, he pursued a variety of goals-scientific, physical, extreme endurance and toughness. His goal: to keep the team together and get home safely-whether he faced mutiny on a tiny sailboat in the middle of the Atlantic, suffered life-threatening injuries in India or was stranded for weeks in the polar regions.
Paul Niel is a true 21st century Explorer.
He has successfully conquered the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each continent, including Mount Everest and explored new, yet undiscovered peaks in China and Antarctic. Throughout his career his curiosity has lead him to transition himself from corporate employee to entrepreneur and explorer.
His background as a technology entrepreneur and his adventure experiences make him an expert in decision-making in uncertain and difficult situations. His passion and knowledge on latest technology allowed him to utilise innovative tools to unravel scientific mysteries – Drones, Virtual Reality and AI.
Paul Niel Lecture Topics
- The summit is optional, survival is mandatory
Leadership lessons from two decades of exploration including
- How to bounce back from ultimate defeat
- How to manage uncertainty and life threatening risk
- How to keep a team motivated in challenging times
A journey on resilience, risk management and positive mindset.
- Pack your bag for a Life of Adventure
Paul shares the key mindset learnt from his expeditions. Attitudes that have helped him grow and succeed in business and adventure. He takes the audience on a journey from the mountains of Africa via the top of the world to the Gobi Desert. Curiosity, Survival Focus, Crazy Ideas & more. Paul will take you on a journey of a lifetime!
- Mount Everest & Lhotse – Twice on the roof of the world
The thrilling story of triumph and tragedy surrounding Paul Niel’s 2013 ascent of Mount Everest and Lhotse. Conquering the two peaks, during which he had to spend over 70 hours in the death zone above 8000 m, made him only the ninth person to climb the two mountains within 24 hours. His story reflects the latest developments in adventure sports and alpinism and shows that determination, rational decision-making and teamwork lead to success.
Paul Niel is skilled at thinking in scenarios and outlining and bringing solutions through his research and experiments with ESA, NASA and other global companies.
Moonshot-Thinking: Insight into uniqueness
Thanks to his unique profile as an extreme adventurer seeking to build sustainable businesses, Paul Niel is one of a select few participants in the 2014 Singularity University program, a think tank established by Google and NASA in Silicon Valley to train future leaders in groundbreaking technologies to address humanity’s most critical challenges.
In his talks, Paul Niel is all about showing how to keep setting and focusing high goals for yourself. It’s important to build a strong network, create and maintain relationships, keep learning, don’t be complacent and be open to change.
Born in Austria and now living in Lisbon, Paul supports and sponsors socially engaged companies. Paul Niel also works for aid organizations in Nepal (dZi Foundation), Hong Kong (Enlighten HK) and Kenya (Flying Kites) to promote social inclusion and rural development.
After graduating from the University of Vienna with a degree in statistics, Paul Niel worked for over a decade in the financial world, including New York, London and finally Hong Kong. His insatiable curiosity led him on adventures around the world and to more than 80 countries: from the deserts of Mongolia to the snow-covered volcanoes of Kamchatka, from the perpetual ice of Antarctica to the Atlantic Ocean, which he crossed in a sailboat with strangers. Paul Niels’ home is the mountains, of which he has climbed a multitude in the largest mountain ranges in the world.
His adventures were also the catalyst for his later career change from employee to entrepreneur. Paul Niel has given numerous presentations in German and English, whether at public institutions or at conferences in Asia and Europe, sharing his inspiring life story with his audiences.
Paul Niel shares his visions of the challenges in energy, food and water and how easy it is to have a stronger impact.