International Adventurer, Polar Explorer, Endurance Rower, Yacht Navigator, Expedition Leader, America’s Cup Competitor, PR Director

Jock Wishart has established an international reputation as a leading adventurer, endurance rower and sportsman. Within the space of 18 months alone, he rowed across the Atlantic in his Mount Gay Rum sponsored rowing boat, led the crew which established fifteen new world speed records for powered circumnavigation in the Cable and Wireless Adventurer and captained the team that broke the London – Paris rowing record in the CNA Maritime Challenge. He is the only man ever to have walked unsupported to a Pole and rowed across an ocean.

Born in Dumfries, Scotland and educated at Dumfries Academy and Durham University, Jock is one of Britain’s leading ‘Corinthians’. He has represented his country at rowing and yachting and is a veteran of the 1980 America’s Cup, as well as being a former European Dragon Boat Racing Champion. A British University championship medal winner in rowing, sprint canoeing and weight lifting, he was Project Leader of the team that broke the Round Britain powerboat record in 1989.

A lifetime interest in polar exploration led to him honing his pioneering spirit as a member of the first team to walk unsupported to the Geomagnetic North Pole in 1992 and four years later, in organising The Ultimate Challenge, the first ever televised trek to the Magnetic North Pole an expedition comprising largely of novice explorers.

An adventurous spirit has also been a feature of Jock’s business career. He masterminded the public relations campaign behind the 1991 Rugby World Cup, at the time the largest and most successful sporting event ever held in the United Kingdom and was a founder member of the Top 100 Club, an organisation set up to finance elite sport and act as the voice of the elite athlete. He is presently a London Governor of SportsAid. He has served on the London International Sport Committee, the body charged with bringing major international sporting events to the capital. For several years he was sponsorship director for Hill & Knowlton UK, one of Britains largest public relations companies. In 1999 he was elected one of Britain’s ”People of the Year”. In 2000 he led the BT Lumina sponsored expedition ”Shackleton’s Steps” which replicated for a TV documentary, Sir Ernest Shackleton’s traverse of South Georgia in May 1916. One of the world’s leading yacht navigators, in August 2001 he was navigator on board the American 12 metre yacht ”Freedom” when winning the 12 metre World Championship in Cowes during the America’s Cup Jubilee Regatta. In 2002, he was navigator on the second placed yacht ”Salty Dog” in the premier offshore yachting event the Commodores’ Cup. In 2006 he was navigator on the winning yacht in the Round the Island Race. In 2003 he conceived and organised the first ever Polar Race – a race for teams on ski or foot from Resolute Bay in Nunavut, Canada to the North Magnetic Pole. The Polar Race is now a biennial event. He is also involved in the organising of the London2Paris Rowing Challenge.

April 2011 saw Jock and Old Pulteney Single Malt Scotch Whisky take on a remarkable mission to conquer what was to become one of the world’s last great ‘firsts’ the first rowing attempt to one of the world’s Poles.

The Old Pulteney Row to the Pole Expedition saw Jock and 5 crew mates brave some of the harshest conditions on the planet as they rowed their specially-designed boat through Arctic waters to reach the pole.

The expedition was to test them to the limits of their endurance and ranks alongside the first row across the Atlantic. The challenge was of global significance as both a pioneering maritime adventure and an environmental expedition.

The 450-mile route across the Arctic Sea started in Resolute Bay in Canada. Timing was of the essence as the final section of the journey was only navigable for a few weeks of the year before refreezing.

It had only become possible to consider an attempt like this in recent years due to the increase in seasonal ice melt and the much-documented deterioration of the Arctic landscape.

Jock Wishart has a charismatic personality and is used to dealing with and communicating with large multi-national companies and audiences, grooming him well for the role of representing sponsors in personal appearances, lectures, motivational presentations promotions, television work and radio-broadcasting. Leading companies with which he has dealt professionally in the past include Remy UK, British Petroleum, Gallaher, Adidas, Cummins Engines, Cable & Wireless Plc and Wedgwood.

Why Hire Jock Wishart?