Mark Pollock

I was the first blind person to race to the South Pole. Now I am exploring where humans and technology collide on a new expedition to fast-track a cure for paralysis. Aged 34, Mark was left paralysed after falling from a second story window. He is now exploring the frontiers of spinal cord injury recovery combining an innovative electrical stimulator over his spinal cord, while walking hundreds of thousands of steps in his robotic legs. He is on a mission to find and connect people around the world to fast-track a cure for paralysis. Selected by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader and appointed to the Global Futures Council on Human Enhancement, Mark is on the Board of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and is a Wings for Life Ambassador. Along with his fiancée, Simone George, he is the subject of the acclaimed documentary, Unbreakable, is a Davos, Wired and EG Speaker and is founder of the global running series, Run in the Dark. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and also from Queens University, Belfast, and holds a diploma from Harvard University, degrees from Trinity College Dublin and The Smurfit Business School.

Connecting scientists technologists philanthropists and venture capitalists

Resolving the tension between acceptance+hope