Dr. Ed Coats
Explorer & Motivational Speaker
Ed is a doctor in Oxford with degrees in Medicine, Extreme Human Physiology and Medical Law. In 2009 he took a break from Medicine to join James Cracknell and Ben Fogle on the first ever race of its kind to the South Pole. Ed completed a two-day selection course beating over 650 applicants to win his place on the team. The expedition and selection process was filmed for a 5-part TV series for BBC2 called ‘On Thin Ice’.
Prior to ‘The South Pole Race’, Ed was no stranger to physical hardship and had represented Great Britain as a track and field decathlete and led two teams to swim the English Channel for charity. After returning from the South Pole Ed celebrated becoming thirty with his ’30 at 30′ project taking on thirty adventurous challenges around the UK in a year, which included a Thames swim, a ‘Coast to Coast’ race across Scotland and an endurance mountain marathon on Dartmoor amongst others.
Since returning from Antarctica Ed has jointly led a ski expedition to the Geographic North Pole in 2012, which appeared on Channel 5’s ‘North Pole Ice Airport’. Ed has also jointly led a series of ‘Extreme classroom’ projects in the High Arctic and Africa. ‘The Coldest Classroom on Earth’ and ‘The Hottest Classroom on Earth’ were filmed for BBC World. These projects show that children with challenging behaviour, who are frequently labelled ‘un-teachable’, engage if taught with the right approach.
Ed is highly regarded international keynote, after dinner and motivational speaker to business and in the public sector. In presentation he talks about leadership, team performance and the impact of team dynamics on a project.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Dr Ed Coats is a highly regarded speaker in both the private and public sector. Ed has an ability to humorously relay his own incredible achievements to inspire and entertain his audiences. He combines his vast experience working in healthcare with numerous other adventurous projects to motivate teams and leaders throughout business.
As a doctor Ed worked in obstetrics and gynaecology and acute care in the NHS for 15 years. Ed is passionate about efficiency and building success through strong teams, which are critical to clinical improvement and optimising outcomes. He regularly speaks on patient safety and delivering quality across all healthcare sectors to audiences of medical professionals across the world.
Ed currently works as an IVF and sub-fertility specialist in Oxford and is the co-founder and director of Total Fertility, a popular digital platform designed for patients looking to compare fertility clinics across the UK and Europe. This start up has grown rapidly as patients turn to this easy online clinic comparison tool to reduce some of the stress involved in choosing an IVF clinic.
Ed says “it has been a real challenge to take Total Fertility from a simple concept to a sustainable business. So many core skills relied upon in adventure and medicine have not only been transferable to enterprise and business but essential to our progress”.
Doctor Coats career has included expedition and adventure. Exchanging scrubs for salopettes he has skied to both the poles and led teams through harsh conditions often under intense pressure. Ed recounts these stories to audiences and with clarity outlines the valuable lessons learned that apply in business and life.
Sample Topics:
- Performance under pressure
- Embrace the challenge
- Teamwork and resilience
- Great stories, Great Lessons, Great Healthcare
- Optimising Performance
- Mindfulness and peak performance
Through storytelling, videos, and pictures Ed conveyed the power of open communication in order to improve a team's chance to succeed.
— CIGNA International
Captivating, motivational, inspirational, funny and accessible. We very much hope that Ed will join us again at one of our Awards Evenings. His after-dinner speech was perfectly pitched for our apprentices. Thank you
— TTE Training Limited
Ed more than met our expectations with a captivating, energetic and moving presentation. He “painted” a picture and took the whole room along his journey.
— Janus Capital International Ltd
