Miles Hilton-Barber has been blind for about 20 years but has not let that stop him from challenging barriers, seeking adventure and succeeding on expeditions to deserts, mountains and the polar regions.
He is an exceptional storyteller and corporate motivational speaker whose messages of 'never give up', 'expect the unexpected' and 'think big to achieve big' come wrapped in a package of humour and profound personal insight.
He uses his experiences as an international adventurer to motivate and inspire others to achieve their potential. His words are not hollow generalisations - he offers practical ideas that work for everyone.
Miles' managerial background complements his skills as a speaker, enabling him to tailor his talks to your particular business and personnel.
His presentations are entertaining, motivating and inspirational, sharing with his audiences the things he would want to hear if their roles were reversed. 'I want them to feel they are looking inside the hearts and minds of the people who worked together as a team, took risks, extended the envelope, and made an impossible dream a reality,' he says.
Whether Miles is giving a keynote corporate presentation or an after dinner speech, his humour, timing and use of material is exceptional. He mixes in laughter, telling stories from his own rich experiences as a blind person.
He has shared the speaking platform with such individuals as Rudi Giuliani, New York Mayor on 9/11, Olympic Medallist Roger Black, Jeremy Paxman, Melvin Bragg, and Lord David Puttnam addressing corporate and celebrity audiences around the world.
Previous experience
World Records: In the last 10 years alone, Miles has set numerous world records whilst undertaking extreme endurance events across all seven continents, including...
- Becoming the first blind pilot to undertake a 55-day, 21,000 kilometre microlight flight from London to Sydney, relying on revolutionary speech-output technology, accompanied by his sighted co-pilot
- Man-hauling a sledge over 250 miles across Antarctica;
- Completing "The Toughest Foot-race on Earth" - 150 miles across the Sahara Desert;
- Climbing to 17,500 feet in the Himalayas;
- Climbing highest mountains in Africa and Europe: Mt Kilimanjaro and Mt. Blanc;
- Running the 11-day Ultra-Marathon race across China from the Gobi Desert to the Great Wall;
- Completing the "Coldest Marathon on Earth"- the Siberian Ice Marathon;
- Competing in the hottest ultra-marathon on earth across Death Valley California;
- Crossing the entire Qatar Desert non-stop day/night in 78 hours without sleep;
- Circumnavigating 38,000 miles around the world using 80 different forms of transport;
- Setting the Malaysian Grand Prix lap record for a blind driver in a 230kph Lotus;
- Setting a new British high-altitude record for a tandem microlight (20,300 feet) with -55 Centigrade open-cockpit temperatures;
- White-water rafting down the Zambezi River;
- Completing more than 40 skydiving jumps;
- Cage-diving with Great White Sharks;
- Becoming the first blind pilot to undertake a sortie of extreme aerobatics in a +600 MPH Hawker Hunter fighter jet with an ex-Red Arrows co-pilot;
- Becoming the first blind person to do the solo kamikaze skeleton run down the 5G Olympic bob-sleigh track in Lillehammer, Norway;
- Becoming the first blind person to drive a 340 BHP performance rated Zap Cat power boat in ocean time trials;
- Becoming the first blind aviator to break sound barrier- attaining speed of Mach 1.4/1,060 MPH during vertical climb to 50,000 feet in just 90 seconds in an English Electric Lightning fighter jet;
- Becoming the first blind person to participate in a drag-racing event, driving a 150 MPH supercharged machine at Britain’s Santa Pod drag track; and
- Becoming the first blind person to drive a 5.5Litre 450 BHP V8 Mustang race car on Cape Town's Killarney Circuit (performance 0-62 MPH in 2.8 seconds).
