Craig Mathieson is a polar explorer who is 'Explorer-in-Residence' with the Royal Scottish Geographical Society.
Craig takes selected young people from high school all over Scotland on a polar expeditions, to improve their confidence and self belief.
Born in Johnstone, Renfrewshire and raised in Buchlyvie, Stirlingshire, Mathieson was educated at Balfron High School.[ citation needed ] He began his working life overseas in the military, before moving into HM Customs & Excise as an inspector and anti-fraud officer. He spent seven years with Ernst & Young, before joining Johnston Carmichael in 2007. In January 2014, Craig Mathieson joined accountancy firm French Duncan to head a new VAT department. [1] In 2018 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Abertay University in Dundee. [2]
==Expeditions
He successfully led the first dedicated Scottish Expedition to the South Pole in 2004, man-hauling his sledge 730 miles over the Antarctic Continent, [3] and two years later led an expedition to the Geographical North Pole, taking a 16-year-old boy as part of his team. [4]
In 2009 he was Leader of the 'Northern Lights' sea kayaking expedition on the east coast of Greenland [5]
He was appointed special advisor to HM Forces regarding Polar training and guiding in 2012.[ citation needed ]
In 2013 he was appointed 'Explorer-in-Residence' by Royal Scottish Geographical Society. [6] [7]
Mathieson established the Polar Academy charity in 2013, taking young adults from a variety of backgrounds and inspiring them through participation in Arctic expeditions. The young adults Mathieson targets for his expeditions are not those who fit the profile of the extreme high achievers or the other extreme, for which there is an abundance of initiatives already in existence. Rather, Mathieson aims to help the average young adult who struggles through life – surviving without recognition and without ever truly realizing their full potential.
Robert Edwin Peary Sr. was an American explorer and officer in the United States Navy who made several expeditions to the Arctic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He was long credited as being the discoverer of the geographic North Pole in April 1909, having led the first expedition to have claimed this achievement, although it is now considered unlikely that he actually reached the Pole.
Sir Ranulph Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes, 3rd Baronet, commonly known as Sir Ranulph Fiennes and sometimes as Ran Fiennes, is a British explorer, writer and poet, who holds several endurance records.
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Will Steger is a prominent spokesperson for the understanding and preservation of the Arctic and has led some of the most significant feats in the field of dogsled expeditions; such as the first confirmed dogsled journey to the North Pole in 1986, the 1,600-mile south–north traverse of Greenland - the longest unsupported dogsled expedition in history at that time in 1988, the historic 3,471-mile International Trans-Antarctic Expedition - the first dogsled traverse of Antarctica (1989–90), and the International Arctic Project - the first and only dogsled traverse of the Arctic Ocean from Russia to Ellesmere Island in Canada during 1995.
The Royal Scottish Geographical Society (RSGS) is an educational charity based in Perth, Scotland, founded in 1884. The purpose of the society is to advance the subject of geography worldwide, inspire people to learn more about the world around them, and provide a source of reliable and impartial geographical information.
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Rupert Nigel Pendrill Hadow, known as Pen Hadow, is a British Arctic region explorer, advocate, adventurer and guide. He is the only person to have trekked solo, and without resupply by third parties, from Canada to the Geographic North Pole. He is also the first Briton to have trekked, without resupply by third parties, to both the North and South Geographic Poles from the respective continental coastlines of North America and Antarctica. Hadow also led the Catlin Arctic Survey (2007-2012) which investigated sea ice volume, ocean acidification and ocean circulation.
John Riddoch Rymill was an Australian polar explorer, who had the rare second clasp added to his Polar Medal.
Hugh Robert Mill was a British geographer and meteorologist who was influential in the reform of geography teaching, and in the development of meteorology as a science. He was President of the Royal Meteorological Society for 1907/8, and President of the Geographical Association in 1932.
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