Maria Gordon | |
---|---|
Born | |
Nationality | British/Russian |
Other names | Masha Gordon |
Occupation | Businesswoman |
Known for | World record for Explorers Grand Slam |
Masha Gordon (born 13 February 1974) is a British businesswoman, explorer and mountain climber. Gordon spent 16 years working in finance and capital markets. She was managing director of Goldman Sachs and most recently led the emerging markets portfolio management team at PIMCO.
In October 2015 Gordon embarked on the Explorers Grand Slam female world record challenge. [1] She has ascended the highest peaks on every continent and also skied the last degree to both the North and South Poles. She completed the Explorers Grand Slam challenge by reaching the summit of Mount Everest on 19 May 2016 [2] and has set a women's speed record by reaching Denali via the Cassin ridge on 11 June 2016. By reaching two poles and the summit of Everest within just over 5 months she has also become the fastest woman to complete The Three Poles Challenge. [3]
Gordon was born and raised in the Soviet Union in North Ossetia, in a family of engineers. Her father, Vladimir Pavlenko, was an avid alpinist. Masha moved to Moscow to study journalism at the Moscow State University in August 1991.
She started her career as a reporter for The Washington Post in its Moscow bureau in 1992, and later studied in the United States; gaining a BA in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.[ citation needed ]
Gordon joined Goldman Sachs in 1998. She spent the next 12 years in the asset management division managing money in emerging markets equities. She gained prominence in her field and has been named a number of times a Manager of the Year in her asset class category by Morningstar and Lipper. [4] Gordon was named Managing Director in October 2006. [5] In 2009, Gordon moved to PIMCO to help the firm broaden its outreach beyond debt markets. [6] She was named twice Top 40 under 40 by The Financial News. [7]
Gordon moved to a portfolio career of non-executive board roles in 2014 and currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Constellation Oil Services, [8] a deep water driller with operations in Brazil and India. Gordon is also on the Board of Advisors for the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the Council of the Girls Day School Trust. [9]
Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she stepped down as an independent non-executive director of Polyus, Evraz, MOEX, Detsky Mir, TCS and Alrosa. [10]
Gordon started climbing in her mid-30s after a friend introduced her to alpinism in Chamonix, France. She spent the next seven years honing her technical skills across a variety of disciplines, including mixed climbing, ice climbing and ski mountaineering. In October 2015 Gordon embarked on an endurance challenge, the Explorers Grand Slam, and set out to beat the women's record, then held by Vanessa O'Brien. [1] She has ascended the highest peak on each continent and also skied to both the North and South Poles. She became 46th person to complete the Explorers Grand Slam challenge when she reached the summit of Mount Everest on 19 May 2016 [11] [2] and has set the women's speed record by reaching the summit of Denali via the Cassin ridge on 11 June 2016 [12]
Gordon is a founder of GRIT&ROCK, a charity which aims to help teenage girls from deprived, inner city backgrounds develop greater grit, determination and self-confidence through year-long mountaineering training programmes. [13]
Denali is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of 20,310 feet (6,190 m) above sea level. It is the tallest mountain in the world from base-to-peak on land, measuring 18,000 ft (5,500 m), and Earth's highest mountain north of 43°N. With a topographic prominence of 20,194 feet (6,155 m) and a topographic isolation of 4,621.1 miles (7,436.9 km), Denali is the third most prominent and third-most isolated peak on Earth, after Mount Everest and Aconcagua. Located in the Alaska Range in the interior of the U.S. state of Alaska, Denali is the centerpiece of Denali National Park and Preserve.
The Seven Summits are the highest mountains on each of the seven traditional continents. On 30 April 1985, Richard Bass became the first climber to reach the summit of all seven.
Park Young-seok was a South Korean mountaineer.
Cecilie Skog is a Norwegian adventurer who trekked across Antarctica in 2010.
The Three Poles is an adventurer’s challenge to reach the North Pole, the South Pole, and the summit of Mount Everest.
Ajeet Bajaj is the first Indian to ski to the North Pole and complete the polar trilogy which entails skiing to the North Pole, South Pole and across the Greenland icecap. Bajaj and his daughter Deeya Bajaj were the first Indian father daughter team to climb Mt. Everest. He completed the Explorer's Grand Slam on 05 June 2022 while completing the Seven Summits with his daughter Deeya.
The Explorer's Grand Slam is an adventurer goal to reach the North Pole and South Pole, as well as climb the Seven Summits.
Alison Levine is an American mountain climber, motivational speaker and leadership consultant. She is the author of On the Edge: The Art of High Impact Leadership and the executive producer of a documentary, The Glass Ceiling. She has ascended the highest peaks on every continent and also skied to both the North and South Poles. In 2010, she completed the Adventure Grand Slam by reaching the summit of Mount Everest.
Cheryl Sarah Bart is an Australian lawyer and company director. She is also the first Australian female and the 31st person worldwide to complete the Explorer's Grand Slam.
Krushnaa Patil is an Indian climber. In 2009, at the age of 19, she became the youngest Indian woman to successfully ascent Mount Everest, earth's highest mountain.
Andrea Cardona is a Guatemalan mountaineer, the first Central American woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest and the first Latin American to complete the Adventurers Grand Slam.
Harry Taylor is a British mountaineer, security advisor and former SAS member. He founded ‘High Adventure’ with Loel Guinness, an extreme sports company specifically designed to set records in climbing, paragliding, and skydiving. His team set a world distance flight record for a paraglider at 150.6 km in Namibia. In 1991, with close friend Charles "Nish" Bruce he made a tandem skydive with oxygen from 27,000 feet over Badajoz in Spain. Taylor did a tandem paraglider flight from Cho Oyu 8,201m Tibet and was also the 1st British paraglider pilot to fly from Denali, Alaska.
Vanessa Audi Rhys O'Brien is a British and American mountaineer, sub-orbital spaceflight participant, explorer, author and former business executive. On 4 August 2022, O'Brien became the first woman to complete the Explorers' Extreme Trifecta – reaching extremes on land, sea, and air after she passed the Kármán line as part of Blue Origin NS-22 spaceflight. On 12 June 2020, O'Brien became the first woman to reach Earth's highest and lowest points, receiving a Guinness World Record. She became the first American woman to climb K2 and the first British woman to climb K2 and return safely on 28 July 2017, successfully leading a team of 12 members to the summit and back on her third attempt. She is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (RGS) and an Honorary Advisory Member of The Scientific Exploration Society (SES).
Tashi and Nungshi Malik are the first siblings and twins to climb the Seven Summits and reach the North and South Poles and complete the Adventurers Grand Slam and Three Poles Challenge.
Martin Hewitt is a mountaineer, businessman and former Captain in the Parachute Regiment. He is most notable for his attempts to be the first to complete the Explorers Grand Slam with a team of disabled mountaineers. He is also known for his appearances on the BBC TV programme Harry's Arctic Heroes. Hewitt spent eight years as a commissioned officer in the Parachute Regiment. He was mentioned in dispatches in 2006 during his first tour of Afghanistan. Whilst leading a platoon attack in Helmand Province, Afghanistan in 2007 on his second tour of duty he received gunshot wounds to the chest and foot from a 7.62 calibre machine-gun fired by insurgents. This resulted in his right arm becoming permanently paralysed. Forced to quit active service with the British Army, Hewitt turned his mind to disabled sport and mountaineering. After forming and captaining the first Combined Services Disabled Ski Team, he went on to represent Great Britain in the Paralympic World Championships competing in downhill ski racing.
Jaahnavi Sriperambuduru is an Indian mountaineer and motivational speaker. She is on her mission to climb the highest peaks of all seven continents known as the Seven Summits and also to reach the farthest point on the globe "The South Pole" and "The North Pole".
Colin Timothy O'Brady is an American professional endurance athlete, motivational speaker and adventurer. He is a former professional triathlete, representing the United States on the ITU Triathlon World Cup circuit, racing in 25 countries on six continents from 2009 to 2015.
Aparna Kumar is an Indian mountaineer. She was awarded the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award in 2018 for land adventure by the President of India.
Wang Jing is a Chinese climber, author, entrepreneur and member of The Explorers Club in the United States. Wang is best known for her feat in becoming the fastest woman in the world to complete the Explorers Grand Slam in 143 days and the fastest woman to climb Seven Summits with an assist from helicopters. The Explorers Grand Slam involves reaching the highest peak on every continent plus at a minimum of skiing the last degree (111 km) to the North and South poles. Wang recorded this adventure in her book Silence of the Summit, which was published in English in December 2018.
Lucy Westlake is an American mountaineer from Naperville, Illinois. She became the youngest American woman to climb Mount Everest when she reached the summit on May 12, 2022. Westlake also became the youngest girl to summit all of the highest points of the contiguous United States when she was age 12 in 2016. In June 2021, Westlake also became the youngest female to climb all 50 of the US state peaks when she reached the summit of Denali in Alaska. Westlake's other major ascents include Aconcagua, Elbrus, and Kilimanjaro, the highest peaks in South America, Europe, and Africa respectively.
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