Lewis Pugh

Lewis Pugh is one of the world’s great adventurers. Give him a pair of Speedos and he’ll swim anywhere on earth – in fact, he probably already has. But this 51 year old endurance swimmer from a Royal Navy family doesn’t just tackle some of the globe’s most inhospitable seas, swimming in just his trademark trunks often at subzero temperatures, simply for the hell of it. He does it because he cares passionately about the state of the oceans, the waterways, the rivers and the lakes of this world.
This is why Lewis Pugh is so in demand as an event host, a motivational speaker, a keynote speaker, and an environmental speaker. His singlehanded contribution to the global awareness of the emergency facing our oceans and waterways – plastic pollution, climate change, melting ice caps, overfishing – has been enormous. His feats of endurance have helped governments around the world realise that the precious resource that is the globe’s water is shrinking and dying and change is needed urgently. 
But deeds like these are one thing. They also need brilliant advocacy. And this is where Lewis Pugh is doubly talented. He is, in the words of the organisers of the TED Global Conferences, where he has twice spoken, “a master storyteller.” 
To make his point, he can draw on experiences which literally beggar belief. The first swim across the North Pole, in 2007, to highlight the melting of the Arctic sea ice. Swimming across a glacial lake on Mount Everest to draw attention to the vanishing Himalayan glaciers. The first person to complete a long-distance swim in every ocean of the world. Closer to home, in 2018 he became the first person to swim the full length of the English Channel. And there are many more such feats.
In 2013 Lewis Pugh was appointed the first UN Patron of the Oceans. His work and his advocacy – dubbed by the media as “Speedo Diplomacy” – helped create the world’s largest marine reserve in the freezing Ross Sea off Antarctica, in 2016.
Whether it’s as an event host, a keynote speaker, an environmental, sustainability and circular economy speaker or a motivational speaker, Lewis Pugh is sure to make your event a memorable one.