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Mick Dawson is a former Royal Marine, author, and filmmaker recognised as one of the most experienced ocean rowers in the world.
He has successfully rowed the Atlantic Ocean twice and skippered the first and only rowing boat to cross the North Pacific, completing a monumental 7000 mile voyage from Japan to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. In 2018, Mick returned to the Pacific, rowing from California to Hawaii with blind veteran Steve Sparkes, marking Sparkes as the first visually impaired person to row the Pacific.
In 2015, Mick founded The Cockleshell Endeavour, a resource dedicated to helping recovering veterans address physical and mental health challenges. Through this initiative, he raises awareness and funding for military charities while supporting the service community. Mick has maintained a strong connection to the sea through various expeditions, including paddling around the Falklands in 2017 with a Royal Marine veteran dealing with PTSD and kayaking from Fort William in Scotland to Portsmouth in 2022 with Steve Sparkes. This 74-day, nearly 700-mile project commemorated the 40th anniversary of the Falklands War, which both men are veterans of.
Mick’s powerful presentations draw from his diverse and extraordinary maritime experiences. He shares valuable lessons learned and setbacks overcome while achieving seemingly impossible goals in extreme and challenging conditions. Tailored to each audience, Mick’s talks are delivered with passion, humour, and a wealth of hard-won knowledge.
Key themes in Mick’s presentations include:
Mick illustrates these universal principles in a uniquely engaging way, against a dramatic backdrop, providing essential insights for individuals and teams striving to achieve their goals, regardless of their background or the environment they’re working in.
Mick’s talks don’t just inspire in the moment — they shift mindset and behaviour. Audiences leave with renewed accountability, practical tools for performing under pressure, and a clearer understanding of what resilient leadership and great teamwork looks like in action. The result is stronger more flexible teams, sharper decision-making and a culture built to thrive under pressure and cope with fear and uncertainty.
In this powerful and unique presentation, Mick recounts his remarkable attempt to row solo across the North Pacific Ocean, from Japan to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, one of the world’s last great firsts.
Over the course of four incredible months, Mick faced the unforgiving and relentless challenges of one of the world’s most hostile ocean environments. Alone on the Ocean, he endured extreme isolation, extreme weather, and the relentless physical and mental demands of rowing over four thousand miles, culminating in a freak capsize and a desperate battle for survival, with his goal almost within reach.
Mick uses these extraordinary experiences to explore the nature of fear—how it manifests, how to confront it, and ultimately how to overcome it. His journey serves as a blueprint for individuals and organisations alike, offering profound insights into acknowledging and facing fear and using it to help achieve even the most ambitious goals, despite overwhelming odds. Mick’s hard-earned lessons resonate with anyone seeking to push past their limitations, inspiring resilience, determination, and success in the face of adversity, uncertainty and most importantly fear.
This electrifying and inspiring presentation proves one undeniable truth: extraordinary success is always built on great teamwork. Based on Mick Dawson’s incredible experiences rowing across the vast and unforgiving Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, this talk dives deep into the power of resilience, trust, and collaboration.
A veteran of six epic ocean crossings, Mick has shattered limits and achieved two Guinness World Record team firsts. In 2009, he and Chris Martin rowed nearly 7,000 miles from Japan to San Francisco—becoming the first and still the only rowing boat to complete this supposedly impossible voyage.
Then, in 2018, Mick returned to the Pacific, this time with blind veteran Steve Sparkes, who made history as the first visually impaired person to row the Pacific. Both ground-breaking journeys stand as powerful testaments to the unshakable power of determination, trust, and teamwork.
Mick’s experiences on these truly extraordinary voyages prove one thing: Great teamwork isn’t just an advantage—it’s the foundation of every achievement, whether at sea or in life.
True leadership isn’t tested in comfort—it’s forged in the face of relentless challenges, when success depends on resilience, teamwork, and adaptive, decisive, decision making. In this powerful and dynamic presentation, Mick Dawson, former Royal Marine and record-breaking ocean rower, shares extraordinary lessons in leadership from his experiences navigating some of the most unforgiving and hostile environments on the planet, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Mick has twice rowed the Atlantic and skippered the first—and only—rowing boat to cross the North Pacific, rowing almost 7,000 miles from Japan to San Francisco. In 2018, he returned to the Pacific, with blind veteran Steve Sparkes, who became the first visually impaired person to row the Pacific when the pair successfully rowed from California to Hawaii—It was an achievement built on determination, trust, great teamwork, and positive adaptive leadership.
This inspiring presentation will challenge your perspective on leadership, demonstrating that great leaders don’t just give orders—they empower and inspire individuals and teams to achieve the seemingly impossible.
Truly insightful, totally credible, utterly fascinating and landed each message with real-life examples. I can’t recommend Mick highly enough as a speaker.
The audience were enthralled from start to finish; Mick had an extraordinary impact.
