Vanessa O'Brien

After 3,729 days, Vanessa became the first woman to reach extremes on land, sea and air. Amidst the Great Recession, Vanessa left banking to embrace exploration, never expecting she would become one of the world’s greatest living female explorers. She is the first American or British woman to successfully summit K2, the first woman to traverse the bottom of the Mariana Trench, and the fastest woman to summit the highest mountain on every continent, in 295 days. Vanessa is the 8th woman in the world to climb the seven summits and ski to both the north and south poles, and the 77th woman to fly to space.
For advancing science during exploration and inspiring women in sports, Vanessa earned 6 Guinness World Records (GWR), is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, was recognized by the New York State Assembly, received the Fearless Girl Award, and became Explorer of the Year by the Scientific and Exploration Society, where she serves as a Honorary Advisory Board Member.