Jim McNeill
Jim McNeill, who describes himself as a modern day explorer who explores change and develops people to realise their full potential, played a major role in the success of the incredible BBC series Frozen Planet as well as the, soon to be aired, The Last Explorers series which charts the exploits of long forgotten explorers including William Speirs Bruce, a prolific explorer in the same time as Scott and Shackleton.
During the filming of Frozen Planet, Windsor based Jim, who has been doing polar region expeditions for more than twenty years, handled the logistics, safety, equipment and expedition training, he guided the camera crews to locations where rare Arctic animals could be filmed. In a recent talk at the Cafe Scientifique in Reading, the 50-year-old said: “They intially asked me to find Arctic wolves. I gave them a location and they took me on as a guide and to train some of the teams.” He said on one ‘interesting’ shoot it took a team 10 days to find wolves, before he led them to a den in a valley where a pack of eight were huddled together. Jim was involved in filming for Frozen Planet series over a four year period starting in 2008.
The polar expert is planning an expedition to the Arctic Pole - where he will walk 800 miles to the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility, defined as the point furthest from land or sea in any direction. Along the way to the pole the team will be collecting scientific data from a region of the ice cap that has yet to be measured. Visit www.ice-warrior.com for further information. To read Jim’s full Bio, or to book Jim to speak at your next event, visit our web site: www.room54.co.uk
