Alex is one of Romania’s leading high altitude mountaineers, a passionate photographer and motivational speaker, for the time being based in Bucharest, Romania.

At 29 years old, he had reached the summits of four eight thousand meter mountains.

In 2006, with the successful ascent of Cho Oyu (8201m), Alex became the youngest Romanian to have climbed an eight thousand meter peak and was among the few who freely spoke about the Tibetan shootings from the Nangpa La.

In 2007 Alex made the First Romanian Ascent of Gasherbrum 1 (8068m) in Pakistan’s Karakorum in one single push from base camp to the summit.

For this success, he was awarded “The 2007 Romanian Sportsman of the Year in High Altitude Mountaineering” by the Romanian Federation of Alpinism and Sport Climbing.

In 2008, on May 12th, Alex made the First Romanian Ascent of Makalu (8463m), summiting 20 days after reaching the base camp. He is now fresh from his latest expedition when on October 4th 2011 he made the Second Romanian Ascent of Manaslu (8156m). In his ascents, Alex does not use supplementary oxygen nor Sherpa support.

For him, success on the highest mountains means coming back down alive. Summiting is a tremendous experience but not a must. Saying to have conquered the mountain would just be a tremendous vanity.

All that he can hope for is to have conquered one more of the mountains within himself, much higher, much harder from the ones in reality. Climbing mountains Outside isclimbing mountains Inside…

Alex is the recipient of the 2008 “Gold Medal for Merit in Sport” by the President of the Government of Navarra for being involved in the rescue attempt of the Spanish mountaineer Inaki Ochoa de Olza, high up on the slopes of Annapurna.

Alex is holding a university degree in International Business Administration from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest, spent six years volunteering for three NGOs and two more years in the corporate arena.

When not climbing, he loves sharing his on the edge experiences and he is actively involved in delivering speeches on the similarities between reaching the top of a high mountain and reaching the top of the business world, as well as about the key success factors in such an endeavor (visionary leadership, synergy in team work, commitment, clear goals, risk assessment etc ).

Among his corporate audiences are Citibank, Pfizer, Aviva, Vodafone, BRDGroupe Societe Generale, Petrom to name just a few. He was also invited as a guest speaker on October 2009 TED conference in Bucharest. But the most challenging audience he faced yet consisted of primary school pupils.

He was the image of two TV commercials: mobile operator Orange’s “Together we can do more” campaign and HP’s Pavillion, the latest HP laptops range.

His photographic work has been displayed in several exhibitions and he was featured in magazines ranging from National Geographic or PhotoMagazine to Elle Man or Men’s Health.

Alex Gavan is now fully committed and focused on climbing all of the world’s 14 summits over 8000m without supplementary oxygen, an achievement only accomplished by 13 people so far.

His audience is diverse, ranging from small groups of thirty listeners to large teams of seven hundred people. His inspirational speech reaches corporate customers as well as educational institutions and NGOs, delivering his message for top management strategy meetings, sale force conferences,team buildings, annual corporate conferences, corporate anniversaries, product launching events or just plain social involvement. 

To date, Alex addressed to more than 5500 people

The four eight thousand meter summits’ videos, thoughts and images from high places can be seen on his website at www.alexgavan.ro

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