Nabil Al Busaidi

Nabil Al Busaidi (born on 23 January 1970 in London, United Kingdom), is a British adventurer. He was engaged in a number of feats like walking to the magnetic North Pole, and a climb of Mount Vinson in Antarctica,^[1] and a row across the Atlantic Ocean amongst many.^[2] Being the first Arab to accomplish some of these feats, he was voted one of the Top 100 Most Influential Arabs in the world by Arabian Business magazine in 2009,^[3] the Top 50 Influential Arabs by Middle East magazine in 2009 and 2011, and remains in the Top 500 Power List in 2011 for Arabian Business magazine.^[4]

A documentary^[5] about his trek to the magnetic North Pole was directed and edited by two-time Emmy Award winning director David Ward.^[6]

Early life and education

• Nabs was born in 1970 in London, United Kingdom, and grew up dividing his time between the UK and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
• He completed his formal education at the University of Bath earning Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Mathematics (1993) and Masters in Management (1997).
• In 1998, he moved back to the Middle East to reside in Oman and Bahrain.
• He is a Project Management Professional (PMP), has completed Level 1 of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA), and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society (FGRS).

Career

Employment

Professionally, Nabs worked at a number of institutions such as Gulf International Bank (Bahrain), KPMG (Oman), Mizuho Bank (Bahrain) and Gulf Air (Bahrain) before becoming a full-time adventurer.

Sports

An avid sports enthusiast, Nabs was awarded university colours for soccer and American football at Bath University.

He is a Royal Life Saving Society UK Bronze award holder and a PADI advanced open water scuba diver.

In Bahrain, he played for Bahrain RFC, an amateur rugby team,^[7] during their 1997-2005 seasons and as a lifelong fan Liverpool F.C. he set up a Bahrain Liverpool FC Fan Club on Facebook.^[8]

Other

Nabs published a coffee table book entitled The Arab who Took on the Arctic - From Sand to Snow^[9] in 2011 and is registered with the London Speakers Bureau as a motivational speaker.^[10]

Adventurer

An active adventurer, Nabs has undertaken the following adventures since 2009:

• In April 2009, he became the first Arab to walk the 650 km from Resolute Bay to the magnetic North Pole and one of less than 500 ever to walk to a pole.
• Later in the same year, he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa at 5,895m and one of the seven summits.^[11]
• In January 2010, Nabs climbed the highest mountain in Antarctica, Mount Vinson – (4,897m) also one of the seven summits.^[12]
• * He became the first Arab to row over 4,600 km across the Atlantic, albeit in a team comprising 14 members, one of only 250 crews to achieve this feat and breaking the record for being the largest crew ever to complete the trip.

Current activities

Inspired by a boarding school^[13] friend Major Phil Packer,^[14] who raised more than one million pounds for charity,^[15] Nabs is working on a tour of 100 schools throughout the GCC. He is hoping to raise US$1 million for local charities.

References