Stone Soup Leadership Institute

To the Ends of the Earth…and Back

Parker Liautaud is an Arctic explorer and environmental campaigner. By the time he was17, he had already made three expeditions to the Arctic. In 2010 he and Arctic explorer and environmental campaigner Doug Stoup made a well-publicized attempt to reach the geographic North Pole: it was Parker’s goal to be the youngest person to ever set foot there. However, the weather conditions did not allow them to achieve their goal, and they had to abort the mission. Parker was deeply disappointed. But he didn’t give up: and in 2013, he and Doug embarked on The Willis Resilience Expedition, a scientific and exploratory expedition aimed at reaching the South Pole to study climate change. On this expedition, they set a record for making the fastest human-powered trek from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole, and in the process, Parker became the youngest man in history to complete the journey to the South Pole. Now, as a policy advisor to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, he is helping to address the challenges of climate change. Parker has been recognized by Time Magazine’s 30 under 30. He has spoken at and been interviewed by such prestigious outlets as the World Economic Forum, TEDx, the United Nations Foundation, The Wall Street Journal, and the Clinton Global Initiative.