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Brad has always been fascinated with how people make decisions. His focus is on the leadership and teamwork lessons that can be gleaned from the endeavors of explorers and others in history who dared greatly.
Brad Borkan is a motivational speaker and co-author of 4 books about decision making.
Brad’s talks, books and articles focus on the real life-and-death decisions made by great visionaries like the early Antarctic explorers. His work reveals amazing lessons in leadership, team work, and sheer grit and determination that can help all of us make better decisions in our lives today.
Combining an early interest in Antarctica and Decision Making
Brad’s interest in polar history started when he picked up an Antarctic book at the age of 8, at the local Public Library. He has a graduate degree in Decision Sciences from the University of Pennsylvania, and a fascination in how people and businesses can make better decisions.
Brad gives keynote and after-dinner presentations at business conferences. His talks focus on goal setting, leadership, teamwork, resilience, and improving one’s personal and business decision making, all set in the exciting context of Polar exploration. Brad brings a strong background of business acumen to his talks in that he has worked for the world’s leading technology companies like Oracle and SAP, and as part of his work has advised many large and mid-sized organizations on how to make better business decisions.
Brad has presented talks based on his book at major corporations like Credit Suisse, as well as organizations like the Royal Society of Chemistry. He has talked at conferences like the Strand Business Conference in London and the B2B Marketing Leaders Forum for 150 senior executives. He has also conducted a webinar to 500 top employees of a Fortune 100 company using the ideas in the book.
He has presented at Antarctic conferences in Norway, Ireland and the UK, has lectured at the prestigious Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge and on several Antarctic cruise ships. He was the headline presence at a Literary Festival in the Cotswolds, England and looks forward to talking at more literary festivals.
Brad has also been a guest writer for magazines like the Crisis Response Journal and Strategy + Business, published by PwC.
Fellow of the RGS and member of Antarctic societies and Literary organizations
Brad lives in London, and is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He was educated at the University of Pennsylvania and Imperial College, London. While studying Decision Sciences at Penn, Brad was a research assistant on a ground-breaking study on decision-making in low probability events like floods and earthquakes. The study was led by two professors: Dr. Howard Kunreuther and Dr. Paul Slovic. Brad was a co-author of the book summarizing the research: Disaster Insurance Protection: Public Policy Lessons.
Brad is vice chair of the Friends of the Scott Polar Research Institute, on the Committee of the James Caird Society, and an active member of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and the South Georgia (Antarctic island) Association, as well as the Society of Authors.
"I am most pleased about my co-author partnership with David Hirzel, and the audiobook partnership with the award-winning voice actor, Dennis Kleinman. The Antarctic community of polar historians, descendants of the early explorers, and the many brave modern explorers and adventurers have been incredibly helpful and supportive in the process of creating our books.”
Brad has appeared on cable TV in the US, and on numerous podcasts and internet radio talk programs. His detailed knowledge and insights into decision making have led to Brad being approached by writers and producers in the TV and Film industries to advise them on a range of future projects. Brad has also defined a 5-part documentary series proposal based on decision making and the Antarctic stories from the book.
