Featured in the Guinness Book of World Records, Vanessa O’Brien is the only woman to reach extremes on land, sea, and air (the Explorers’ Extreme Trifecta) and one of a few living female explorers that has the tenacity, grit and perseverance to transcend exploration boundaries. Her feats have taken her to the top of Mt. Everest (earth’s highest mountain > 29,000 ft), the bottom the Mariana Trench (earth’s deepest point Challenger Deep > 35,000 ft), and launched her past the Kármán line into outer space (Blue Origin’s NS-22 > 347,000 ft) in 3,729 days.

O’Brien is a force of energy and grit. Her enthusiasm, commitment, and persistence form a matrix that has been instrumental in getting her, and her team, to the top. She is a powerful leader and a formidable opponent with a strong moral compass. Vanessa believes teams are motivated by shared goals, objectives, and rewards. These messages ensure Vanessa is a popular and sought-after speaker for corporations, universities, and nonprofits.

In the field, Vanessa has long differentiated herself by embracing a citizen science approach to give back. This includes everything from collaborating with scientists to take glacier samples to test for radiogenic isotopes to looking for correlations between high altitude medicine and kidney stones. Vanessa has taken water samples to identify signs of ocean acidification and applied a wireless MRI device to measure the overview effect during her suborbital space flight.

Vanessa is passionate about inspiring the next generation. She partnered with Scholastic to teach children about the Mariana Trench, selecting stories and lesson sheets for grades 3 – 6. She lectured at Boston College, using exploration case studies to teach students about high performing teams. She represented all women by carrying the UN Woman flag both to the top of K2 and on her spaceflight, Blue Origin’s sixth mission and first with two women. Vanessa was chosen as one of the forty ‘most inspirational’ women in the world as part of the Awesome Women card series.

Vanessa has also run one marathon, the Boston Marathon, helping the American Red Cross raise over $500k. She travelled at 200 mph riding with Mario Andretti at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and provided contract photography to Forbes Magazine to cover other various motorsports.  Vanessa tested a bullet proof vest by agreeing to be shot at point blank range with a .38 long revolver by Miguel Caballero in Colombia.

Vanessa has appeared in international and national media including BBC, Sky News, Good Day Washington, Good Day LA, CBS Evening News, Inside Edition, and The Economist Films. She is often called upon for her expertise to comment on accidents, delays, and one-off events like the Titan implosion in 2023.

After receiving her MBA from Stern School of Business, New York University, Vanessa spent two decades in leadership roles at GE Capital, Morgan Stanley, Barclays, and Bank of America. Her story of overcoming adversity and transformation unfolds in her memoir, To The Greatest Heights: Facing Danger, Finding Humility and Climbing A Mountain of Truth, Simon & Schuster (2021).  Vanessa finds herself on a journey that could only be won by losing – her ego, self-limiting beliefs, and traumatic past.