John Graham
John Graham shipped out on a freighter when he was sixteen, took part in the first ascent of Mt. McKinley's North Wall at twenty, and hitchhiked around the world at twenty-two.
A Foreign Service Officer for fifteen years, he was in the middle of the revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. For three years in the mid-seventies, he was a member of NATO's top-secret Nuclear Planning Group, then served as a foreign policy advisor to Senator John Glenn. As an assistant to Ambassador Andrew Young at the United Nations, he was deeply involved in U.S. initiatives in Southern Africa, South Asia and Cuba.
By most measures, he was very successful. But something was missing.
In 1980, a close brush with death aboard a burning cruise ship in the North Pacific forced him to a deeper search for meaning in his life. Now out of the Foreign Service, he began teaching better ways of handling challenge and conflict. Since 1983 he's been a leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project, an international organization moving people to stick their necks out to solve significant public problems--and giving them the tools to succeed.
In 2008 Graham started and now leads Giraffe Heroes International (GHI), bringing Giraffe expertise, inspiration and trainings in active citizenship to the world. GHI affiliates have now been launched in India, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Singapore and in the Muslim community in the UK.
Graham is an international peacemaker, helping heal conflicts in places like Sudan, Israel/Palestine and Ukraine. He sticks his own neck out too. He narrowly escaped arrest in Egypt for training Egyptian citizen activists. In Tibet, he gathered information on what amounts to Chinese cultural genocide there, then used it to create a series of hard-hitting articles and blog pieces condemning the Chinese actions.
A frequent keynote speaker, Graham has done TV and radio all over the world. Articles about him have appeared in major magazines and newspapers. Graham's audiences include dozens of major national and international conferences and organizations. He is as comfortable and effective speaking to 7,000 people in an auditorium as he is in speaking to 300 kids in a high school gym.
Graham is in demand by high-net-worth audiences--entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists and family philanthropic offices and associations. For a partial list of his other audiences, see the attached document, "Past Audiences."
Graham is the author of Outdoor Leadership, from Mountaineers Books; It's Up to Us, from the Giraffe Heroes Project; Stick Your Neck Out-A Street-smart Guide to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond, from Berrett-Koehler; and On The Edge, a memoir published in 2015 by Blooming Twig Books.
Graham has a degree in geology from Harvard and one in engineering from Stanford, neither of which he ever expects to use.
John Graham shipped out on a freighter when he was sixteen, took part in the first ascent of Mt. McKinley's North Wall at twenty, and hitchhiked around the world at twenty-two.
A Foreign Service Officer for fifteen years, he was in the middle of the revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. For three years in the mid-seventies, he was a member of NATO's top-secret Nuclear Planning Group, then served as a foreign policy advisor to Senator John Glenn. As an assistant to Ambassador Andrew Young at the United Nations, he was deeply involved in U.S. initiatives in Southern Africa, South Asia and Cuba.
By most measures, he was very successful. But something was missing.
In 1980, a close brush with death aboard a burning cruise ship in the North Pacific forced him to a deeper search for meaning in his life. Now out of the Foreign Service, he began teaching better ways of handling challenge and conflict. Since 1983 he's been a leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project, an international organization moving people to stick their necks out to solve significant public problems--and giving them the tools to succeed.
In 2008 Graham started and now leads Giraffe Heroes International (GHI), bringing Giraffe expertise, inspiration and trainings in active citizenship to the world. GHI affiliates have now been launched in India, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Egypt, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Singapore and in the Muslim community in the UK.
Graham is an international peacemaker, helping heal conflicts in places like Sudan, Israel/Palestine and Ukraine. He sticks his own neck out too. He narrowly escaped arrest in Egypt for training Egyptian citizen activists. In Tibet, he gathered information on what amounts to Chinese cultural genocide there, then used it to create a series of hard-hitting articles and blog pieces condemning the Chinese actions.
A frequent keynote speaker, Graham has done TV and radio all over the world. Articles about him have appeared in major magazines and newspapers. Graham's audiences include dozens of major national and international conferences and organizations. He is as comfortable and effective speaking to 7,000 people in an auditorium as he is in speaking to 300 kids in a high school gym.
Graham is in demand by high-net-worth audiences--entrepreneurs, investors, venture capitalists and family philanthropic offices and associations. For a partial list of his other audiences, see the attached document, "Past Audiences."
Graham is the author of Outdoor Leadership, from Mountaineers Books; It's Up to Us, from the Giraffe Heroes Project; Stick Your Neck Out-A Street-smart Guide to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond, from Berrett-Koehler; and On The Edge, a memoir published in 2015 by Blooming Twig Books.
Graham has a degree in geology from Harvard and one in engineering from Stanford, neither of which he ever expects to use.
Giving Back is the Key to Living Forward
[especially good for audiences of investors, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and high-net-worth people]
Looking for ways to "give back?" Graham leads off by telling the inspiring stories of "Giraffe Heroes"-people honored by his organization, the Giraffe Heroes Project for sticking their necks out to help solve pressing public problems. Why do these heroes do what they do? Why do they take these risks?
In 33 years of asking these questions, the answers are clear: Giraffe...
Don't Die Before You've Made a Difference
Thirty-four years ago, John Graham was nearly killed when the cruise ship he was lecturing on burned and sank in the freezing waters of the Gulf of Alaska. Rescued at the last moment as a typhoon engulfed his lifeboat, he emerged with a sense of direction and purpose that hasn't wavered. "All of us want meaningful lives," he says now, "but we don't have to face death to find them. The guiding signs are all around us, most of them small and subtle-I just ignored them."
No matter what...
How to Lead--Insights from Many Slippery Slopes
How can you improve your effectiveness as a leader, building on what you already know?
John Graham, author of Outdoor Leadership, offers insights and practical tips from forty years of experience on mountain-climbing teams, in Vietnam, at the UN, as an environmental activist and in the nonprofit world.
"The core of good leadership," he says, "is a lot more...
Why Should You Care?
[for high school audiences]
Teens pay attention when John Graham asks them what they care about.
The author of It's Up to Us, a handbook for teens, Graham uses an easy tone and style, and plenty of dramatic stories, to show students that nothing is more important than living a meaningful life, and that the surest path to that meaning is service. "You can find thousands of ways to make a difference," he says, as he offers practical tools for the search. "Find the ones that...
Stoke the Fire
[Given mostly as keynotes at conferences of organizations]
How do you keep the vision in your organization bright, the goals sharp, and the people in it working with passion and commitment? Let author, storyteller activist and former diplomat John Graham help you build on the fire and purpose you started with. "There's tremendous motivation in doing work you know is meaningful," he says; "meaning is the source of vision, passion and strength, for individuals...
Visionary Planning
This hands-on, how-to participatory workshop shows participants how to transform ideals and ideas into real changes in public policy. It comes in versions that last from ninety minutes to five hours. It often is given at a conference following a John Graham speech.
Subjects covered include:
Doing the homework
Uncovering the hidden issues that can block success
Creating a specific project that solves the problem you see
Creating a vision for...
