About

Johan Ernst Nilson
– Adventure Activist –

When Johan grew up, he traveled around Europe playing the piano in hotels. One day at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, a friend mentioned how lucky he was to have an ear for music.
“Yes, that might be,” Johan responded, “but it’s also lots of practice, focus, and motivation.”

“Well, you can’t do anything in life just because you are focused and motivated,” his friend answered. The discussion ended in a bet: could a person with the lowest grade in gymnastics bicycle to Africa?
This was 30 years ago, on May 16th, 1994.

Since that day at the Grand Hotel in Stockholm, Johan has become a world-renowned explorer with 70+ expeditions behind him in 196 countries. He is a keynote speaker for the world’s leading companies, holds advisory board positions with leading brands, and is an ambassador for some of the world’s biggest NGOs and charity organisations. What began with a bet turned into a lifestyle to prove that everything is possible and to inspire the world to help out, do good, and make a change.

Johan’s adventures have taken him to the ends of the planet and across all oceans, to the top of planet Earth, and through jungles and deserts. He has kayaked from Stockholm to Africa and hiked across the Serengeti. Johan Ernst Nilson is the first and only person in history who has accomplished the “Ultimate Adventure Grand Slam”:
climbing the Seven Summits, coastal skiing between both the
North Pole and the South Pole, and traveling to every country on planet Earth. 196 to be exact.

For the last 20 years, Johan has focused mostly on philanthropy, scientific research, wildlife, and education.

Johan believes that “nobody can do everything, but everybody can do something”. Over the decades, he has been involved in numerous charity organisations, both as an ambassador and/or helping with fundraising and awareness:

amfAR, UNICEF, Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, WildAid, Mentor, Fondation Prince Albert II de Monaco, Caudwell Children, Re:Wild, Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation, Explorers Club, Andrea Bocelli Foundation, United Nations, Non-Violence Project, and others.

In 1997, Johan produced his first documentary about climate change, 10 years before Al Gore. Since then, Johan has produced and filmed documentaries, TV series, published books, articles, campaigns, and photo exhibitions about the world’s climate, wildlife, the human mind, team building, and overcoming fears. Johan has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement twice, the Bambi Award, and the St Eriks Medal and has been on a special cover of TIME Magazine in USA.

Johan is today a well known keynote speaker and motivational coach who focuses on helping people to find their way outside their comfort zone and to inspire the young generation to believe in themselves.

“If a guy like me, with the lowest grade in gymnastics, can climb Mount Everest, then anyone can do it. Everything is possible; the impossible just takes more time.”

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