Omar Samra

Bio

Omar Samra is an entrepreneur, adventurer, motivational speaker and analogue astronaut. He’s the first Egyptian to summit Everest, the 7 Summits and ski to both the North and South Pole. In 2009, following a career in Banking and Investing, Omar founded Wild Guanabana, one of the region’s leading adventure travel companies where he still serves as CEO. Subsequently Omar founded a handful of businesses in the education, environment, and adventure space, as well as a children’s charity in his late wife’s honour. Omar is an Astronaut Candidate with PoSSUM, having undergone intensive space training and served as Vice-Commander of Lunares 3, a 15-day moon-analogue mission conducting research on lunar habitability. In 2017, Omar made three first ascents of Antarctica mountains and named them. He rowed 1000km across the Atlantic Ocean before capsizing in a storm. His survival story, which also sheds light on the plight of refugees crossing dangerous seas, was made into a documentary that screened at the Cannes, El Gouna Film, Cairo and Berlin Festivals to wide acclaim. Omar is an ambassador of the Earth Shot Prize - the Duke of Cambridge's climate action initiative -, a former Goodwill Ambassador to the UNDP, and an honorary ambassador to Nepal.