Talent Centric
SPONSOR AN EX-SERVICEMAN TO
CONQUER THE MATTERHORN
Embodying physical strength
and mental resilience,
ex-Corporal Neil Heritage
aims to summit Switzerland’s
44,478-metre Matterhorn in
August, despite losing both legs
above the knee in a suicide bomb
attack in Iraq, in 2004.
“Originally my goal was to get
walking and living independently,
which took me about five years,”
he says. “The idea was that as I
need to keep extremely fit just to
stay mobile, let’s make that a bit
more interesting.”
Taking part in triathlons and
rowing across the Atlantic are just
two of the ways in which Heritage
decided to keep his personal
training programme interesting.
And last year, motivated by
a desire to push boundaries,
he made an initial attempt to
climb the Matterhorn, making it
halfway to the summit.
“Originally the
goal was living
and walking
independently”
Viewing this as a learning
process, rather than a failure,
Heritage will be taking a different
route to the top in August,
supported by a bigger budget,
more equipment, and plenty of
time. The design of his prosthetic
legs has also been improved to
aid climbing.
“There’s seven of us this time,
including an ex-colleague,
discharged from the army with a
brain injury,” he says.
The team sets out on 7 August,
giving themselves 4-10 days to
reach the summit.
Once they have raised the full
funds to cover the cost of the
expedition, they hope to raise
money for a military charity.
Alexander Mann Solutions is
sponsoring Heritage £1,000;
individual pledges can be
made at: www.justgiving.com/
crowdfunding/Climb2Recovery
from government departments to the
Royal Household, and in 2005 went back
for a further nine years on secondment, to
be Master of the Household with a remit
to “look after all the entertaining given by
The Queen in the occupied royal palaces
and entertaining given by other members
of the Royal Family”. This ranged from
small gatherings to the garden party for
The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert,
and included coordinating complex
arrangements, often at short notice.
“For example, at the time of the
financial crash in 2008, the then prime
minister wanted to put on a conference
for the G20, and we had maybe two or
three weeks’ notice to run a reception for
20 heads of state,” recalls Walker.
Lessons he learned along the way
including building – and demonstrating
– confidence in his team, having
“Where we can really
help is supporting our
clients to fulfil what
they want to do
around the Armed
Forces Covenant”
ascertained its unique dynamics. On
joining, he and his team undertook
(Myers Briggs) profiling to enhance
self-awareness and an understanding
of how each person fit into the team.
He also took members to watch a
Red Arrows aerobatics display, and
witness the post-display debriefing, to
underline the importance of continual
learning and improvement.
“The Red Arrows brief every display
as if they’ve never done one before and
the display is always filmed,” he explains.
The debrief process is intriguing. Nobody
criticises anybody else; you’re only
allowed to criticise yourself. They go
methodically through the film and look at
where the display was less excellent that
it should have been. They’re a learning
organisation.”
Through the diversity of his own
RAF roles and secondments, and the
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