Tony Haile is a professional polar expeditioner and is currently preparing for SOUTH, the first return journey to the South Pole and the longest unsupported polar trek in history.

After a somewhat rebellious school career, Tony studied at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland where he gained a Masters Degree in International Relations, specialising in terrorism and intelligence. As an early indicator of an adventurous streak, Tony spent a semester at Birzeit, a Palestinian university in the West Bank. Living in a Palestinian basement, dodging military patrols and seeing upclose the destruction of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he was able to gain a far greater understanding of the region and learn how to swear like a trooper in Palestinian-dialect Arabic.

From 1997-2000, Tony spent his summer months working as a bowman on ocean-racing yachts and managed to survive two major hurricanes on the Grand Banks, two knockdowns, a lightning strike and being dragged along under water, during a knockdown, in the middle of a hurricane.

In late 2000 he joined Team Logica as a bowman for the BT Global Challenge 2000-2001 ‘the world’s toughest yacht race’. During the race Tony rounded Cape Horn and spent several months getting thrown about in Antarctic waters. He was also Team Logica’s on-board cameraman and won several awards for his documentary footage, still photography and journalism.

Shortly after his return to dry land, Tony joined Control Risks (the company that inspired the Russell Crowe film ‘Proof of Life’) as Editor of their Middle East and International Terrorism Desk and was at the centre of the action as the company responded to the 9/11 attacks, the war on terror and the Iraq war.

At the same time, in search of a more physically and mentally demanding challenge than ocean racing, Tony switched disciplines to polar expeditions, being mentored by Geoff Somers, holder of the Polar Medal for the longest Antarctic traverse in history (with dogs). In mid-2003 Tony joined forces with Ben Saunders to create a two-expedition campaign - Serco TransArctic 2004 and SOUTH, and subsequently left his position at Control Risks to pursue polar expeditions professionally.

Tony’s mother wishes that he had become an accountant.