Mark is an adventurer, pioneer, entrepreneur, founder, leader and innovator.
In 2002, he founded World Extreme Medicine, a global network delivering world-leading medical training and expertise in the world’s most extreme environments.
Having set up Across the Divide in 1996 – an adventure challenge expedition company that also raised more than £103M for UK charities – he went on to create World Extreme Medicine, a global platform that has since trained over 20,000 medics in extreme medicine.
In 2022 he founded Medics4Ukraine to provide trauma supplies and training to frontline medical staff before establishing the World Extreme Medicine Fund with Advanced Paramedic Luca Alfatti as a way to continue supplying aid to regions most in need.
Mark’s leadership has also delivered the first MSc in extreme medicine taught at Russell Group University of Exeter and the world’s only extreme medicine annual conference. In recognition of his commitment to extreme medicine, Mark was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Science and Associate Professorship by the University of Exeter.
In 2021, the renowned Explorers Club of New York – which counts such luminaries as Edmund Hilary, Theadore Roosevelt and Buzz Aldrin – voted Mark an EC50 Fellow: one of “50 people changing the world”, for his work as an extreme medicine pioneer.
Luca is an Advanced Paramedic Practitioner currently working as Global Head of Education, leading on advance first aid provisions in the renewable energy sector.
Luca is a Fellow of Extreme Wilderness Medicine, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Wilderness Expedition Medicine Faculty Member, ALS, EPALS, MIMMS and PHTLS instructor, Mountain Leader and Water Rescue Technician.
Luca is also a HEFAT instructor, delivering hostile environment training to journalists both in the UK, before deployment and in-country, during deployment.
In 2012 he won Wanderlust Expedition Leader of the Year Award and was awarded a bursary. Luca then used this to set up a sustainable, income-generating, community project in Antigua, Guatemala to support women and their children who have been victims of domestic abuse. This project continues to run to this day and was the start of things to come.
Luca founded Medics4Ukraine (M4U) with Mark in early 2022 and ran it as the Head of Operations until it was renamed the World Extreme Medicine Fund (WEMF) in September 2024.
Michael is a former General Counsel with over 25 years of legal and commercial experience in banking and other industries. A personal friend of CEO Mark Hannaford, he joined the board of WEMF in July 2023 to offer his expertise in corporate law, compliance and governance. His role involves strategic oversight, fundraising, and advocacy to ensure that essential resources reach those in need.
After an extensive legal career, Michael made a conscious decision to take time out to be with his family. Now a commercial legal consultant and executive director of a family property business, he is also a published children’s author who is currently writing his second novel.
Peter Wilson is a Partner at Herminius, where he advises banks, private equity firms and multinational companies on international politics and economics. Peter became a board member after volunteering in the first Medics4Ukraine convoy in early 2022.
Peter co-founded and built Libra Advisory Group, which worked on economic development, national security and post-conflict governance and reform in a wide variety of countries. After Libra was successfully sold to Coffey International in 2010, Peter went on to direct all of Coffey’s economic development and government reform programmes on behalf of European development donors.
He is a former Senior Advisor and Deployable Civilian Expert at the UK Government’s joint FCO-MOD-DFID Stabilisation Unit and his early career was spent in HM Diplomatic Service and McKinsey.
Rebecca is currently Head of Human Resources for Critical Care International having spent part of her career in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.
She has worked with a variety of charities in the education sector and spent a year working in Sudan supporting education in a rural girls school. She was a trustee of The CAIRN Trust, The Thomas’s Schools Foundation and is a Founder of Network, a registered charity and social inclusion initiative offering work placement opportunities and mentoring schemes to young people.
Rebecca has been involved with humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the full scale invasion in 2022 and is working with a variety of organisations to personally deliver assistance. She has travelled extensively in Ukraine and has first hand experience of the impact of this vital work.
Ganesh graduated from University of Birmingham Medical School. After completing his foundation training, Ganesh has worked in Intensive care and Simulation education, completing as PGCME in Simulation, before commencing his Anaesthetic training in the East of England. His clinical areas of interest include Pre-hospital Emergency Medicine, Burns, Simulation and Human Factors.
Aside from his hospital work, he is a volunteer pre-hospital doctor with Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire Emergency Critical Care Scheme (BHECCS), where not only does he undertake regular shifts in his free time, but also contributes to education and governance.
Ganesh initially joined the charity as a volunteer with a team that entered Kherson, before joining the trustee board and being appointed as medical director. His vision for WEMF is to create a cohesive organisation, with good governance, and one that aims to facilitate clinicians in volunteering their time.
Alex is an experienced paramedic and educator with a passion for combining clinical expertise, leadership, and education to deliver impactful care in challenging environments. With a background in military leadership, including service as a Training Officer for a Medical Evacuation Regiment, Alex brings a unique blend of planning and frontline experience to the team.
He leads on course content development for World Extreme Medicine Fund’s education programmes, ensuring they are innovative and evidence-based. In addition, Alex provides leadership on training missions to Ukraine, equipping local teams with the skills and knowledge needed to operate effectively in high-pressure scenarios.
Alongside his charity work, Alex works in intensive care as a Trainee Advanced Critical Care Practitioner, pursuing an MSc in Critical Care and Independent Prescribing. He also continues to work pre-hospital shifts, staying connected to frontline care.
