Maria Witchell has spent her career in places most people only read about — Antarctic ice fields, covert counterterrorism operations, hostage negotiations deep in South America, and the upper floors of global investment banking. What connects them all is an uncommon ability to stay clear-headed when the stakes are highest.
A veteran of eight polar expeditions, Witchell has reached both the North and South Poles. In 2019, she was part of the team that pioneered a new route across the narrow plateaux of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Maria Witchell has also conducted covert counterterrorism operations as one of the rare few women ever to serve as an operative in the United Kingdom Special Forces. She has sat across the table from FARC guerrillas in Colombian jungles, negotiating the freedom of kidnapped executives and their families.
This was before, Witchell pivoted into law, then global banking. Today, she is Managing Director and Head of Corporate Loans and Derivatives Legal for the Asia Pacific region, based in Hong Kong.
Witchell’s path began at The Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, where she commissioned as a British Army Officer before completing Special Forces selection. Her work as one of the world’s first female professional kidnap and ransom negotiators also took her deep into the operational realities profiled in the film Proof of Life.
Eventually, Maria Witchell traded field work for the College of Law in London, qualifying as a solicitor specialising in banking. Five years at a leading firm led to a senior legal role at a major international investment bank, and then to her current perch overlooking the Asia Pacific financial landscape.
Witchell is a trustee of Style for Soldiers and LAW-G. As a speaker, she talks about resilience, focus, and negotiating under pressure; drawing on her experience on the ice, jungle, and everything in between.
