Jon Lord
Jon is an explorer at heart who loves to combine passion for adventurous sports, travel and adventure for the development of himself and those around him. ‘It’s the science behind enjoyment that really drives an experience with Latitude Adventures’.
‘From a young age I’ve always known that adventurous travel was a great thing to do for your physical and mental wellbeing, but the real game changer came when I was working as a dive instructor in my early 20s. I was lucky enough to work all over the world but the people I trained all had something in common. Regardless of their initial level of skill, they all seemed to grow in confidence and glow with a sense of complete enjoyment after each dive. Diving with Manta Rays in Sulawesi, Whale Sharks in Honduras or on a WWII wreck with no visibility in the Atlantic, it didn’t matter, people experienced the same elation. At this point I realised that I was doing more than teaching people to SCUBA dive, I was awakening in them a real sense of inspiration, motivation, enlightenment and enjoyment that they’d lost in their day to day life’.
Jon continued to explore his passion for the development of people through challenging and adventurous experiences, specialising in Survival and Adventurous training within the Royal Air Force. ‘The key is that all the adventurous trg we delivered was facilitated to encourage the personal growth of each member of the expedition. It didn’t matter if it was a big wall climbing expedition to Jordan or a Ski touring expedition to the Bavarian Alps, the goal was the same; to develop the people on that trip for the wider good of the organisation’.
Jon went on to develop and understand resilience strategy while training the UKs Special Forces and MI6 in conduct after capture and resistance to interrogation, before moving back into an adventurous training role.
‘My aim now is to bring everything I know and have learnt to the adventure tourism space. Our performance passport is how we do that; whilst we can’t physically be with all of our customers on their expeditions to coach, their ability to log into their performance passport is the mechanism to ensure they get the best out of their trip. The aim is to help people identify where they want to get to with their lives and help them get there, our adventures are the springboard – it really is transformational travel’.
Will Batho
Will started his working life as an outdoor education instructor, leading and developing people in the outdoors, before taking the opportunity to join the Royal Navy to pursue a career as a Helicopter Pilot. Will piloted Commando Sea King helicopters for 9 years with the RN, operating in Desert, Arctic and Maritime environments. Flying in operations in support of the SAS and SBS and later qualifying as an instructor.
Leaving the service to continue his passion for learning and adventure, Will qualified as a teacher, gaining experience lecturing in Higher and Further Education, quickly progressing to curriculum leadership. Will has continued his personal learning by training and qualifying as a Coach with the Institute of Leadership and Management and ABNLP. Through all his experiences with developing people, in a huge variety of environments, Will believes the coaching philosophy to be undoubtedly the most transformational approach. He is excited to use Latitude Adventures to help transform you, your people or your organisation.
