Duncan Chessell

Duncan's passion for the Himalayas began in 1995 with his first mountaineering expedition to Nepal's Mt Makalu, the world’s 5th highest peak, where he was a member of the first Australian ascent of the 8481m high mountain. Over 40 expeditions later including three Everest summits he has spent years in Nepal working with the people of Nepal and Tibet. During this time he founded DCXP, an adventure tourism business, which for over 10 years guided westerns to the summits of the highest peaks on the planet, before returning to the Geology world in 2010 after his last Everest expedition which guided 31 of 40 climbers to the summit of Mt Everest (8848m). Since 1999 Duncan and his wife Jo Arnold have been sponsoring a family with two girls (Pabitra and Delu Shrestra) to attend school in Kathmandu. So appalled at the poor quality schooling in the local village they visited in 1998 in rural Nepal, where just two teachers (the rest not in attendance...) attempted to teach 120 children, with little support from local government. Now with the eldest daughter having just completed year 12 in 2014 it is time to address some of the fundamental issues back at the village level, rather than continue to facilitate the exodus to the overcrowded Kathmandu, hence the HDFA. In 2012-3 Duncan was a co-founder of (HCEF) Himalayan Childrens Education Foundation a Public Ancillary Fund (PAF) which raised $120,000 towards children's education in Nepal, which sought to focus purely on children's education. Whilst a noble concept it soon became apparent that the solution was not purely education, a more holistic approach was required, which was going to require an entire community development based program, hence the formation of (HDFA) the Himalayan Development Foundation Australia a charitable Incorporated Association. In 2010, Duncan changed industries back to geology to take on the role of Managing Director of Endeavour Discoveries Ltd an Australian public company exploring for gold, nickel and copper in Australia and Papua New Guinea, currently actively exploring in South Australia. He is a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, a trustee of HCEF and was Chairman of Distracted Media a Sydney based feature film & production private company.