Surviving 537 Days in Antarctica and Military Operations in Afghanistan

David Knoff is an Antarctic Expedition Leader, Author, and leadership expert who specialises in remote leadership, hostile environment diplomacy, and resilience.

David's international career has taken him across the globe with experiences as an officer in the Australian Army, diplomatic postings in Pakistan and Iraq, and most recently with the Australian Antarctic Program. In 2019, David was given a leadership challenge unlike no other in modern history, as the Station Leader at Davis Station, Antarctica, he was leading a team of just 24 through the isolation of an Antarctic winter when the COVID-19 Pandemic broke out. The impact of the pandemic on Antarctic operations saw David's team without a ride home as planned and facing one of the longest periods of isolation in modern Antarctic History.

David's book, '537 Days of Winter: Resilience, Endurance and Humanity while stranded in Antarctica during the Pandemic' tells the story of what it was like to lead a team through unprecedented uncertainty and how to find resilience in the most extreme environments.

Combining his experiences from warzones and his six different Antarctic expeditions, David now works as a professional speaker to help others learn from his experiences in order to further their own knowledge of leadership in extreme situations. David's unique story also helps organisations and individuals understand the importance of environmental awareness and works with schools and corporations to better understand humanity's impact on climate and the planets most remote wilderness in Antarctica.

Previous Experience:

In 2007, as a junior Officer in the Australian Army, David served in the Solomon Islands which began a lifelong career in international relations. Following this, David began working with Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and was soon overseas on his first Diplomatic posting to the Australian High Commission, Islamabad, at the height of the international coalitions efforts to bring stability and peace to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It was here that David saw a different side of conflict and humanity as the security and political climate of the region changed daily and where certainty was rarely part of daily life. David then went on to work as part of the international coalition to defeat the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Iraq. Here, David worked in a dynamic and hostile environment and learned the value of empowering remote leaders and teams in unpredictable circumstances and under constant change.

Leaving diplomacy aside, David began working with the Australian Antarctic program in 2019 as the Station Leader at Davis Research Station where he led the team through an extended stay on the ice as the COVID-19 Pandemic delayed their return home. Following this, David continued to lead Antarctic expeditions to all four stations operated by the Australian Antarctic Program and over two Antarctic summers from 2022-2024 he led the Denman Terrestrial Campaign, a dedicated scientific expedition to study the Denman Glacier and its surround. This entailed setting up the largest-ever deep field camp and managing the team in the most inhospitable region on Earth.