PRESS RELEASES

News.com.au : 22 January 2007

New institute honours Everest conquerer

A NEW institute is being established in the name of Mount Everest conqueror Sir Edmund Hillary to recognise people showing outstanding leadership.

Organisers said the Hillary Institute would be an internationally focused body targeting people in mid-career. Full details will be revealed in November.

The announcement was made today in Antarctica, where 87-year-old Sir Edmund is attending the 50th anniversary of New Zealand's Scott Base.

"The idea of the Hillary Institute takes its inspiration from Sir Edmund Hillary's lifetime of personal achievement, and from his service to the Sherpa peoples of the Himalaya region," said spokesman David Caygill, a former New Zealand finance minister.

In 1953, Sir Edmund became the first man to climb Mount Everest. Four years later he led a team overland to the South Pole.

Over the past 50 years he has dedicated himself primarily to the Sherpa people through the Himalayan Trust.

The institute will have an advisory board with representatives from four continents. They will decide the winner of the international leadership award.

The board includes international leadership analyst and author Manfred Kets de Vries of the Insead Institute in France.

It also features Ray Anderson of Interface Inc, who was co-chairman of former US president Bill Clinton's council on sustainable development.