John Graham

John Graham shipped out on a freighter when he was sixteen, took part in the first ascent of Mt. McKinley’s North Wall at twenty, and hitchhiked around the world at twenty-two. A Foreign Service Officer for fifteen years, he was in the middle of the revolution in Libya and the war in Vietnam. For three years in the mid-seventies, he was a member of NATO’s top-secret Nuclear Planning Group, then served as a foreign policy advisor to Senator John Glenn. At the United Nations, he was deeply involved in U.S. initiatives in Southern Africa, South Asia and Cuba. Since 1983 Graham has been a leader of the Giraffe Heroes Project, an international organization moving people to stick their necks out for the common good. A familiar keynote speaker, he’s done TV and radio all over the world. He’s the author of Outdoor Leadership and Stick Your Neck Out—A Street-smart Guide to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond. His memoir, Quest, was published in June, 2022. Graham walks his talk, including today as an international peacemaker, active in the Middle East and Africa. He has a degree in geology from Harvard and one in engineering from Stanford, neither of which he ever expects to use.