Ana Maria Giraldo

Ana María Giraldo Gómez is a Colombian elite athlete, speaker, organizational development consultant, and mountaineer, recognized as one of only three women from her country to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. Born in Manizales, Caldas, her life is a testament to the discipline and mental strength she has gained through competitive sports, transforming her experience at high altitudes into a powerful tool for motivation and leadership.

Although she holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the National University of Colombia and is a specialist in Change Management, her true calling has been in the world of sports. From a young age, she excelled as a competitive swimmer, eventually becoming a Pan American champion in open-water finswimming. Later, her passion for challenges led her to mountaineering, where she became a key member of the Colombian 7 Summits Expedition, a challenge that involves climbing the highest mountain on each continent.

The crowning achievement of her mountaineering career came in 2007, when she climbed Mount Everest (8,848 meters above sea level), a milestone that left a deep impression on her and which she uses as a metaphor for overcoming challenges in her lectures. In addition to Everest, Giraldo has conquered other peaks of the 7 Summits Expedition, such as Aconcagua (the Americas), Mount Elbrus (Europe), Mount McKinley (North America), and Kilimanjaro (Africa). Her determination has established her as a role model for perseverance in Latin American sports.

Ana María Giraldo is currently a partner at Kumanday Adventures, an eco-adventure tourism company in Colombia, where she leads the Experience unit with a focus on life skills training. Her social commitment includes projects aimed at women’s empowerment, an area for which she was recognized by Facebook as an Inspiring Woman of Latin America in 2017. Through talks and consulting engagements, Giraldo applies the lessons learned on the mountaintops—leadership, teamwork, and fear management—to both personal and organizational contexts.