Mary is CEO and Founder of RacingThePlanet.
Mary has been involved in sports most of her life. She has been team captain of three Eco-Challenge teams with a best finish of sixth (in the ESPN X Games). She has also completed dozens of marathons including the Boston Marathon three times and has a 3:18 personal record in the marathon. She has competed in the Marathon des Sables multiple times with a best finish of 2nd in the women’s division in a time of 26:30. In addition, Mary has completed numerous ultramarathons several of which include the Western States Endurance Run (100 miles), the Himalayan 100 Mile Stage Race (India), the London to Brighton Race (55 miles), the Hong Kong Trailwalker (100 kilometers), the Texas Trail Run (50 miles), the JFK 50-Miler and the Mongolia Sunrise to Sunset. In the past few years Mary has made it to the summit of Mt. Toubkal in Morocco (the highest peak in North Africa), Mt. Kinabalu in Malaysia (the highest peak in southeast Asia), Mt. Fansipan in Vietnam (the highest peak in IndoChina), Mt. Fuji, twice (the highest peak in Japan), and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania (the highest peak in Africa).
In the mid-90s, Mary saw a need for a global event series that captured the best aspects of all the events in which she had competed. Her vision was to create a series of events that would encourage people to push themselves beyond what they ever dreamt possible…where athletic frontiers begin.
In 2003 in China, the 4 Deserts Race Series was born, a world-class sporting event in the most challenging, pristine and culturally-rich locations in the world. The four annual events would be located in the driest, hottest, coldest and windiest place on Earth across the world’s most varied terrain.
The 4 Deserts Race Series are yearly held races in the deserts of Mongolia, Namibia, Chile and Antarctica.
And the RacingThePlanet Ultramarathons are races that change location every year. In 2020 it will be held in Georgia.
Mary has resided in Hong Kong for the past 12 years. She has lived in six countries including the United States, Spain, China, France, the United Kingdom and Korea. Mary’s work experience is in investment banking and strategy. Shortly after the Asian financial crisis, Mary worked as a global strategist in the chairman’s office and restructuring office of The Samsung Group in Seoul, Korea where she worked on special projects including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, venture capital and global strategy. Mary began her career in investment banking in the United States, and left as a vice president to pursue language and graduate studies in Europe.
With RacingThePlanet Mary has raised/donated more than US$750,000 to various charities as part of its events, with competitors raising millions more for charities.
