Debra Searle

Debra Louise Searle MVO MBE (born 8 July 1975), née Newbury, later Veal, is a British adventurer, television presenter, author and motivational speaker. In 2002, Searle rowed across the Atlantic alone after her then husband and rowing partner, Andrew Veal, was rescued from their plywood rowing boat.

Searle was born in Plymouth, Devon, on 8 July 1975 along with her identical twin sister Hayley Barnard. They were adopted by Robin and Christine Newbury as babies and have two older brothers.

Searle attended Stover School, on the edge of Dartmoor, where she first started undertaking expeditions, including Ten Tors and the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. She studied for a BEd in Physical Education specialising in Outdoor Education and graduated with 1st Class Honours and a number of outdoor instructor qualifications from De Montfort University. She was later awarded an Honorary MA by De Montfort University in 2004.

Searle taught physical education and outdoor education at St Margaret's School, Exeter, Devon and then at Claremont Fan Court School, Esher, Surrey. She gave up teaching after founding the Well Hung Art Company Ltd in 1999 with two friends, which promoted the work of lesser known artists via the web and sold original fine art to the corporate market.

In 2004, Searle closed the Well Hung Art Company to focus on her second company, Shoal Projects Ltd, which she had founded two years earlier with her twin sister Hayley Barnard. Shoal Projects manages Searle's adventures and other related media, publishing and motivational work, as well as that of other sports people and adventurers. From 2002 onwards, Searle has undertaken a number of expeditions and adventurous challenges as detailed below and has worked as a TV presenter, mainly for the BBC. She is much in demand as a motivational speaker and has written and contributed to a number of books and newspapers.

In 2014, Searle and business partner Barnard opened MIX Diversity Developers Ltd, a consultancy firm specialising in Diversity & Inclusion, Unconscious Bias and Cultural Change.

Always a keen sportswoman, Searle represented her county in tennis and netball and represented the West of England in lacrosse whilst in her teens. She went on to gain a place in the Great Britain Dragon Boat Racing Team in 1998 for the European Championships in Rome and the 1999 World Championships in Nottingham, coming home with gold, silver and bronze medals.

Atlantic Rowing Race

Searle and her then husband Andrew Veal entered the Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Challenge, a 3,000-mile double –handed rowing race from Tenerife to Barbados. The challenge includes building your own plywood boat from a flat pack kit.

There was significant media interest in the couple's entry, as they were the only male/female and husband/wife team out of the 36 teams taking part in the 2001–02 race.

Media interest intensified when Andrew was forced to retire from the race suffering from uncontrollable anxiety. Debra continued on alone, arriving in Barbados after 111 days at sea. Robert Hall from the BBC Six O'Clock News covered the story which was shown over two consecutive days. The Times Newspaper ran the story on their front cover for three consecutive days. She had never rowed before signing up to row across the Atlantic.

Ben Fogle, the adventurer and TV presenter who rowed the Atlantic with James Cracknell in 2005 claimed to have been inspired by Searle's crossing in his book The Crossing, written with James Cracknell.

Searle's story is featured in the multi-award winning film Row Hard No Excuses by Lantern Films, being screened on PBS across the US in 2010 and 2011.

Expeditions and sporting achievements

In 2004, Searle became a member of the Pindar Ocean Racing Team. Yachts and Yachting Magazine reported that Searle was planning an attempt to become the first woman to sail non-stop the 'wrong way' around the world (against the prevailing winds and currents). With major corporate sponsors in place Searle, who had no previous sailing experience, trained to become a RYA Yachtmaster. She competed in a number of major sailing events on board Pindar Open 60 throughout 2005 and sailed on board Pindar in the Global Challenge Southern Ocean leg. However the attempt was scrapped after Searle was beaten to the record by Dee Caffari who set off on 20 November 2005, arriving back in the UK on 18 May 2006, after 178 days at sea.

In April 2015 Searle was due to lead the LeasePlan Women's Arctic Challenge on a ski-trek across Baffin Island in the Arctic Circle. However, she snapped her cruciate ligament just ten days before the expedition and was unable to attend. The team still successfully completed the Challenge and Searle flew out to surprise them at the finish line.

Searle was approached by the BBC Extreme Lives team with a view to making a documentary about her Atlantic row and subsequent expedition, the Yukon River Quest. Searle invited long-term friend Bruce Parry (who went on to present numerous BBC series including Tribe, Amazon and most recently, Arctic) to partner her in the 742 km canoe race through the Yukon Territory.

As a result of Searle's appearance on Extreme Lives and following an interview for BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, she was allocated a talent manager within the BBC and started presenting. She has presented more than forty programmes for the BBC as well as working for ITV, Channel 5 and Sail TV. Credits include Grandstand (BBC1), G2 (BBC2 Grandstand spin-off), Extreme Lives, Builders, Sweat and Tears (BBC1), Big Strong Boys (BBC1) and The Southampton Boat Show (ITV).

In 2003, Searle was invited to be a trustee of leading youth charity the Duke of Edinburgh's Award. At that time she was the only female and the youngest board member. After a decade on the Board of Trustees, Searle has recently stepped down.

Searle started her own Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award whilst at school and completed it at university.

As author

• Rowing it Alone (2002)
• The Journey: How to Achieve Against the Odds (2007)

As contributor

• Kayak Surfing (2004)
• Extreme Survival (2006)
• My Reason for Hope (2008)
• Numerous articles for British newspapers

In 2014, Searle and business partner Barnard opened MIX Diversity Developers Ltd, a consultancy firm specialising in Diversity & Inclusion, Unconscious Bias and Cultural Change.

In April 2015 Searle’s company led the LeasePlan Women's Arctic Challenge on a ski-trek across Baffin Island in the Arctic Circle. The expedition was part of a wider corporate diversity project designed to challenge stereotypes and provoke conversations around unconscious bias.

Searle, who intended to lead the expedition herself, snapped her cruciate ligament ten days before the expedition and was unable to attend. The team still successfully completed the Challenge and Searle flew out to surprise them at the finish line.

Searle cites that the accolades she received for her Solo Atlantic Row are ultimately a product of a sexist agenda, as ‘her story wouldn’t have even made her local paper had it been her husband who had continued alone and she who had been rescued'. She now has a ‘passion for demolishing stereotypes’ and has participated in various events to celebrate International Women’s Day.

Searle was also a founding member of The Business Women’s Network Forum, which is based out of Buckingham Palace and chaired by The Countess of Wessex. She recruited female leaders from major organizations such as HSBC and Google to come together to share best practice on Gender Balance in the Workplace.

She married her first husband in 1999 and later divorced him in 2004. She has since remarried and lives in Plymouth with her husband with whom she has had two children.

Searle was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2002 Birthday Honours. She was appointed Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in the 2014 New Year Honours for her work with the Duke of Edinburgh's Award.