Our story
Built differently. On purpose.
Explore Performance was founded on a belief that the leadership development industry was missing something: emotional truth.
Most programmes teach the right frameworks. They cover the right competencies. They tick the right boxes. And then leaders go back to their desks and revert to the same patterns - because nothing they experienced actually moved them.
We set out to build something different. Programmes that don’t just inform leaders - they change how they feel about what’s possible. The way we do that is by grounding every experience in the most honest classroom we know: the natural world, under genuine pressure, with real consequences.
Since our founding in Singapore, we’ve delivered to more than 40,000 participants across 25 countries. We’ve planned and executed expeditions across seven of the world’s most demanding environments - from the summit of Everest to the open waters of the Tasman Sea. We’ve built a team of facilitators, coaches, and content designers who are as comfortable at altitude as they are in a boardroom. And we’ve had the privilege of partnering with some of the world’s most ambitious organisations at the moments that matter most.
In 2025, our work was recognised with a Brandon Hall Gold Award for Best Learning and Development Programme - the most rigorous independent assessment in the global L&D industry. That same year, our co-founder Grant ‘Axe’ Rawlinson made history: the fastest row of the Tasman Sea ever completed, after 11 years and three failed attempts.
We’re still the same company we were at the start. Curious. Bold. Uncommonly committed to doing this properly.
Brandon Hall Gold
Best Learning & Development Programme 2025
Brandon Hall Silver
Best Leadership Development Programme 2025
What we stand for
Three values. No small print.
Respect the Golden Triangle
Everything we deliver depends on three functions working in genuine partnership: bold, unique content designers; high-impact facilitators; and a high-performing sales and operations team. No single function succeeds alone. We respect, trust, and actively support each other’s roles - because the client experience is only as strong as its weakest link.
Trust, Not Contracts
We prefer relationships built on trust, transparency, and mutual respect. That applies to our clients, our facilitators, and how we work with each other internally. The best work happens when both sides are genuinely invested in the outcome - not when one side is protecting itself from the other.
Do Your Best
None of us are perfect. But every person at Explore Performance commits to bringing their best to every engagement - in the room, behind the scenes, and in the conversations no one sees. World-class isn’t a standard we hit occasionally. It’s the only standard we aim for.
How we work
The Golden Triangle
The people behind it
The Founding Team
Tom Cooke
Founder & Managing Director
Tom Cooke founded Explore Performance on a belief that the leadership development industry was ready for something genuinely different - and spent the years since proving it.
Based across Sydney, Singapore, and now the UK over the course of his career, Tom has built EP into a global operation delivering to more than 40,000 participants across 25 countries, with a team of over 20 facilitators drawn from the worlds of performance, exploration, and business. He leads the business with the same qualities he looks for in the leaders EP works with clarity of purpose, relentless curiosity, and a genuine belief that people are capable of far more than they've been shown.
When he's not travelling for work, Tom is based in Winchester with his family.
Grant ‘Axe’ Rawlinson
Co-Founder, World Record Holder & Lead Facilitator
Grant ‘Axe’ Rawlinson is one of the most accomplished human-powered explorers alive. With over 50 expeditions across the globe - swimming around islands, crossing continents by bicycle, summiting Everest, and rowing across some of the world’s most feared open water - Axe has spent his life testing the outer limits of what human teams can achieve.
In 2025, he and his crew made history: completing the first-ever successful row of the Tasman Sea, the fastest team to cross one of the ocean’s most treacherous stretches. It was the culmination of eleven years, three failed attempts, and a refusal to accept that something had never been done as a reason not to try.
That experience - and everything that preceded it - is the foundation of EP’s expedition IP. Axe brings the same approach to EP’s programmes that he brings to every expedition: total belief in the people beside him, and an uncompromising standard for what a truly world-class experience looks and feels like.
World Record Holder - Fastest row of the Tasman Sea, 2025
Tom K
Shareholder
Tom King brings more than two decades of experience in sales development, learning strategy, and commercial leadership to his role as Co-Founder and Shareholder at Explore Performance.
Having built and scaled Up 2 Speed into a market-leading sales and partner development business across the Asia-Pacific technology sector, Tom joined EP with a deep understanding of what high-performing commercial teams look like - and what it takes to build them. His work with some of the region's most ambitious technology organisations keeps EP's programme design grounded in what actually moves commercial performance.
Tom is based in Asia and brings particular depth to EP's APAC client engagements, where his understanding of regional business culture and performance expectations shapes how EP shows up in the region.
Global reach
Wherever your organisation operates, we’re already there.
With facilitators on the ground across APAC, EMEA, and The Americas, we deliver locally with the quality standards of a global organisation. No flying someone in. No cultural guesswork. Real local capability, backed by world-class content.
APAC — Headquarters
Singapore
1 Scotts Road, #24-10 Shaw Centre
Singapore 228208
Our founding home and largest delivery market. EP has been operating across Asia-Pacific since its inception, with deep client relationships across financial services, technology, and professional services. Delivering across Singapore, Australia, China, Japan, Malaysia, and South Korea.
EMEA
Winchester, UK
Winchester, United Kingdom
Our EMEA operation spans Western Europe and the UK, with growing reach into the Middle East following our Dubai office opening. We deliver in English and German, with facilitator partners across the region. Clients include Standard Chartered, Allianz, and Deloitte.
Middle East
Dubai, UAE
Meydan Freezone Business Centre
6th Floor, Meydan Grandstand, Dubai
Our Dubai office serves the demand for leadership development across the GCC and wider Middle East. Operating across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and the broader Gulf region, working with multinational organisations at critical leadership moments.
The Americas
North & Latin America
Regional delivery hub - North America, Latin America.
Our Americas presence supports global clients who need consistent delivery across North and Latin America, with facilitators experienced in both US corporate culture and the nuances of Latin American business environments. Clients include RBC, HP, and Visa.
Recognition
Recognised for doing things differently.
In 2025, Explore Performance won Gold and Silver at the Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards - the industry's main independent benchmark for L&D quality. The wins recognised three things that set EP apart:
- Design and customisation built on trust: programmes authentic to client culture, never off-the-shelf
- Operations that deliver without burnout: complex, large-scale delivery across time zones and regions
- Facilitators who create consistent impact across borders: local insight combined with world-class content expertise
The awards were won for our cultural integration programme with UBS - aligning 20,000 leaders across 5 continents in 8 months following the UBS/Credit Suisse merger.
Brandon Hall Gold
Best L&D Programme 2025
Brandon Hall Silver
Best Leadership Development 2025
What's next
Want to know more about how we work?
Read about what we do, explore our client work, or get in touch directly. We’re always happy to talk.