LTCOL Dr Jorian Kippax MBChB FACEM

About LTCOL

Dr Jorian (Jo) Kippax is a Retrieval Consultant with the Ambulance Tasmania Critical Care and Retrieval Service, working with the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service and as a Trauma Specialist at the Royal Hobart Hospital. A reservist officer with the Australian Defence Force and a member of AUSMAT and the Australian Antarctic Programme medical retrieval team, Jo has operated in some of the world's most remote and demanding conditions. In 2025, he was awarded the Life Saving Cross by the President of Lithuania for extraordinary bravery.

Jo's working life is a study in performing when the stakes could not be higher. He combines medicine, military service and adventure across HEMS, AUSMAT, TASPOL and the Australian Antarctic Programme — environments where decisions must be made fast, with incomplete information, far from backup. He is committed to resuscitation education and environmental and disaster medicine, and to helping people make life-saving decisions when it matters most. The lessons he draws — leadership, adaptability and calm under pressure — resonate far beyond medicine.

Audiences hear from someone who does not theorise about pressure; he lives it, from the helicopter winch to the Antarctic ice to disaster zones. He translates that experience into practical insight on how teams hold together when conditions fall apart, and how individuals stay clear-headed when everything depends on the next decision. For safety conferences, leadership programs, emergency services events and any organisation that performs under pressure, Dr Jorian Kippax offers the rarest kind of credibility — a speaker whose day job is saving lives in extreme environments.