Masha Gordon (born 13 February 1974) is a British businesswoman, explorer and

mountain climber Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, ...

. Gordon spent 16 years working in finance and capital markets. She was managing director of

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

and most recently led the emerging markets portfolio management team at

PIMCO PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company, LLC) is an American investment management firm focusing on active fixed income management worldwide. PIMCO manages investments in many asset classes such as fixed income, equities, commodities, asset ...

. In October 2015 Gordon embarked on the

Explorers Grand Slam The Explorer's Grand Slam is an adventurer goal to reach the North Pole and South Pole, as well as climb the Seven Summits (Everest, Aconcagua, Denali, Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, Vinson, and Puncak Jaya or Kosciuszko). Purists also include a subma ...

female world record challenge. She has ascended the highest peaks on every continent and also skied the last degree to both the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

South Pole The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole, Terrestrial South Pole or 90th Parallel South, is one of the two points where Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on Earth and lies antipod ...

s. She completed the Explorers Grand Slam challenge by reaching the summit of

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

on 19 May 2016 and has set a women's speed record by reaching

Denali Denali (; also known as Mount McKinley, its former official name) is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of above sea level. With a topographic prominence of and a topographic isolation of , Denali is the thir ...

via the Cassin ridge on 11 June 2016. By reaching two poles and the summit of Everest within just over 5 months she has also become the fastest woman to complete The

Three Poles Challenge The Three Poles is an adventurer’s challenge to reach the North Pole, the South Pole, and the summit of Mount Everest. The first person to reach all three locations was Edmund Hillary. He reached the top of Everest in May 1953, summited the Sout ...

Early years

Gordon was born and raised in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

North Ossetia North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. Etymology The word ''north'' is ...

, in a family of engineers. Her father, Vladimir Pavlenko, was an avid alpinist. Masha moved to Moscow to study journalism at the

Moscow State University M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (MSU; russian: Московский государственный университет имени М. В. Ломоносова) is a public research university in Moscow, Russia and the most prestigious ...

in August 1991. She started her career as a reporter for

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

in its Moscow bureau in 1992, and later studied in the United States; gaining a BA in Political Science from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from

The Fletcher School The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy is the graduate school of international affairs of Tufts University, in Medford, Massachusetts. The School is one of America's oldest graduate schools of international relations and is well-ranked in its ...

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

Professional career

Gordon joined Goldman Sachs in 1998. She spent the next 12 years in the asset management division managing money in emerging markets equities. She gained prominence in her field and has been named a number of times a Manager of the Year in her asset class category by Morningstar and Lipper. Gordon was named Managing Director in October 2006. In 2009, Gordon moved to PIMCO to help the firm broaden its outreach beyond debt markets. She was named twice Top 40 under 40 by The Financial News. Gordon moved to a portfolio career of non-executive board roles in 2014 and currently serves as the Chair of the Board of Constellation Oil Services, a deep water driller with operations in Brazil and India. Gordon is also on the Board of Advisors for the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and the Council of the Girls Day School Trust. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she stepped down as an independent non-executive director of Polyus, Evraz, MOEX, Detsky Mir, TCS and Alrosa.

Explorers Grand Slam

Gordon started climbing in her mid-30s after a friend introduced her to alpinism in

Chamonix Chamonix-Mont-Blanc ( frp, Chamôni), more commonly known as Chamonix, is a commune in the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of southeastern France. It was the site of the first Winter Olympics in 1924. In 2019, it had ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. She spent the next seven years honing her technical skills across a variety of disciplines, including mixed climbing, ice climbing and ski mountaineering. In October 2015 Gordon embarked on an endurance challenge, the Explorers Grand Slam, and set out to beat the women's record, then held by

Vanessa O'Brien Vanessa Audi Rhys O'Brien (born 2 December 1964) is a British and American mountaineer, sub-orbital spaceflight participant, explorer, author and former business executive. On 4 August 2022, O'Brien became the first woman to complete the Explore ...

. She has ascended the highest peak on each continent and also skied to both the North and South Poles. She became 46th person to complete the Explorers Grand Slam challenge when she reached the summit of Mount Everest on 19 May 2016 and has set the women's speed record by reaching the summit of Denali via the Cassin ridge on 11 June 2016

Summits and expeditions of Explorers Grand Slam

Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: above sea level and ab ...

(22 October 2015) * Elbrus (25 March 2015 and 10 March 2016) *

Aconcagua Aconcagua () is a mountain in the Principal Cordillera of the Andes mountain range, in Mendoza Province, Argentina. It is the List of highest mountains on Earth, highest mountain in the Americas, the highest outside Asia, and the highest in the ...

(7 February 2015 and 31 January 2016) *

Carstensz Pyramid Puncak Jaya (; literally "Glorious Peak") or Carstensz Pyramid, Mount Jayawijaya or Mount Carstensz () on the island of New Guinea, with an elevation of , is the highest mountain peak of an island on Earth. The mountain is located in the Sudi ...

(4 March 2016) *

(11 June 2016) *

Vinson Massif Vinson Massif () is a large mountain massif in Antarctica that is long and wide and lies within the Sentinel Range of the Ellsworth Mountains. It overlooks the Ronne Ice Shelf near the base of the Antarctic Peninsula. The massif is located ab ...

(5 December 2015) *

Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heigh ...

(19 May 2016) *

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...

(19 April 2016) *

(15 December 2015)

World records

* Fastest woman to complete the

* Fastest woman to scale the seven summits (

Guinness Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...

) * Fastest woman to complete the

GRIT&ROCK

Gordon is a founder of GRIT&ROCK, a charity which aims to help teenage girls from deprived, inner city backgrounds develop greater grit, determination and self-confidence through year-long mountaineering training programmes.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, Masha 1974 births British mountain climbers Female climbers Goldman Sachs people Living people People from North Ossetia–Alania Russian mountain climbers The Fletcher School at Tufts University alumni The Washington Post journalists University of Wisconsin–Madison College of Letters and Science alumni World record holders Sportspeople from North Ossetia–Alania