No Prior Experience

NPE Profiles

Colin L. Carroll

Initially trained as a sports scientist, Colin is fluent in five languages after 10 years spent abroad. In Germany he was a tennis coach, in Spain he opened sports holiday clubs while exploring South America by motorbike he worked in human rights.

A broken back demanded a career change and while relearning to walk he pocketed a masters degree from Loughborough University. Colin left Mark McCormack's IMG in London to open his own UK and Irish television production companies where he provided sports commentary on more than 160 hours of broadcast television. Returned to Spain , Colin launched the countries first beach magazine distributed in more than 1,500 newsagents.

In sport, Colin has competed in Spain as part of the Irish beach rugby team, in Latvia as the Irish bobsleigh and ice hockey teams while more recently as the Irish Elephant Polo team in Asia he was crowned World Champion.

Able to fly an airplane solo, crewed yachts from the Mediterranean back to Ireland , summited 7,000metre mountains and run last years Dublin marathon in under three and a half hours, Colin loves exploring new mental and physical frontiers to himself.

His motto is NPE or No Prior Experience as he loves nothing more than being deep-ended into something of which he knows absolutely nothing. The survival instinct grips as he aspires to excelling at his new challenge. Such adventures have led Colin to invent a novel gamut of nutraceutical food supplements using the medicinal properties of Irish seaweed. He has in the past also been a dog track commentator, cut a single in Poland as part of a boyband, conducted a 34 piece band orchestra and even gone a few rounds with a world champion kick-boxer.

At the Cork Institute of Technology Colin has lectured to thousands of undergraduates largely in sport but also supervising degree students' thesis on enterprise development while he was commissioned to revaluate the colleges degree programmes.

Colin's life continues to pull in different directions. He is author of 'Mission Improbable' , published by Mercier Press, which charts some of his zany life experiences. He qualified as a solicitor in 2006.

Crowned amateur World Elephant Polo Champion in the jungle of Nepal in December 2005, Colin competed as Ireland's only and first ever athlete at the Sumo World Championships in Osaka, Japan on 15 October, 2006. Imagine Broadband sponsored Colin's sumo quest - see the video here. Colin's bizarre lifestory may be read in his new book Mission Improbable or viewed in a short documentary on his life, shown on RTE, Ireland's state broadcaster, at http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0913/nationwide.html - click on "Irish Elephant Polo Player". Colin is available for public speaking engagements and media work at colin@nopriorexperience.com

Irish Examiner Article (PDF)

Colin's back

Colly's magazine