Steven Ballantyne 

Steven Ballantyne initially trained as a Movement Therapist working primarily with young adults with Profound Autism. He was a founder member of the East London and City Bereavement Association and ran his own successful private counselling practice. In 2001 Steven chose to make a life change by entering the world of exploration. He travelled extensively, choosing developing countries such as Papua New Guinea, East Timor and South East Asia. In 2002 he lived for three months with the Tenggerese community at the foot of Mount Bromo in East Java. In 2001 he was taken hostage in the jungles of Papua New Guinea, but following a dramatic air rescue has since returned many times to lead independent expeditions across the Kokoda Trail and Black Cat Trail. Steven led the first phase of the Scientific Explorations Socieity's expedition to Mongolia in 2006 and the full expedition in 2007.  During these trips he worked with some of the country's most emminent proffessors of paleontology and with a number of different charities on projects for children and the disabled.  The discovery of the first diplodocus bone in Mongolia on the 2006 trip led to Steven hosting a Mongolian Proffessor in the UK for a tour of lectures around the country including the Natural History Museum, London.