TOPIC – KEYNOTE
Overviewing A Journey: Becoming The First Human To Get The Coveted Grand Slam Of Travel: All 193 Countries + Both Poles + Space
Join Jaime Alemán on a fantastic journey, as he leaves tiny Panama at 18 years of age to study in the United States, and develops a passion for travel that will eventually take him to every corner of the planet during a 53 year odyssey, culminating with a fascinating trip to space aboard the New Shepard capsule on May 31st, 2025, thus becoming the first person to visit every single United Nations country, the South Pole, the North Pole and space. The 71 year-old lawyer, diplomat, businessman and author of two books, accomplished all of this while traveling on a Panamanian passport, which made reaching his goal quite daunting. The global explorer hub Nomad Mania has certified that Mr. Aleman has achieved a human first with this this extraordinary travel achievement.
Aleman’s lifelong pursuit has not only been about travel- it’s been about curiosity, diplomacy, and connecting cultures. His adventures have spanned from remote Himalayan villages to war torn capitals, from desert caravans in the Sahara to scientific outposts in Antarctica, and even to the Oval Office in the White House and the corridors of the State Department in Washington, D.C., thus gaining insights and perspectives that few people have ever experienced.
BIO
As an explorer and adventurer, Jaime has accumulated an impressive number of achievements, which he attributes to his insatiable thirst for discovering new places, the boundless energy and passion which God gave him, and to the spirituality he developed while growing up in a home in which hard work, generosity, compassion and integrity were always expected. He studied Economics at the University of Notre Dame, and took advantage of his university years to study a year in Angers, France and travel extensively in Europe, including trips behind the Iron Curtain to Poland, the Soviet Union and East Germany in 1973. Not satisfied with that, he embarked on a four month voyage aboard the SS Universe during his last semester of undergraduate studies in 1975, traveling around the world from Miami to Los Angeles, while visiting many countries in Africa and Asia, including, inter alia, Morocco, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, the People’s Republic of China, and the Philippines. He had visited every Continent in the world except Antarctica by the time he was 21 years old.
After finishing his Juris Doctorate studies at Duke University in 1978, he worked at the Inter-American Development Bank for nearly four years, and traveled extensively in the Caribbean and South America, before returning to Panama in 1982 and setting up a leading international.
law firm with presence in many of the major cities of Europe, Asia and South America, which led to additional travel opportunities. In 2003 he made the first of his three trips to Antarctica. His travels would eventually lead him to become the first Hispanic American to visit every country in the world in March of 2020.
Jaime visited the South Pole in January of 2024 on a White Desert expedition, and the North Pole on a Ponant expedition in August of 2024. In May of 2025, he flew to Space with Blue Origin and thus fulfilled his dream of becoming the first human to visit every country, the Poles and Space.