The top South African CEO who ran the London Marathon at 60

Discovery founder and chief executive Adrian Gore has completed the London Marathon at 60, describing the experience as humbling and energising.

Gore was born on 16 May 1964 and matriculated from King David School in 1981. He completed BSc and BSc (Hons) degrees in Actuarial Science at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Gore started his career at Liberty Life, an insurance and investment firm founded by South African entrepreneur Donald Gordon.

He describes how working in product development at an institutional business allowed him to create real change. “It wasn’t about mathematics or dollars and cents. It was about impact.”

Historically, medical aid societies provided medical coverage. This changed in the 1980s, when insurance companies also started to offer medical coverage.

Liberty Life was one of those companies that entered this field, and Gore was instrumental in developing Liberty’s medical lifestyle product.

In 1992, when Gore was only 27, he took the experience he had gained at Liberty and started Discovery with his business partner, Barry Swartzberg.

They had the backing of Rand Merchant Bank and initially served as a small specialist risk insurance company. Within a year, Discovery Health was launched.

Despite the initial difficulties associated with South Africa’s democratic transition in the early nineties, Discovery persevered and later prospered.

Under Gore’s leadership, Discovery became South Africa’s most successful healthcare insurer, capturing half of market.

Discovery Limited was successfully listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in October 1999 through a successful initial public offering (IPO).

The company’s growth continued and added numerous divisions, including general insurance, investments, and international businesses.

In March 2019, Discovery Limited launched Discovery Bank, the world’s first behavioural bank. The bank has shown strong growth despite stiff competition.

Under Gore’s leadership, Discovery has become a global leader in wellness behavioural change through its integration with health and insurance.

Today, the company is the largest medical scheme in South Africa, covering approximately 2.8 million people.

The group has more than 13,000 employees and has expanded its international reach to 41 markets globally.

Gore has received numerous awards for his business achievements, including  South Africa’s Best Entrepreneur by Ernst & Young and Moneyweb’s CEO of the Year Award.

He also received the Investec Award for Career Contribution in 2008 and was named the Sunday Times Business Leader of the Year in 2010.

In 2017, he earned the Frost & Sullivan Visionary Innovation Leadership Award for Africa and the Ernst & Young Global Lifetime Achiever Award for Entrepreneurship.

In March 2017, the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) awarded him an honorary doctorate in economics.

Adrian Gore practices what he preaches

Gore said the global Vitality Health wellness program encapsulates the qualities that have set Discovery apart.

By collecting data and employing behavioural economics, the company incentivises its customers to live healthy lifestyles, which lowers the cost of care.

Gore follows these principles and regularly sets personal and professional goals to improve his health and Discovery’s performance.

In 2022, he set out to run a five-minute mile, to highlight the power of setting goals and the potential it unlocks.

He did not complete the challenge due to an injury. However, one of the takeaways was that you still get significantly better than you would have without the goal.

“Setting goals is also recursive. Once you set one and feel your own limits expanding, you want to set another,” he said.

His next goal was to see whether he could run a marathon at 60, something he hadn’t done in two decades.

“Preparation matters more than singular events. While significant, the marathon represents only a small portion of a training journey that spans months,” he said.

“This illustrates Vitality’s focus on sustained commitment over time. No magic solutions or quick fixes, just consistent progress that builds healthy, lasting habits.”

He started his mornings at 04:30 to achieve an average of 90 minutes of training every day. “I started enjoying the solitude of those early morning hours, in darkness, often in rain,” he said.

“The preparation was very disciplined and methodical – the behavioural effect of an online coach who didn’t waver or vary.”

“That’s what I love about running, you don’t need much to get going, and with coaching becoming increasingly virtual, it’s accessible to all.”

On Sunday, 27 Apr 2025, Gore successfully completed the London Marathon alongside 56,640 other runners.

“The experience was both humbling and energising – the first marathon I’ve run in 20 years, borne out of the Strive for Five challenge I embarked on a few years ago,” he said.