Ben Hunt-Davis
Olympic Keynote Speaker on Goals, Performance & Leadership
Ben is an Olympic Gold Medallist, performance expert, co-founder and co-author of Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?. He helps leaders and teams cut through complexity, focus on what truly matters, and deliver extraordinary results.
Subject Expertise
- Aligning teams around a single, stretching goal
- Cutting through complexity to focus on what truly matters
- Driving performance through mindset and behaviour change
- Turning ambition into disciplined, collective action
Who is Ben Hunt-Davis?
In 1998, Ben was part of a struggling GB rowing team – consistently finishing 7th or 8th in the world. Two years later, they won Olympic gold.
The difference wasn’t talent. It wasn’t effort. It was a mindset shift and ruthlessly focusing on what was most important.
The team aligned around a single, powerful question: ‘Will it make the boat go faster?’.
That question changed everything. How they trained, how they made decisions, and how they worked together.
Since then, Ben has spent over 20 years helping organisations apply the same principles to business performance. He co-wrote the book ‘Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?‘ and has delivered keynotes in over 60 countries and worked with hundreds of leadership teams to achieve their own “Crazy Goals”.
What started as one story grew into a philosophy that’s transformed the way teams and leaders think about performance.
Spoken at over
1,000
events
With an average
9.2/10
delegate feedback score
Achieving an average NPS of
+93
Considered World Class
*from scores received in 2025 & 2026
Watch Ben's Speech Highlights
The Keynote: Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?
The famous question that won Olympic Gold
This is not just an Olympic story. It’s a practical, high-impact performance keynote designed to shift how people think, align teams, and drive immediate action.
Ben’s keynote is built around three powerful performance principles – the same principles that took the crew from 7th in the world to Olympic champions.
- Focus of what’s important: If everything is a priority, nothing is. Too often, teams are busy but not aligned – working hard without a shared understanding of what success really looks like. Ben challenges audiences to define a goal that truly matters. A goal that is stretching, meaningful, and worth committing to.
- Focus of performance, in order to achieve results: Olympic athletes distinguish their view of performance (what you do) vs results (what you get) very differently. So why should this be any different in business? Ben shows how adopting a performance mindset shifts teams away from effort for its own sake, and towards the actions that directly drive results. It sounds simple – but in practice, it requires discipline, honesty, and a willingness to do things differently.
- Work together effectively: Ben shows how high-performing teams create clarity of roles, shared responsibility, and a culture where people both support and challenge each other to improve. Because when teams work together effectively, performance accelerates.
Ben is one of the most sought after motivational speakers in the world. Some of the great value of Ben is that he is an ordinary guy who achieved something extraordinary. The presence of a humble man on the stage puts everyone at ease so they can enjoy, relate to and take actionable takeaways from his Olympic story.
What will your audience take away?
Olympic-winning tools and techniques to drive practical change in your business
People leave inspired and equipped with:
- A single, unifying framework their team can apply immediately to cut through noise and focus on what matters
- Greater clarity on the difference between effort and performance – and why only one moves the dial
- A shared question – “will it make the boat go faster?” – that becomes a practical filter for decisions at every level
- Renewed alignment around a common goal, and the team habits needed to achieve it
- Practical tools to build accountability without it feeling like pressure
Inspiration with substance
An engaging, fast-paced talk that moves beyond motivation into practical performance tools.
Emotional connection
Stories that make people reflect on their own goals, habits, and teamwork.
Tailored messaging
Topic and delivery aligned to your goals and context
Actionable
focus
Clear, simple frameworks to help every attendee identify what will truly make their boat go faster.
When to book Ben
Ben’s keynote speech is often bought by organisations who are looking to:
- Align teams around a clear goal
- Improve focus and execution
- Drive performance through behaviour change
- Strengthen leadership and accountability
- Create momentum during change, growth, or transformation
Your audience will walk away clearer, more energised, and actually excited to put this into practice. It’s the kind of session your audience will thank you for and still be talking about long after the event.
Delivery of the Speech
Ben’s speech will take 45 – 60 minutes and is tailored to fit with your key messages. It can be delivered both virtually and face to face. Ben can also deliver optional workshops alongside the speech to ensure your delegates can immediately begin to apply the ideas.
Interested in booking Ben for your next speaking engagement – contact us today and find out more.
Find out more about the book
If you’d like to explore these principles in more detail, Ben co-authored the bestselling book Will It Make The Boat Go Faster?, bringing the story and performance framework to life in a practical and accessible way.
We also offer package options alongside keynote bookings, providing a tangible takeaway to reinforce the learning and embed the principles back in the workplace.
Trusted By
"Ben Hunt Davies brought the energy, the real talk, and the challenge to our leaders - very thought provoking. Everyone walked away inspired, focussed and asking the right question 'will it make the boat go faster' absolutely brilliant session."
Claire Creasey, Senior HR Business Partner, Wickes
"Ben’s inspiration helped us build this behaviour driven and teamwork focused mindset, where everyone has a clear responsibility and a leadership role to play. This will help us face the challenges ahead, and make the boat 'go faster'!”
Anna Carbonell Jou, International Trade Marketing Manager, DAMM
"Ben delivered an outstanding keynote at our conference, scoring an impressive 98% excellent rating from our delegates.
His message was not only inspiring but also deeply aligned with the themes of our event. We would highly recommend Ben as a keynote speaker - professional, inspirational and an absolute pleasure to work with.”
Georgie Butler, Associate Director, Blackberry Events
"We truly couldn't have been more impressed and grateful to Ben. What a legend. We were honoured to have him as our keynote speaker at our first company conference. From the very moment he stood up, he held and maintained the attention of every single person in the room and simply blew us all away."
Hannah Bramley, Arbtech Consulting
"Ben was fantastic at landing our key messages at our event. He was energetic, passionate and inspirational. People definitely talking about his learnings around the business."
Vicky Hall Grant, Head Of Internal Communications, Royal Mail
"Ben Hunt-Davis is a phenomenal and highly impactful speaker. He gave a Zoom webinar and the reaction from our audience was very positive and instantaneous. In all my time, I have never seen such an intensely positive reaction to an external speaker before."
Sam Cooper-Gray, Global Head Of Engagement, HSBC
"Ben Hunt-Davis delivered exactly what our team needed in this moment, bringing a clear, powerful mindset that resonated deeply as we step into a challenging and high-expectation year."
Joel Fleet, Senior Director, Salesloft
