
Robyn Benincasa
Robyn is an award-winning keynote speaker, a 20+ year veteran San Diego firefighter, a World Champion Adventure Racer, a 2014 CNN Hero, a Guinness World Record Endurance Kayaker, a best-selling author, and founder of The Project Athena Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to helping survivors of medical or other traumatic setbacks achieve their adventurous dreams.
What Robyn Benincasa's clients say
"Great way to spend a day….reading Robyn’s awesome book while lounging in Cabo!!! Thank you Robyn for delivering an amazing keynote at the Intel Women’s Technical Conference in September. I got to sit front and center as I listened to her awesome stories of adventure and great challenge. You did a superb job of translating those experiences into our everyday team building challenges and opportunities at OTF!!! Thank you!!! I plan to join one of your Athena hikes in late April 2020!!"
"Robyn was a home-run for our leadership conference of 1,500 attendees. She is high-energy, engaging, inspiring, and does a great job connecting the story of adventure racing and teamwork to leadership in the business world. We received great feedback from our participants, and are very happy to have found Robyn. I would highly recommend her for any size event!"
"Your presentation style and message really energized the attendees. We heard nothing but great comments and feedback from many of the attendees throughout the week!"
"On behalf of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, I would like to thank you for your exceptional keynote speech and unforgettable Eco Challenge that you and your team, World Class Teams, presented to our North American Worldwide Sales Team at our annual meeting last month in Lana’I, Hawaii. World Class Teams successfully created and executed an experience that was beyond compare. The Eco Challenge created a number of experiences that our sales team could relate to and successfully accomplish.Thank you for making this day a memorable one. Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts truly appreciated the opportunity to work closely with World Class Teams. You have inspired us all."
"Robyn's message for our company was perfect. The presentation felt custom-made for us and left everyone ready to help each other win! Everyone loved her energy level and her thought-provoking stories connected with our employees. I have witnessed many members of our team referencing quotes from her talk, and I expect we will incorporate many of them into our company culture. Having high-performing teams is critical to our success, and Robyn's inspirational message has undoubtedly made our teams stronger."
"I thought yours was one of the best, if not the best, keynote session I've seen in over two decades at my company. ... you did your homework on us and our event; intensive homework, way beyond just Googling us. You spoke as an insider! You didn't just bring us into your world, you integrated both our worlds, your examples were specific, but your message and lessons were universal, and I found myself more and more impressed as the talk went on."
"It was very well customized, it felt like she knew us & what we needed to hear, and all our regions felt represented! It's so impactful to hear how “we” all contribute, and are equally critical to adapting, overcoming & winning as one regardless of level/ title. Robyn’s presentation was the favorite event!"
"We wanted to have a powerful, engaging, and inspirational opening keynote speaker to kick off the Technical Leadership Summit for our global design and engineering leaders, and WOW, did she ever deliver. Thanks Robyn, you're awesome!"
"I just listened to your session at our Annual Meeting.......I have been in the corporate business space for DECADES and this was hands down the best session on this topic, ever. Thank you!!!"
Available for
Languages:
- English
Robyn Benincasa's 2025 biography
About Robyn Benincasa
When the challenges are steep, and the competition fierce, Robyn Benincasa provides individuals and organizations the tools they need to inspire themselves and one another to their greatest heights and to cross their most challenging finish lines.
For the last 20 years, she and her teammates have been competing at the front of the pack in the most unique and compelling classrooms on earth: The jungles of Borneo, the Himalayan peaks of Tibet, the rivers of Fiji, the rainforests of Ecuador and the deserts of Namibia, studying the good, the bad, and the not-so-pretty of Extreme Teamwork. It is through these harrowing, life affirming and often hilarious experiences in the world’s most grueling challenges that she has emerged with her truly unique perspective on what it takes to build the kind of world class teams that succeed against all odds, triumph in the face of adversity and win as one in times of great challenge and change. Robyn accepts full blame for inspiring people to do insane things like climb Mount Kilimanjaro, run their first triathlon, start their own adventure racing teams, hike across the Grand Canyon with a group of Survivors, or start their own businesses. This is, after all, who she is and what she does: Robyn Benincasa inspires people to grab life with one hand, grab their teammates with the other, and to create that special magic that makes all of us better TOGETHER than we ever would have been alone!
Robyn has made an art form of extreme performance by competing and winning at the highest levels of sport and business; her keynotes are powerful, impactful, and packed with practical, real-world takeaways that inspire peak performance and exceptional leadership. As a 20+ year veteran San Diego firefighter, a World Champion Adventure Racer, a 2014 CNN Hero, a Guinness World Record Endurance Kayaker, a best-selling author, and founder of The Project Athena Foundation, Robyn Benincasa *definitely* knows a thing or two about creating Human Synergy, or as Robyn puts it, “That magic that allows groups of ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things together.
Known as an inspirational force for leadership, teambuilding, and extreme performance, her award winning and game-changing keynotes have earned Robyn accolades as one of 2020s World’s Top 50 Keynote Speakers (Real Leaders Magazine), the #1 Female Speaker for Meetings.net, and is one of the Top 10 Speakers featured by Harvard Business Review. For the past 15 years, Robyn’s keynotes have motivated countless teams and received rave reviews from user groups, associations, and Fortune 500 companies, including IBM, Starbucks, Walmart, Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, HubSpot, Intel, and more.
Robyn’s multi-faceted experience inspires people to grab life with one hand, grab their teammates with the other, and to achieve audacious goals that they could never accomplish alone. She is the expert that companies call on to build world class teams, inspire peak performance and create a culture of champions. Robyn has successfully translated the lessons learned from extreme team sports to the corporate world, with compelling keynotes that show how groups of ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary things together.
Grab ahold of your seats! Robyn’s incredible stories and breathtaking footage of extreme teams in action is an invigorating thrill ride that will leave you energized.
Robyn Benincasa's 2025 talks & topics
Adapt, Overcome, and Win as ONE!
Keynote Overview:
If there’s one thing we can all count on right now, it’s that something is about to change. It is our response to ongoing change that dictates our success. So how do we as leaders inspire the kind of mindset and build the kind of teams that drive our organizations to Adapt, Overcome and Win as ONE in the face of times of extreme challenge and change?
In this truly unique, authentic and fast paced 30-60 minute multi media keynote, inspired by a Fast Company Magazine feature story about Robyns World Champion Adventure Racing team, Robyn shares the Essential Elements of World Class Performance that allowed her team to be the most prolific and consistent World Champions in the sport, and that are easily applied to the adventures in our business lives.
Why Winners Win: The Game Changing Mindset That Creates Next Level Success
Keynote Overview:
What are the common attributes of people who make a lifelong habit of winning… and who succeed against all odds?
Drawing inspiration from Robyn’s team of World Champion adventure athletes as well as Winners from all walks of life, Why Winners Win uncovers the common traits and attitudes of the world’s most consistent high performers. The Best of the Best experience times of great challenge and change just like everyone else; but with characteristic Courage, Luck (Opportunity + Preparation), Adversity Management Skills, and a keen ability to create Synergy with their colleagues, they possess the ability to continually motivate and inspire themselves and those around them to the top of the podium in any endeavor.
Building World Class Teams: How to Achieve Breakthrough Performance Through Collaboration, Creativity, and A Culture of ONE
Keynote Overview:
How do you inspire individual team members to become great teammates? What if your teams were not only driven to achieve goals with each other but FOR each other? The world’s most successful teams have one thing in common: Human Synergy, which Robyn describes as ”the magic that allows groups of ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things together.” If your goal is to take a group of successful individuals and make them successful as a team, this team-building keynote is the perfect message to set the tone for your event!
Inspiring Greatness Through G.R.I.T.
Keynote Overview:
Guts. Respect. Innovation. Teamwork. In this keynote, Robyn shares the real secret to her and her teams’ success over 20 years of leading the pack in the sport of adventure racing and as a San Diego Firefighter—their “we will find a way or make one” attitude, their love of the mission, their deep respect for one another, their ingenious solutions and white space thinking, their intensive preparation for all contingencies and conditions, and their incredible ability to not just work with each other, but FOR each other. Having the GRIT to go the distance in any endeavor isn’t just a matter of mental fortitude.