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speaker

Rob
Hamill

An inspirational story of courage, teamwork and commitment.

Profile

An extraordinary mental and physical effort something very, very special' is how the late Sir Peter Blake described Rob Hamill and the late Phil Stubbs' incredible achievement in winning the inaugural Atlantic Rowing Race.

Marathon rowing champion Rob Hamill represented New Zealand in rowing for 16 years. Rob's numerous rowing achievements include a silver medal at the World Championships, Commonwealth gold and a world record on the indoor rowing machine.

Previous experience

Author

Rob rowed for New Zealand at the Atlanta Olympics and published The Naked Rower on how he and Phil Stubbs captured headlines around the world winning the gruelling and inaugural Atlantic Rowing Race in 41 days. He then led teams to successful defences in the next two editions making it a three-peat of victories for New Zealand.

Speaker

Rob has spoken to over 100,000 school children throughout New Zealand to help them aspire to reach their goals. He is co-organiser of The Great Race, an annual rowing 8s clash between Waikato and Cambridge/Oxford/Harvard/Washington Universities on the Waikato River. His latest project was managing a rowing expedition across the Tasman Sea that was completed last year and a related campaign to build the world's largest human made coral reef.

Current work

Documentary maker

The next project is the inaugural Pacific Rowing Race.

Rob was recently the narrator-protagonist of the award-winning documentary Brother Number One, which recounts the story of his return to Cambodia to retrace the steps of his brother Kerry, tortured and murdered by the Khmer Rouge.

Rob's account is a powerful and inspiring message on ambitious goal setting, tenacity, hope, love and the last human freedom: the power to choose your attitude and how you respond to any given situation.

The humour, the insights and the emotional turning points have audiences spellbound while the use of an amazing audiovisual show help make the audience feel part of the challenges.

Rob will inspire you to pursue your dreams whatever they may be, to take on new challenges, overcoming hardship against the odds and know that with passion anything is possible.

It doesn't hurt to be just a little bit crazy too.

Expertise
Media
Feedback
Rob, being a 'closing speaker' places special demands on a speaker, for theirs is the speech that cements the 'feel good' factor as everyone leaves for home. You did us proud! Your story was fascinating - a story of believing in yourself, of motivation and commitment, of thorough planning and preparation, the actual doing and finally of the accolades of success (unfortunately without the monetary rewards). Such a story speaks to us at different levels - astonishment that two individuals could achieve what you and Phil did and the courage to believe that if that is possible, so too, must be the goals we set ourselves in our businesses. You certainly 'showed' us along with the rest of the world that challenges bigger than we could believe in, are achievable. Professional Advisers Association Inc

Words cannot describe the effect you and your stories had on the group. Suffice to say the background of the Atlantic Challenges were inspirational and damned exciting. We pride ourselves in that pioneering and winning. However, your focus on the world order opened more than a few eyes....and Cambodia and your brother utterly saddening and awe inspiring at the same time. You made a huge difference...and I now you will again with our group in times to come.

GM First National Realestate

Child Cancer Foundation was looking for an inspirational speaker who would reflect the passion, the hope and the commitment exhibited by CCF and its members. When I set out to look for such a person Rob Hamill's name kept bubbling to the surface and I'm delighted I made the phone call. Rob your speech is probably the most inspiring talk I have ever listened to. Your story is an amazing one delivered in a passionate and yet entertaining manner.

Christchurch International Airport

Your easy listening and humorous style provided us with great insight into the planning, preparation and successful execution of a truly ambitious goal. There is always a close correlation between successfully competing in a top-level sport and managing a successful business. The focus and commitment you guys showed in making the journey across the Atlantic applies equally to any business. Rob, thanks for a most enjoyable and informative presentation. I don't think you're going to get any takers from our crew for the next race. We will just settle for another presentation when you've completed it.

Lumley Life, Australia

Rob fitted the bill superbly - his story was fantastic enough in itself, as well as being highly motivational, very moving and a real eye-opener. He has the rare ability to be able to relate his personal insights to issues facing people in business today. He used his story to emphasise the importance of teamwork, planning and communication. He is without doubt one of the most outstanding speakers I have had the privilege of hearing - this is not praise given lightly. I have co-hosted Telecom's last three sales conferences and Rob is the only speaker that I can recall receiving a standing ovation from our sales force. This is a real testament to Rob as we have also had some highly rated international speakers at our conferences.

Telecom New Zealand Limited

It is always difficult to find an appropriate speaker when we had an audience of such highly successful and motivated people but we found an impressive speaker this year at the breakfast in you Rob. You really captured the imagination and attention of those people and left them feeling inspired and humbled by your amazing achievements. All through the weeks competition race managers, officials, skippers, everyone that attended the breakfast, were buzzing about your presentation and talking about the attributes and skills that you must have had to achieve such a feat. You truly added value to this event and helped in making it the success that was achieved.

Communication Action

As you are aware we had a most successful and enjoyable conference with over 650 in attendance. Many people have commented that Rob Hamill's presentation was the highlight of the Conference. I must say that his ability to thread the sponsor's name and services throughout his address, and in such a subtle way, was indeed very clever and professionally managed.

Rotary

Thanks again for you excellent presentation at our conference. The feedback has all been very positive in terms of your passion, the humour, the presentation slides, and the life messages. An excellent package which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Agfirst

The content of Rob's experiences are remarkable and were presented in a light and often very humorous style. The speech will be enjoyed by the vast majority of audiences... he went out of his way to talk to many of the guests about his life and experiences, which was appreciated and well beyond the brief. I could recommend him highly as a great after dinner speaker.

Brookfield Lawyers

Thanks Rob. Your address last night captivated our audience and I particularly liked the way you wove personal aspects, values, philosophy and humour into your riveting story.

GM Nufarm

Rob was extremely motivational, interesting and inspirational... it was a fun presentation, lots of laughs and some good stories.

Fletcher Construction

Rob spoke for AstraZeneca at our sales and marketing conference in March 2009. He was an excellent speaker - entertaining, yet also able to get across some powerful messages. The team was quoting him for several days afterwards! Rob's strengths were not only his presentation, but also his engagement and willingness to speak with the team both before and after his presentation. We would highly recommend Rob and wouldn't hesitate to use him again.

AstraZeneca

I loved your presentation. It was from the heart and I really relate to that. It's a bit like watching a movie that is a based on a true story as compared to a Hollywood fake, the true story always gives me much more viewing pleasure.

First National Realestate

Our management team were impressed with your story, and your presentation was much appreciated. I enjoyed the way you spoke both of your adventure and also life lessons, perspectives and values. Many thanks for your time and inspiring message.

Louis Vuitton NZ

Your presentation engaged our group from the very start, and your personal comments, coupled with your well constructed audiovisual presentation, enthused and motivated my team - even to the extent that I overheard a number working out how they might put together a team for the inaugural Trans Tasman race! Your message around the challenges you have faced (exceptional ones which you made sound normal!) especially with the Trans Atlantic Rowing Race inspired us all in a way that we could relate those efforts to changes to make in our own work (and personal) lives to become more effective in achieving goals.

Building and Construction Industry Training Organisation

Once again I really appreciate the professional, hilarious and poignant way you spoke.

Hagar NZ

Rob has a remarkable story, told in a clever and compelling way. He is able to engage deeply with his audience; he made us laugh, cry and most importantly think deeply, as leaders, about our role in the world. One of the best!

Fonterra

Extremely motivational speaker “ related his comments back to the crowd and their lives so made it personal for everyone.

Direct Management Services

What an excellent speaker and a very inspirational story. The audience loved it.

Colonial

Rob was given a very tight time frame, he managed to condense his address and relate it to our business. The audience were totally focused. They were entertained plus informed. Visual were good and technically excellent.

Building Industry Authority

Rob was asked to speak on behalf of Rowing NZ. I know he had to put in some extra hours preparing the speech and linking it to our function. It was fantastic. My feedback comments indicate that he made the night. He sold a large number of his books and gave us his profits' for our fundraiser. We thought that was very generous. He networked the tables and was accessible to all. He arrived early to ensure that the electronic equipment was working , this made for a good presentation. Good humour and speech content were evident

St Peters School

Rob is a fantastic speaker. He was humorous and kept the audience entertained and inspired. The feedback from our clients has been extremely positive. He is extremely down to earth and even stayed behind and mingled with our clients after the presentation which was a nice touch.

GHD Limited

Rob delivered a truly brilliant and motivational presentation. His inspirational story created an electric start to our conference and the audience was held captive for the full 50 minutes - feedback was 100% positive. Rob worked to our brief, skilfully weaving in relevant messages about life and importantly made the audience feel good about being Coastguard volunteers, and that is gold!

Coastguard

"Rob was very personable, he gladly accepted further tasks such as handing out the awards at our ceremony. Rob stayed at the function beyond any time expectation talking and mingling with our guests. Rob donated a signed copy of his book for our Leadership award, this was unexpected and greatly appreciated. We had such a wide diversity of people with an equally wide age range, the story Rob relayed resonated well with all our guests, not one person felt they could not relate to the messages portrayed."

Electrical Apprentice Finals Awards Dinner.
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