Navy SEAL and Founder of The Mission Continues Best-Selling Author of Strength and Compassion and The Heart and the Fist White House Fellow, Draper Richards Fellow, and Rhodes Scholar
Eric Greitens Introduction Video
Eric Greitens is a Navy SEAL, Rhodes Scholar, Draper Richards fellow, founder of The Mission Continues, and award-winning and best-selling author. Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, Greitens draws from his experience as a humanitarian and Navy SEAL lieutenant commander to address leadership, team building, overcoming adversity, and the power of service. Using humor and personal anecdotes from his travels, he engages his audience in highly visual, dynamic, and inspiring presentations, and challenges them to make small changes and improvements in their lives.
Humanitarian Work. Eric Greitens is a noted humanitarian. His doctoral thesis, Children First, investigated how international humanitarian organizations can best serve war-affected children and inspired his award-winning book of photographs and essays, Strength and Compassion. He has worked as a humanitarian volunteer, documentary photographer, and researcher in Rwanda, Cambodia, Albania, Mexico, India, the Gaza Strip, Croatia, and Bolivia. Strength and Compassion has been recognized as ForeWord magazine’s “Photography Book of the Year,” and was the grand prize winner of the 2009 New York Book Festival. Greitens’ latest book, New York Times best-selling The Heart and the Fist, provides his insights into leadership during challenging times, team building, and what drives people to succeed. Itis a story of leadership and service, with Greitens drawing from his experience in the Navy, as a humanitarian, and working with disabled veterans.
Military History. Eric is a United States Navy SEAL officer who has deployed four times during the global war on terrorism to Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, and Southeast Asia. He has served as the commander of a Joint Special Operations Task Unit, commander of a Mark V Special Operations Craft Detachment, and as commander of an al Qaeda Targeting Cell. While in Iraq, Greitens and his comrades were hit by a suicide truck bomb. He escaped with minor injuries, but some of his comrades were much harder hit. His personal military awards include the Navy Achievement Medal, the Joint Service Achievement Medal, the Navy Commendation Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon, the Purple Heart, and the Bronze Star.
The Mission Continues. After returning from Iraq, Eric donated his combat pay to found The Mission Continues, which empowers wounded veterans to begin new lives as leaders at home. For his work, he received the President’s Volunteer Service Award, and the Draper Richards Foundation selected Greitens as a fellow, recognizing him as one of the most innovative leaders in America. The following year the Manhattan Institute for Social Entrepreneurship honored Eric as one of the five leading social entrepreneurs in America. Major League Baseball and PEOPLE magazine recently named him an “All-Star among Us,” Outside Magazine announced Eric as their “Reader of the Year,” and the National Conference on Citizenship named Eric its citizen soldier of the year.
Greitens is a golden gloves boxer and sub-3 hour marathon runner. He was also appointed as a White House fellow, the most prestigious fellowship for leadership and public service.
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Eric Greitens on NBC's Nightly News: Bin Laden missions puts SEALS in spotlight
Download Speech Topics: Eric Greitens' Topics
The Heart and the Fist: Inspired Leadership through Challenging Times. Through his work and experiences as a Navy SEAL and an award-winning humanitarian, Eric Greitens is an expert on how to lead teams, communities, and organizations through situations of extreme hardship and challenge. He has worked as a volunteer, photographer, and researcher in Rwanda, Cambodia, Albania, Mexico, India, the Gaza Strip, Croatia, and Bolivia, and he has served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Greitens bases his leadership style on these experiences, sharing lessons learned from refugees in Cambodia, survivors of genocide in Rwanda, battle in Iraq, and more.
Greitens has led teams through the hardest military training in the world, created hope in some of the world’s most difficult situations of poverty and war, and inspired wounded veterans around the country to begin to serve again in their communities here at home. Greitens believes that it is not enough to endure challenging times, we have to embrace them, and in this speech he crafts a message specifically tailored to every audience that inspires leaders to create hope and build for the future. With high energy, striking images, good humor, and incredible stories, Greitens inspires his audiences to embrace challenge, create hope, and thrive.
Leadership for Today and for the Next Generation. Eric draws on stories from his experience as a Navy SEAL, White House fellow, and award-winning humanitarian leader to teach about the virtues required for inspirational and effective leadership in today’s world. Eric shares with audiences the need for vision, courage, hope, and friendship. Drawing from the rich tradition of American leadership, he speaks about the power of humility and argues that true leaders challenge their followers. With striking images, engaging stories, and a fresh look at today’s challenges, Greitens inspires his audiences to become stronger, more compassionate, and more courageous leaders.Greitens also discusses the challenges faced by the next generation of American leadership and how we can address those issues. He discusses five challenges: acting with both courage and compassion in foreign policy, maintaining the moral high ground, developing a solution-based foreign policy, caring for our veterans, and reinvigorating a culture of national service.
The Power of Service. Greitens calls on stories from his experience in public service to talk about the strength and growth that comes from serving others. He believes that a sense of purpose and meaning are essential to any well-lived life and essential in order to maintain healthy and vibrant communities and organizations. Drawing from his experiences running The Mission Continues and the striking photographs and experiences in his books, Strength and Compassion and The Heart and the Fist, Greitens shares stories from incredible public servants and challenges his audiences to build their own power and to make a difference to others through inspired service.
Travels FromMissouri Local Fee Range$15,001.00 to $20,000.00 West Coast Fee Range$15,001.00 to $20,000.00 East Coast Fee Range$15,001.00 to $20,000.00
This specific fee falls within this range. Ranges are presented as a guideline only. Speaker fees are subject to change without notice. For an exact quote, please contact your Leading Authorities representative.
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