Erin Kennedy OBE Keynote Speaker

OBE for Services to Rowing & Breast Cancer Awareness (2025)
Gold medallist at the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games
First and only coxswain to hold all international titles at once

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Erin Kennedy OBE's Biography

Erin Kennedy OBE is one of Great Britain’s most decorated coxswains, with nearly a decade at the pinnacle of international rowing. First introduced to the sport at Oxford University—where she steered the Women’s Blue Boat to a record victory in the 2014 Boat Race—she later rose to prominence in the GB Paralympic 4+. Erin quickly amassed major titles, becoming a two-time Paralympic Champion, three-time World Champion, four-time European Champion, World Cup Winner, and World Record Holder. Remarkably, she achieved many of these accolades while confronting Stage 3 Triple Negative Breast Cancer, diagnosed at age 29.

Despite undergoing intensive treatment, including a double mastectomy and 15 rounds of chemotherapy, Erin continued to lead her crews to victory. She won a gold medal at the World Cup just four days after her diagnosis, triumphed at the European Championships while on chemotherapy, and made a triumphant return exactly one year later to claim further European and World Cup titles. In September 2024, Erin coxed the PR3 Mixed Coxed Four boat to victory at the Paris Paralympic Games, securing another gold for Team GB. In recognition of her extraordinary commitment to rowing and breast cancer awareness, Erin was first awarded an MBE in the 2022 New Year Honours List and advanced to OBE in the 2025 New Year Honours List.

Beyond her athletic achievements, Erin actively promotes early detection of breast cancer and amplifies patient voices, driving forward discussions on menopause support and the de-stigmatization of chemotherapy. Her journey, from elite sport to cancer advocacy, offers a powerful message about perseverance, leadership, and the importance of camaraderie. Erin’s talks resonate with audiences across sectors, inspiring them to navigate challenges with courage, adapt to changing conditions, and work in perfect unity toward a shared goal.

Competing with Cancer: Lessons from High Performance Sport

Erin explores how core values and practices from the world of elite sport can be transferred into any challenging situation as she discusses her own journey competing internationally whilst being treated for breast cancer. An exceptional story that provides tangible take-aways from her time at the top of the podium.

The Coxswain: How To Be The Driving Force In A Successful Team

A top coxswain requires exceptional communication skills, a high level of emotional intelligence and strong leadership in order to create a driven, healthy culture that is the cornerstone to any team. Erin's shares how nine years at the top of her sport has equipped her with the skills and expertise vital to build and sustain strong team ethos and how these principles can be applied in a wide range of scenarios.

Choose Your Mood: How Reframing Changed My Life

Mental resilience and the power of positivity was something Erin relied on during her career as an athlete, but when she was diagnosed with cancer aged just 29, her mantra "Choose Your Mood" was significantly tested. Erin explores the power of the mind in both high performance athletes and those experiencing adversity and shares her insights into the psychology behind the role that optimism plays in self discipline, goal setting and ultimately, performance.

The Start Line: The Importance of Perspective in Goal Setting

Erin shares her experience of getting to the start line of the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. Whilst she ultimately comes away with a gold medal, she explores the challenges she faced, along with her teammates along the path to Paris and the crucial role goal setting played in getting to the start line. Erin shares tangible, practical take homes, backed up with evidence based examples of how to set intelligent targets that will ultimately help take you to your end goal.

Aggressive Patience: The Secret to Marginal Gains

Marginal gains are an essential part of consistent success, whether in business, sport or our wider lives as without attention to the smaller steps, we will inevitably fail to make progress on a macro level. Erin gives her insights into the concept of aggressive patience and how it can be built into our everyday practices, to ensure we reach our potential and are able to weather the storm when challenge arises.

Stop Calling Her Bossy: Women in Leadership

As the only female coxswain in the GB Rowing Team, Erin is regularly asked if her success is down to her being "bossy", a question never levelled at her male colleagues. Erin explores the challenges of being a woman in leadership as well as the opportunities arising in the evolving landscape of women in sport and in business. Her experiences are insightful and empowering and leave the listener with food for thought on how we can all take ownership in supporting the rise of female leaders in our environment.

2022 European Rowing Championships, Munich, Germany - Erin Kennedy and her battle against cancer

Articles, Media & Podcasts

S12 Ep7: CHAMPION ROWER ERIN KENNEDY OPENS UP ABOUT COMPETING AT THE PARALYMPICS, and CHEMOTHERAPY

Team GB Paralympic rowing gold medallist Erin Kennedy survives cancer

Erin Kennedy: Fighting Back

Paralympic gold medallist opens Surrey Cancer Centre

‘Chemo-Induced Menopause Hijacked My Body At 29 – But Now I’m Living A Fulfilling Life After Cancer’

Paralympic Gold Medallist details 'life-changing experience starting menopause at 29'

Comments & Testimonials

“Erin held a room of 3500 jovial ball-goers in the palm of her hand. She talked beautifully about her experiences and her passion for making change and inspiring other is clear. As someone who is not familiar with the sport of rowing, she delivered tangible takeaways that made me stop and think. An excellent communicator and a beautiful story-teller”

Asda Tickled Pink Ball

“Erin joined us for our team building day to provide inspiration for our commercial team, and she delivered this superbly. She was able to deliver a very personal story, relaying her journey as a sportswoman and her personal challenges to reach the highest levels in her discipline. This was delivered with passion, humility and truly inspired our team. What was all the more powerful is that Erin was able to relate her story to that of business, finding common ground and language which made it relatable to our tangible business needs and mantra, which drives performance through mindsets. An excellent, relatable and personal speaker, would highly recommend.”

Beiersdorf Team Building Day

“In a room of some of the country’s most Senior ranking military personnel, Erin delivered a seamless, captivating presentation that shone with confidence and professionalism. Through her extraordinary story, she provided relatable examples of the role of the individual in a team environment and even actionable points to take away into our own environment. Not only this, but she blended our key conference messages into the keynote seamlessly and answered some tricky questions with ease – we look forward to welcoming her back.”

Ministry of Defence Op Teamwork

“Erin’s keynote was the highlight of the weekend – her story is inspirational yet she ensured it was entirely relatable to our audience and you could have heard a pin drop! She has excellent lessons on leadership and teamwork from her role in a high-performance team, but also on personal resilience and goal setting.”

Macmillan’s Professional Excellence Conference

“Having grown up in sport – and attending our centres, Erin is a great Ambassador for us and it was a privilege to have her join us. Erin really engaged the young adults in the audience by sharing the lessons she wished she had known at the start of her journey and they will have taken a lot away from her speech.

GLL Sports Foundation Awards

“In a very hard room – Oxford had not had a successful day on the river – Erin’s talk hit home by reminding the athletes why we do sport. Her focus on the team and the culture was spot on and she was an excellent addition to the evening”

Oxford University Boat Club Boat Race Dinner