Rob Waddell is renowned as one of New Zealand’s most respected sportspeople, with a long history of competing internationally and nationally across multiple sports. He has also become well known for his dynamic and transformative work across charities and not-for-profit organisations throughout New Zealand.
Raised in the remote back blocks of a traditional sheep and beef station, Rob credits his work ethic and resilience to the tough physical and geographical challenges of rural New Zealand.
Like many New Zealand children, Rob initially played rugby but switched his focus to rowing when he attended boarding school. He rose rapidly through the ranks, quickly gaining the attention of the national teams with his unique physiology and no-barriers attitude. Notably, he recorded one of the highest VO2 Max scores ever observed in global sports. His rowing career was remarkable, breaking world records on and off the water and dominating the world rowing scene with multiple World Cup and World Championship wins, culminating in his Olympic Gold Medal performance at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games.
Rob captured national attention when he changed codes to represent New Zealand in sailing, where he played a leading role in three grueling America's Cup campaigns and was part of the enthralling foiling generation of boats that reach speeds of almost 100 km/h across the water. Alongside his sailing career, he briefly returned to rugby at a domestic level and earned a black belt in judo during a year spent in Japan.
Rob is among an elite group of only three athletes to win the Halberg Sportsperson of the Year award for three consecutive years, the highest honour in New Zealand sports.
After retiring from active competition, Rob continued to have a positive impact on New Zealand sport, by leading a number of record breaking Olympic and Commonwealth Games contingents as Chef de Mission. His eight-year tenure was marked by his commitment to fostering a high-performance environment and ensuring comprehensive athlete support. Despite its modest population of just five million, New Zealand is proudly ranked in 11th position globally in Olympic success.
Alongside his time in sports, Rob achieved a double major with first-class honours from Waikato University, and life after sport has led to a whole new world of opportunity. Alongside his wife, Sonia, he runs a substantial equine facility in Cambridge, situated on the banks of the Waikato River and they are proud parents of three children, who are standout leaders in their respective educational and career paths.
In addition to the farm, Rob has invested successfully through a private equity portfolio and puts high amounts of energy into his own dedicated business, which focuses on joining businesses to charitable causes. Over the last 15 years, he has led or played a leading role in generating over $100 million NZD in sponsorship and funding for such groups. Rob’s personal favourite is securing funding for schools in New Zealand to help students who might otherwise miss out on sports and other extracurricular activities.
Throughout his career, Rob has had to overcome a wide range of adversity, including brutal training regimes, injury setbacks, and dealing with a significant heart condition that required eight hours of surgery in 2009.
Known throughout New Zealand for his integrity, work ethic, innovation, excellence, and leadership, Rob is a great example of achievement in sports, business, charity, and family life.
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Rob Waddell
Watch Rob Waddell at our Celebrity Speakers 2014 Speaker Showcase. Rob is known as New Zealand's only Gold Medallist at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, and as a key part of the Emirates Team New Zealand Sailing Crew in San Francisco in 2013. He has a long list of achievements in these sports and also off the water.Rob was fantastic, he related to the crowd well and really inspired the delegates from his experience. The entire room was heavily engulfed his presentation. ... keep reading cievents
The audience absolutely loved his talk. We have had amazing feedback from our audience about Rob's talk particularly how he linked sport to leadership.
Professional, succinct, great speaker and really related well to the audience.
Rob was incredibly professional and added the special touch that we were looking for at our Awards Dinner. His stories were perfectly formed to the brief and he is a brilliant speaker. We would highly recommend him to anyone.
Rob was a fantastic speaker, he really engaged our audience tailoring his presentation to the kiwifruit industry including some very funny photos he had taken during the day when we took him out to an orchard and packhouse. I would definitely recommend Rob to anyone looking for an entertaining and inspiring guest speaker.
Rob was an extremely confident speaker, very well spoken, it went at the right pace and his speech had the right mixture of comedy, seriousness, motivation and relating back to our industry. He came across as very humble and honest and it definitely achieved everything that we wanted from a guest speaker.
Rob's message and delivery was professional and well received. there were many in the audience that remembered his sporting journey and a few younger ones that didn't. Would book Rob again.
Rob was an excellent guest and speaker. He connected with our people and was gracious in staying on after his segment to meet our team and chat. His presentation hit the mark, his authenticity and vulnerability resonated with the audience and his humour was great. I would highly recommend Rob to anyone looking for lessons on leadership and challenge. A true professional and a legend.
Rob was a fantastic speaker at our Tatua event. Rob went to a great effort to understand our company and made many connections from his own background to our company and industry. Rob had interesting and inspring stories to share, I'm sure everyone in the audience could relate to a number of his stories and themes he shared.
Rob covered all the topics we had discussed prior to his presentation. The audience response was very positive. Rob's presentation was captivating and humorous.