Keynote Speaker · Corporations & Universities · Worldwide
Book Gregory
to Speak
Two-time Paralympic Gold Medalist. IronMan. International artist. A speaker who has lived every word of the story he tells — on five continents, since 1992.
● Currently Booking 2026–2027
Past Clients & Partners
Keynotes
Six adaptable Keynotes. All talks tailored to your event goals & audience — from conferences to graduations.
Gregory has been on stage since 1992 — six topics, all of them built from things that actually happened. No borrowed framework, no consultant's slide deck. A two-time TEDx speaker, he has talked to everyone from Fortune 500 leadership conferences to university graduation halls to rooms full of teenagers who didn't want to be there — and left all of them with something they didn't expect. Featured on CNN, CNBC, BBC, ESPN, CCTV, CNA, the Asian Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and the China Daily. Six talks. All tailored. All true.
Keep Walking: Thriving Beyond Limitations
Two gold medals. Five world records. Sixty countries painted. Two careers the system said weren’t possible.
Keep Walking is Gregory’s signature keynote — an unscripted account of a life built without a map. From the White House pool to the medal podium in Atlanta. From studios in Shanghai, Marrakech and the Himalayas to the stage of the Tokyo National Stadium, each story is chosen for the same reason: to show an audience what becomes possible when you are not limited by your limitations and start moving.
This is not a disability story. It is a performance story — about what it takes to build something lasting in sport, in art, in business, in life. The talk ends not with Gregory’s story, but with the audience seeing a version of their own. Forty to sixty minutes. No notes. Nothing wasted.
The Hero’s Journey
Joseph Campbell identified four stages every hero moves through: Home, Departure, Trials, and Return. Gregory has lived each of them — as a swimmer, as an artist, as someone who crossed sixteen countries on crutches with no plan and a paintbrush. This talk maps those stages onto the audience’s own lives, showing that the arc they recognise in every great story is the same arc available to them. Practical, personal, and structured around one of the most powerful frameworks in human storytelling.
Fueling Passions, Recharging Life
The same discipline that built five world records in the pool now builds paintings across sixty countries. Neither happened by accident — both required a daily practice, a refusal to wait for the right conditions, and the understanding that energy is not something you find. It is something you generate. Gregory shows audiences how he does it, and why it is not complicated — only consistent.
One Step at a Time: The Art of Perseverance
The Honolulu Full Marathon took Gregory sixteen hours on crutches. He slept in the park the night before — no hotel money. He finished dead last, the finish line reopened for him. The IronMan took longer. The sixteen-month solo overland journey across China, Tibet, Nepal, India, and Pakistan took longer still. What these experiences share is not grit — it is method: the discipline of dividing the overwhelming into the manageable, and refusing to look further ahead than the next marker. Perseverance, Gregory argues, is not a character trait. It is a muscle. And like any muscle, it can be trained, measured, and made stronger. This is how.
The Studio Without Walls
For Gregory Burns, the studio has never been a room. It has been a Buddhist temple in Cambodia, a luxury resort in the Maldives, a Great Wall and mountaintop in China, and a residency at the Tokyo Olympics. In this visually rich presentation, Gregory pulls back the curtain on what it actually means to be a working artist in motion — across thirty years of expeditions and exhibitions in over sixty countries.
The DEI Story That Can't Be Questioned
Corporations are spending billions on DEI. Most inclusion speakers approach it theoretically — from the outside looking in. Gregory Burns approaches it from a place no credential can replicate: polio at age one, paralysis, a "he will never walk" verdict at three, three Paralympic Games by forty. A lifetime of experience advising companies like FedEx, Goldman Sachs, Ogilvy, Cigna, Hilton, Marriott, and WorldHotels on building inclusive workforces that deliver real business results — not as charity, but as competitive advantage. This is not theory. It is testimony.
Fees: Inquire about rates · International travel from Singapore.
Why Gregory on DEI
The most authentic inclusion voice in the room.
Corporations globally are spending billions on diversity, equity and inclusion. Most DEI speakers speak theoretically. Gregory Burns lived it — polio at age one in Jerusalem, paralysis, the "he will never walk" verdict, swimming to gold at three Paralympic Games. He is not an observer of inclusion. He is its proof.
For over thirty years he has also worked on the employer side — consulting with FedEx, Goldman Sachs, Ogilvy, Cigna, Hilton, Marriott, and WorldHotels on bringing people with disabilities into the workforce in ways that are dignified, sustainable, and measurably good for business. He is currently a member of the Olympic Education Commission.
Book Gregory for a DEI Keynote →"Hiring people with disabilities is not charity. It fills a real business need — and PWDs are among the most loyal, motivated employees in any organization."— Gregory Burns
What Clients Say
The room changes when Gregory walks in.
I have seen a lot of motivational speakers in my years, and I am quite certain that Gregory's talk will stand the test of time with my organization as having left a real solid imprint.
Chip V. Bergh
President, Procter & Gamble, ASEAN/Australasia/India
To say that Greg was an “undeniable hit” would be an understatement. His talk was inspirational, down to earth, moving, on target with the meeting’s objectives — and simply a highlight of our three days together.
Roger Gaston
CHRO, Gates Corporation · Global Leaders Summit, Denver
Gregory captivated everyone in the room. His message deeply resonated with our leaders, and the positive feedback from our General Managers has been phenomenal. Gregory’s ability to connect his experiences with our values left a lasting impact.
Petr Raba
Vice President, Marriott APEC
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