Keynote speaker · English & Deutsch
I've led sales teams across several countries and develop managers and senior managers at a Fortune 500 company. I captained Austria's national water polo team, won my tenth title after chemotherapy, and swim across Alpine lakes alone. My keynotes connect those worlds to the goals your leaders face.
And I connect them to what your leaders face every Monday morning.
I've led sales teams in several countries and spent years in sales development, building managers and senior managers. KPIs, forecasts, QPRs and quarterly reviews aren't words I learned for the stage. They were my calendar.
Ten Austrian titles, several cup wins and the captain's armband of the national team. I know what makes a team perform under pressure, and what happens when it doesn't.
During chemotherapy I set myself one goal: win the tenth title. I did. Long before that, I dropped out of school and later earned a Master of Law. I talk about resilience from the inside, not from a textbook.
Each one is built around a real moment, in the water, in treatment or in the boardroom, and lands on a decision your people make at work. Every talk can be tailored to your event's theme, and delivered in English or German.
When the odds are small, most people wait for better ones. How teams commit fully to a goal before the evidence says it's possible: the mindset that carried me through chemo to a tenth title.
For: kick-offs, strategy days, all-hands
Your best performers got there by being excellent at what they already know. For managers stepping up to senior roles, that strength becomes the ceiling. From someone who has developed senior managers, and lived the trap himself.
For: leadership programmes, management offsites
26 hours alone in the dark on Lake Constance. What fear actually does to high performers facing one big goal, and the practical tools to keep going when the finish line is out of sight.
For: sales kick-offs, high-performance teams
Based on my book Gegen die Strömung. Dropout to lawyer, patient to champion, manager to open-water pioneer. A story of resilience leaders recognise in their own teams.
For: conferences, HR and health days
What your audience won't get: a motivational sugar rush. They get stories they'll retell in the next meeting, and one concrete question to take back to their own goal.
Two minutes from my keynote at a cardiology congress.
The highlight is in German. An English sample is coming; until then I'm happy to do a short call so you can hear me in English before you book.
Live keynote, „Das Bewegte Herz" 2026 (German).
Kiwanis Club Dornbirn: the talk and the room.
The keynotes come from these moments. None of them were planned. Step through them.
I left school early. Years later I earned a Master of Law. Everything I teach about long goals started there.
For your team: where you start doesn't decide where you finish.
Austrian champion and captain of the national water polo team. Where I learned what a team owes its captain, and what the captain owes the team.
For your team: people perform for a leader they trust, not for a title.
Cancer, in the middle of my career. In treatment I set one goal: the tenth championship. I won it after therapy.
For your team: a small chance is still the whole chance.
Sales manager across several countries at a Fortune 500 company, then building the managers and senior managers who run those teams.
For your team: the skills that got you promoted won't carry you through the next step.
Seven iconic Alpine lakes, solo and without a wetsuit, to raise awareness for people living with illness. Five done, two to go.
For your team: you don't swim 65 km. You swim the next stroke.
Your audience won't hear an athlete guessing what corporate life is like. They'll hear someone who has sat in the reviews, owned the number and coached managers through their next promotion. Every story lands on a business moment they recognise.
Pick a format to see what's included. Every format is available in English or German.
An opening or closing keynote for conferences, kick-offs and leadership events. One story arc, one clear message, timed to your agenda.
The keynote, followed by an open conversation with the room. Often where the best moments happen, because people ask what they actually want to know.
Built on the keynote, for management teams who want to work on it, not just hear it. Participants apply it to their own goals and their own teams.
A live keynote on your platform, for distributed teams or events that run virtually.
Lake Lucerne, September 2026. Lake Constance finish, Bregenz, July 2025.
Seven iconic Alpine lakes across four countries, 339 km in total, swum solo and without a wetsuit. The swimming is the vehicle. The mission is raising awareness for people living with illness. Every donation goes to NF Kinder.
My credentials beyond the water: Master of Law, certified psychosocial consultant, NLP Master Trainer, Insights Discovery Practitioner, certified TalentCoach, author of Gegen die Strömung, and father of five.
Send me your event date, the audience and what you want them to walk out with. I'll tell you honestly which keynote fits, and if none does, I'll say so.
Prefer to just write?
Or reach me directly: bernhard@bernhardhengl.com · +43 650 7051082