Erin Kennedy OBE

Erin Kennedy OBE is a coxswain with the GB Rowing Team and is a two-time Paralympic Champion, three-time World Champion, four-time European Champion, World Record Holder and three-time World Cup Winner. She is the first and only coxswain, male or female to hold all international titles at one time and is one of Great Britain’s most decorated coxswains.

Erin began rowing whilst at Oxford University and competed in the 2014 Boat Race, steering the Blue Boat to a record victory. As an able-bodied coxswain, she has competed internationally with both the Olympic and Paralympic pathway, but has found her success predominantly in the GB Paralympic 4+. After a successful career at World and European Championships, she won Gold at the postponed 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo and was awarded an MBE for services to Rowing in the 2022 New Years’ Honours List.

Erin is also a passionate campaigner for Breast Cancer, after receiving her own diagnosis age just 29, in May 2022, just months after winning gold in Tokyo. She continued to train and compete for Great Britain during the first part of her treatment, winning a gold medal at the World Cup just days after her diagnosis and in August 2022, she took home gold whilst on chemotherapy at the European Championships.

In May 2023, Erin returned to international competition following a double mastectomy and 15 rounds of chemotherapy and went on to retained her gold medal in Paris in 2024. She is continuing to work towards Los Angeles and has been unbeaten in any international race since 2018. Erin is currently the only female coxswain competing internationally for GB and was awarded an OBE for Services to Rowing and Breast Cancer Awareness in the 2024 New Year Honours List.

Erin is an experienced public speaker, from intimate fireside chats to keynotes to upwards of 4000 people, and has proven herself to communicate effectively to a broad range of audiences. She has the ability to hold a room and deliver impactful messages with a relaxed and confident delivery.

Erin’s story is exceptional and this, combined with her positivity in the face of adversity is the definition of inspirational. She is relatable and a gifted storyteller, able to captivate the listener and motivate them to action. Erin is able to draw on experiences from almost a decade at the pinnacle of high-performance sport as well as her journey with cancer at a young age to cover a wide range of topics to suit the client – from leadership to resilience, and communication to teamwork.  Erin also covers a wide range of women’s health and wellbeing topics, from menopause to fertility challenges and speaks openly and honestly in a way that connects with the audience on a personal level.

To hear a raw example of her work, below is a link to a recent speech delivered whilst on a trek in the Himalayas for Coppafeel! – a breast cancer awareness charity. Listening were around 120 trekkers who were halfway through their 100km walk and the brief was to motivate and uplift the crowd and remind them of the importance of what they were doing. This was delivered after dinner when the morale was a little low, with some trekkers unable to complete all of the mileage. In the speech, a woman called Kris is mentioned, who was the founder of Coppafeel! and a good friend to Erin, who had passed away from Breast Cancer just a few months before the trek.

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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”  University of Oxford

Listen to the talk here.