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Shaun Tomson          

Former World Surfing Champion, Leadership Expert, Environmental Activist

Shaun Tomson is a leadership and positive engagement expert who has collaborated with prominent organizations such as GM, Cisco, PwC, Google, Disney, and Gap to inspire purpose and reactivate their teams. Tomson provides a distinctive approach to harnessing personal will to boost performance and conducts workshops that help team members strengthen relationships and evolve both individually and collectively. He is a true entrepreneur, having created, managed, and sold two international multi-million-dollar clothing brands—Instinct in the 1980s and Solitude in the 1990s, which he co-founded with his wife Carla. He is a former World Surfing Champion and is recognized as one of the greatest and most influential surfers of all time, with induction into the US, Jewish, and South African Sports Halls of Fame.

Tomson is the author of several bestsellers including "Surfer's Code," "The Code - The Power of 'I Will'," and the #1 Amazon bestseller "The Surfer and the Sage," co-written with poet-philosopher Noah benShea. This book offers insights on facing life’s challenges with purpose, hope, and faith. He also co-produced the award-winning documentary film "Bustin’ Down the Door," which narrates the dramatic evolution of professional surfing. Tomson holds a degree in Business Finance from the University of Natal in South Africa and a Master of Science in Leadership from Northeastern University. He has served on the board of the Surfrider Foundation and the Santa Barbara Boys & Girls Club. Tomson previously held the position of Vice President at Strathspey Crown, a private equity company focused on healthcare, and has consulted for consumer corporations such as Brooks Shoes and Deckers. He has also held executive positions at environmentally focused apparel leaders like Patagonia and O'Neill.

As an in-demand speaker, Tomson’s presentations are noted for their practical takeaways, helping attendees apply lessons in their operations. He emphasizes how surfing lessons on risk, resilience, and camaraderie can significantly enhance leadership and business strategies. Through his talks on topics like empowerment, peak performance, and the importance of a positive values system, he effectively connects surfing concepts to business and personal growth. Additionally, Tomson actively promotes environmental sustainability and has been an environmental activist, recognized with the Environmentalist of the Year award. He continues to inspire audiences by sharing insights on how doing good is beneficial for business, underlining his commitment to environmentalism and sustainability.

Speech Topics


The Code to Activate The Power of Purpose

Purpose:

Purpose is the energy that empowers organizations and individuals to thrive. It positively impacts the workplace too – recent research from EY indicates that purpose-led organizations perform 42% better than those that are simply in business. However, according to a recent Gallup poll, 85% of employees worldwide are not engaged or are actively disengaged in their job. Considering you spend around third of your life at work, this disengaged culture means that helping people to find a sense of purpose isn’t just vital for business, but also for people’s overall wellbeing.

With these insights in mind, Shaun Tomson shows how to find and define one’s purpose to powerfully re-engage individuals and activate a positive wave of commitment and performance throughout an organization.

Sometimes all you need to turn hope into action is to write your promises down and say them out loud—to make a promise to no one but yourself. Shaun’s presentation and workshop are about many things—faith, courage, creativity, determination—but above all they are about the promises we make to ourselves about the future.

The Dangers of Growing Up:

20,000 young people aged 15 – 24 die every year in the USA from preventable accidents, all caused by poor choices.

How We Can Help:

The Code is a simple exercise that empowers students to make positive choices in their everyday lives. Built around 12 promises that young people make to themselves, The Code gives them an effective tool to navigate the rough waters of adolescence and young adulthood by asking them to visualize their futures. The power of writing—the power of affirming “I Will”—helps students see beyond today and set a course for tomorrow.

Goal:

The ultimate goal of the Code is to create a wave of positive energy that keeps circling the globe, infusing everyone that comes across it with a powerful spark of hope for the future. It is designed to create a feeling of confidence in oneself, an attitude of strength that results in positive decision making to combat despair, risky behavior, and negative peer pressure.

2-Part Structure: Keynote & Workshop

1) Shaun’s powerful 60-minute keynote will inspire students to believe in themselves and to believe in the power that each and every one of us has to shape our lives through the power of “I Will.”

2) The CODE Workshop is a simple exercise, a self-empowerment program of 12 promises, a bond of hope between today and tomorrow, a simple tool to help create a positive attitude for positive decisions. Each student writes their Code within 30 minutes in a classroom setting with other students– 12 lines, each line beginning with “I will.” Each student reads their Code out loud to the other students and then picks one favorite line which is written on a whiteboard.

Results:

  • Motivates students to improve their performance
  • Emotionally engages students with each other
  • Activates positive change
  • Helps to identify personal goals to achieve success
  • Useful in uniting the class
  • Makes students feel accountable to reach their stated goals
  • Helps students realize they share common values
  • Creates a sense of shared purpose

Unlock An Attitude of Commitment & Positivity

With his unique and empowering business philosophy based on his “Surfer’s Code – 12 Simple Lessons for Riding through Life”, Shaun Tomson shows the influence of positive values on success in life and business and will transform how you think about connecting, communicating and collaborating. Based on his own experiences in and out of the surf, Shaun Tomson has inspired and touched the hearts of audiences all over the world. Shaun’s attitude of Commitment and Positivity has inspired corporations like General Motors, Cisco, Price Waterhouse, Gap, Sasol, Disney, Google, Investec, Primedia, MTN and Adcock Ingram.

Shaun Tomson offers up a profound set of action principles to show one how to get back on the board after a wipeout and paddle back out to catch and successfully ride the next wave. We all live in a challenging sea and our attitude towards those challenges defines who we are, and how we live our lives.

Catch the Next Wave: Doing Good is Good for Business

Environmentalist of the year award winner, entrepreneur, author, board member of Surfrider Foundation, the world's largest ocean environmental group discusses the new 21st business paradigm – Doing Good is good for business.

A focus on extreme quality, environmentalism, sustainability and community outreach can make your company recession proof.

Shaun discusses working at Patagonia, the world's leading environmentally focused apparel company and how organic cotton, community outreach and a passion for quality transformed the company into a $500 million dollar company that influences every company in the $135 billion dollar apparel sector. He also talks about creating his own $50 million dollar company and how a focus on sustainability differentiated his company from the sea of competition. He also discusses how philanthropy transformed his life and the lives of thousands of others and led him down an unexpected road of prosperity and self-fulfillment.

News


World-champion surfer Shaun Tomson shares his inspiration in 'The Code'
World-champion surfer Shaun Tomson shares his inspiration in 'The ...
Shaun Tomson is a former World Surfing Champion who became a businessman and inspirational speaker. In "The Code," Tomson reveals his...

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