Game Changer and Motivational Speaker
When it comes to building teams, creating momentum, and employing winning strategies, Orlando Bowen is the real deal. For the past nine years, Orlando has used storytelling, fitness activities, and cognitive exercises to teach resilience, leadership, and teamwork to over 300,000 people. Empowering others to overcome adversity, to find their passion, and to use their gifts to serve is the reason Orlando breathes. His mission has placed him on hundreds of stages and boardrooms throughout North America, while also garnering him many distinguished awards.
Ten years ago, Orlando thought he was about to die. Pinned to the ground and enduring a savage beating, the then-CFL linebacker had been jumped by two plainclothes police officers, an injustice which was the first of many laid against him at the hands of the police force. “In that moment, knowing my life was about to end, I’m thinking, ‘I didn’t give everything I had to make a difference. There’s more I could’ve done,’ ” he says. Later completely exonerated of any wrong doing, Orlando—incredibly—has publicly forgiven his perpetrators and has dedicated his life to inspiring others to pursue excellence in all they do.
Born in Jamaica, Orlando came to Canada as a child and grew up excelling in sports. He earned a full scholarship to Northern Illinois University where he secured a business marketing degree and a Master of Science degree in Information Technology Management. He spent five seasons in the Canadian Football League with the Argos and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, before the concussion he suffered at the hands of the police forced him to quit the sport.
Orlando is now the founder and executive Director of One Voice One Team Youth Leadership, which empowers youth to utilize leadership skills and talents to better themselves and their community. He has been repeatedly recognized for his incredible work. He was selected as one of the 2012 Diverse-City Fellows; is a recipient of a 2012 African Canadian Achievement Award; was bestowed with the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2013; and was the national 2014 Harry Jerome Award winner for community service.
TOPICS
Team Building
As a professional athlete, Orlando’s experiences on the field taught him the importance of harnessing momentum and working passionately together as a team to pursue shared objectives. He shares how to establish the foundation for high performing teams that can withstand turbulent times, embrace change and celebrate team contributions.
Pursuing Excellence (Peak Performance)
With alignment to vision, energy to achieve and focus, come ‘peak performance’. Peak Performance brings extraordinary results. Orlando helps executives recognize their role as catalysts and their ability to be transformative leaders that help secure ‘wins’ from any position within their company.
Resilience
Orlando shares how to use the unexpected challenges that life can bring as fuel for new beginnings. When the game is on the line, it’s not about the acknowledgement of the fact that we will all face challenges. It’s all about taking the energy from those challenges and channeling them in a way that positively affects ones environment.
Forgiveness
Having harmony among colleagues is paramount to creating a synergistic environment where people produce outstanding results. Orlando equips executives with tools that allow them to let go of the things that inhibit performance and to focus on the activities that produce positive results and are connected to the bigger picture goals.
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