Be inspired by former NASA astronaut and Space Station Commander Terry Virts.
Colonel Virts has impacted audiences across the globe with his wit, fascinating stories from space, breathtaking images, and most importantly his wisdom about life on earth.
Having spent seven months off of our planet with his international crew, Terry Virts' perspective is quite unique. He will make you laugh, think, and want to hear more, about such diverse topics as:​
​SPEECHES
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View From Above: Terry shares amazing photos and videos and hilarious stories from his seven months in orbit in an engaging talk that’s always a hit.
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Building World-Class Teams: As a former F-16 and ISS commander, Terry discusses how to recruit, train, inspire, debrief, and grow your high-functioning team.
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Leading Organizations Through Change: Terry explains how NASA changed its culture after the Columbia shuttle accident, and transitioned to the new commercial space economy.
​CASE STUDY
Why Organizations Fail: As a rookie astronaut Terry was assigned as a ground support astronaut on the STS-107 mission that ended with the crew of Columbia’s demise. He explains how NASA’s leadership failed so profoundly during both Challenger (1986) and Columbia (2003), and how your organization can avoid the same tragic pitfalls.
Terry Virts Speaker Reel
“Terry is a the most popular guest lecturer in our executive space leadership program at Thunderbird ASU.
Terry offers penetrating insights into the human condition from the most interesting context possible- outer space. He truly brings a higher perspective to any room.”
Greg Autry
Professor and Director of the Thunderbird Initiative for Space Leadership, Policy, and Business in the Thunderbird School of Global Management.
"Terry was a delightful speaker. He did an assembly in the morning for high school students, and a public presentation in the evening for the community. His talk was both entertaining and educational - and his photos and videos were amazing. He was also easy to work with - professional, prepared, and easy-going. He is our most requested to-be-repeated speaker, and we look forward to hosting him in Park CIty again. 5 (trillion) Stars!"
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Jenny Knaak
Associate Executive Director, Park City Institute
"Terry is an incredible speaker and storyteller! His unique experiences and incredible images ignite student’s passion and curiosity, bringing space exploration to life for them. Terry’s stories of risk-taking and resilience have resonated in a big way with the thousands of elementary and middle-school students across North America who have joined the live events we’ve hosted with him."
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Joe Grabowski, Director and Founder of Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants
National Geographic Explorer
Fellow RCGS | Explorers Club | RGS
Top 50 Finalist Global Teacher Prize
"Terry led an incredible talk for our resort guests and key media partners, recounting his fascinating time spent in space on several NASA space missions and as commander of the ISS. Terry is engaging, eloquent and funny; he gives his audience fascinating insight into what it's like to live in the vacuum of space for months at a time, and of the daily challenges that need to be solved with a calm temperament and a solution-oriented mindset. His remarkable photographs showcase the majesty of the cosmos and a heartbreakingly beautiful perspective of our own planet Earth."
Jessica Cook
AREA DIRECTOR OF SALES & MARKETING
THE LODGE AT BLUE SKY, AUBERGE RESORTS COLLECTION
"Terry Virts has been an outstanding speaker, teacher and coach who has had a significant impact on our current and future leaders. He is integral to our leadership development curriculum. Terry’s story – told in an unassuming and relatable way – has inspired our participants to dig deep and reach for the impossible. His impact is unparalleled. He has been a gift to me personally and professionally, and to our entire organization."
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Rebecca Nelson
Chief Learning Officer, Corning, Inc.
"Terry brought his space travel experiences to life through the art of storytelling and photography. He captivated our organization, from sales to manufacturing, with vignettes describing events aboard the spacecraft, from the mundane to the critically important, as well as teaching a case study involving NASA’s Space Shuttle accidents. Terry's talk was both inspirational and memorable. The buzz among our team will last a very long time."
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Jan Larrson
CEO, Versa Valves Inc.
"Colonel Virts inspired the senior leadership team of Siemens South America with his fascinating stories from space, and also led us through a powerful case study of NASA's Space Shuttle Columbia and Challenger accidents. Those powerful leadership lessons will remain with our senior managers for many years to come."
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Fadi Ghantous
SVP, Siemens Energy
Feedback Corning Executives
• The perspective of Terry as an Astronaut that flew in the Space Shuttle program was eye opening.
• A huge thank you for bringing in Terry Verts. I found his presentation to be super impactful as it provides a singular global frame of reference about what really matters for our planet.
• It was really great to have Terry Virts to join the training. It inspires me at end of the training, the journey is hard, but there is unlimited opportunity in my life and the results can be fantastic and out of imagination. Enjoy the things we are doing, live a great life and trying to be a good leader to influence the future.
• Terry Verts presentation last evening was extremely interesting and had wonderful photography.
• The videos of the challenger discussion were very interesting and brought the problem to life in a way that was relatable. Terry's personal stories and testimony on the Columbia challenges was a great discussion too. Very thought provoking.
• Meeting Terry and hearing his story was fabulous. Such an amazing journey and bringing him in for the case study was perfect.
• The NASA case study and Terry's story telling help me look at my work from a different perspective and better handle of the stress and make decision w/ a clear head.
• Be sure we are listening and communicating. Terry's comment on Wed night. Don't tell yourself "no". Tell yourself "yes, if..." That's just a great philosophy on having courage and confidence.
• Getting to be part of Terry's session on Wednesday and then having his perspective on the Challenger and Columbia disaster was invaluable. We all have a role as leaders to change the culture.
• There was tremendous value in hearing Terry Virt’s share his perspective and experience.
Former Clients
Allegheny Technologies (ATI)
American Airlines, Dallas
Auberge Hotels, UT
Automotive Leader Summit, Detroit and Liverpool
Arizona State University, CA/DC
British Airways, London
Changemaker Talent
Chungho Nais, South Korea
Consumer Electronics Show, Las Vegas
Corning, NY
Disney, CA
Goldman Sachs, New York City
Google, Mountain View
Harvard Business School (where he serves as a guest lecturer)
LKW Walter, Austria
Mayo Clinic, FL
National Air and Space Museum, Washington D.C.
National Association of Broadcasters
National Geographic Live! speaker series, Global
Ohio State University
Omega watch company, Global
Siemens, FL
Shell, TX
Starmus, Norway
Umdasch, Austria
University of Southern California
Versa Valves, NJ
Websummit, Portugal
Wired for Wonder, Australia
Yidan Prize, Hong Kong
Zuelkhe, Switzerland