Hockeyroos captain for eight years and one of only two Australian women with gold at three consecutive Olympics
Rechelle Hawkes AM is an Olympic icon, standing as one of just two Australian women to win Olympic gold medals at three consecutive Games. As captain of the Hockeyroos — Australia's national women's hockey team — for eight remarkable years, she led her team across four Olympic Games and claimed three golds. She had the rare honour of reading the Olympic Athletes' Oath at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2002, and was awarded an OAM in 1989.
What makes Rechelle distinctive is that her subject is not simply winning — it is how teams are led and rebuilt to win repeatedly. Her signature material examines how a change in leadership approach delivered the Hockeyroos three Olympic golds: the shift from hero leadership to collaborative, facilitating leadership, and the pushing down of accountability and responsibility through a team. She now shares that expertise in leadership, team development and culture transformation with a diverse clientele, alongside board roles with bodies including the International Hockey Federation, broadcasting work across four Olympic Games, and sixteen years as Patron of the Amanda Young Foundation.
Audiences get an engaging, transparent speaker who addresses setbacks honestly and connects the demands of elite sport directly to the challenges of business — goal setting, resilience, maintaining team spirit over a decade, and what the Hockeyroos' culture-change journey means for organisations today. Clients describe her as warm, down to earth and remarkably generous, famously handing her three gold medals around the room. For leadership conferences, management offsites and team-culture programs, Rechelle Hawkes shows what sustained, collaborative high performance actually requires.
Rechelle Hawkes AM is a keynote speaker based in Western Australia who speaks on business strategy, change management and leadership. Book through Executive Speakers Australia.
• The ideology of moving from hero leadership to collaborative/facilitating leadership.
• Pushing down accountability and responsibility.
Rechelle was brilliant and a lot of what Rechelle shared with regards to teamwork, resilience, collaboration resonated with the messages we were looking to provide our management team. Rechelle spoke from a position of knowledge and with passion and humility. Afterwards Rechelle was very giving of her time and all of our managers really appreciated how approachable and real she is/was, handing out her three gold medals to be passed around taking the time to pose with many of our managers for photos and spending time at the majority of tables for discussions. No question was too hard and nothing flustered her even when we had some technical difficulties with playing a video. Our managers were still talking about the experience the day after. I would highly recommend Rechelle for future engagements.CEO, Hills Group
Great. Very down to earth high achiever who talks about the challenges she faced on her long road to success. Very natural and warm style and well received by everyone. Great to be able to see and touch her Olympic gold medal!ANZ Wealth Management
Dedicated, warm and entertaining, Rechelle is a great Australian and a great motivator who we have engaged on a number of occasions to address our senior staff. Her achievements speak for themselves and her presentations are always well received and greatly appreciated.Managing Director, Automotive Holdings Group
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