Colonel Chris Hadfield is an astronaut, business leader, hi-tech entrepreneur, 5-time best-selling author, and global speaker on leadership, change, and managing life. Having commanded the International Space Station and directed companies, he has deep experience with best practices and tactics for guiding teams through extreme circumstances of complexity and change, while also recognizing the importance of sharing the marvels and wonders of science and spaceflight. 

Hadfield serves as a director and advisor to multiple tech companies including SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, and co-founded the Space Stream at the Creative Destruction Lab tech incubator, creating $1.6B of new business equity value in the past 5 years. He is assisting King Charles III with space business practices for the Sustainable Markets Initiative, is an adjunct professor at the University of Waterloo, and chairs the board of the Open Lunar Foundation. 

Formerly NASA’s Director of Operations in Russia, Hadfield spent more than three decades serving with the military, NASA, and the Canadian Space Agency. Throughout his distinguished career, he was a fighter/test pilot, flew three space missions, built two space stations, performed two spacewalks, crewed the Shuttle and Soyuz, and commanded the International Space Station. His many awards include the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Cross (twice), and the Order of Canada. 

Hadfield’s keynote presentations have been called “an astonishing display of visual storytelling” by Harvard Business Review, and his TED talk What I Learned from Going Blind in Space has been viewed over 20 million times. He is frequently featured on national and global media outlets, has taught a MasterClass, and is the co-creator and host of the internationally acclaimed BBC series Astronauts: Do You Have What It Takes? as well as co-host of National Geographic’s One Strange Rock documentary series. 

Hadfield is the author of five internationally bestselling books: two non-fiction, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth and You Are Here; a children’s book, The Darkest Dark; and two fiction books, The Defector and The Apollo Murders, now under contract to become a TV series. His children’s book has been adapted as an award-winning stage play for young audiences. A musician, Hadfield released an album called Space Sessions: Songs from a Tin Can, the first album to be recorded in space, including his video version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity which has been seen over 50 million times.