NSB Logo Jeff Adams Jeff Adams

Jeff Adams

Speaker

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Paralympian & World Champion

Jeff Adams is an example that the power of focus can make a winner out of anybody. His love of competitive sport helped him turn his wheelchair into the vehicle for a journey of success. Today, Jeff is a five-time Paralympian, and six-time World Champion. Jeff has been an actor, spokesperson, and CBC reporter and commentator. He’s served as Chair of the Accessibility Committee for the Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid Committee, and as the Chair for the Ontarians with a Disability Advisory Council. In 2008, Jeff retired from full-time competition to begin a transition to business, starting a design and engineering company to manufacture premium everyday wheelchairs building the revenues of the business to $1mm in under a year of sales; that company, Marvel Wheelchairs underwent an acquisition in 2009. Jeff currently works as president and CEO of Icon Wheelchairs, a start-up launched in 2010, which is currently commercializing a product line of medical devices. Jeff attributes much of his success in business to lessons learned during his competitive sport career, and draws short and direct parallels in his presentations to ways those lessons can be applied in business situations.

Keynote Speeches

Celebrating

Celebrating is important.  The fireworks that inspire us in sports need to happen in life too.  Whether it’s climbing the CN Tower in a wheelchair, winning a gold medal at the Paralympics, being the best in business, or ensuring that justice is done, the process to ensure success is the same. How to make sure that celebrating breeds success in your business team or community.

Motivation

The Olympics and Paralympics reunite a world full of people with incredible moments.  Athletes understand that getting ready to live those moments doesn’t happen overnight.  How to get motivated for your moment of excellence, whether it’s at school, work, sports, or life. There are times in our lives when we need to understand how to re-motivate to come back from a disappointment.  Whether it’s surviving cancer, learning how to use a wheelchair, or crashing in the last lap of the Olympics, the getting up part is always much more important that the falling down part, and we rarely have to do it alone.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion

Making diversity a critical element of organizational success. Ensuring ongoing and sustainable systems to maximize human potential. Making people feel like you want them to be on your team. Equity Diversity and Inclusion is a must-have in today’s competitive world.

The Power of the Team

Setting unrealistic goals and achieving them. Whether it’s in sports, business, law or life, none of us get to our finish lines alone – success takes a team effort. How to create personal and organizational cultures of support.

Audience reviews:

  • Jeff spoke honestly and with conviction with these future designers about the importance and business case for accessible design. He shared his first hand experiences and observations as a Torontonian, paralympian, barrier free activist, and from his many international travels.

    - Sheridan College
  • Your speech was most inspirational. You delivered it with poise, polish and class.

    - Hamilton Sports Celebrity Dinner

Speaker Biography

Jeff Adams is a three-time Paralympic Champion and six-time World Champion in wheelchair racing and is living proof that focus, determination, and spirit are the keys to achieving “gold medal” dreams.

Combining his unique understanding of life’s challenges with his experience as a world-class athlete, Jeff Adams shares proven methods that help people meet their goals and achieve success. He has faced monumental challenges admirably, competing in six consecutive Summer Paralympics, from 1988 to 2008, and winning a total of three gold, four silver, and six bronze medals.

After retiring from competition, Jeff transitioned from sport to business, founding two medical device engineering companies, which he sold in 2016 to study law. He graduated from Osgoode Hall Law School in April of 2020, and is currently working at Faskin Martineau LLP, a Bay Street law firm, specializing in labour and employment and human rights law.

Jeff previously served as Chair of the Accessibility Committee for the Toronto 2008 Olympic Bid Committee, co-Chair of the Ontarians with Disability Advisory Council, and the Equity Advisory Group at the Law Society of Ontario. He is a recent inductee into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.