Transformation Keynote Speaker

Robert Vera, Professional Speaker

Hailed by audiences as a "powerful speaker" delivering an "edge of your seat entertainment experience." Robert's style is the perfect combination of inspiration and education. Robert's diverse background and expertise make him a sought-after speaker in the fields of corporate innovation, entrepreneurship, and personal transformation.

Most Requested Speaking Topic:
Transformation Formula: Two simple choices that lead to greatness. The Transformation Formula distills and compares the principles of success and failure and empowers audiences with the tools to transform their lives, their companies, and their communities.

Summary: We all believe that we can do more, be more, and become greater tomorrow than we are today. However, many individuals and organizations fail to reach their full potential in order to achieve their desired "greatness". There is a specific formula for this type of transformation and once you know it, your life will never do the same.

Hailed by audiences as a "powerful speaker" delivering an "edge of your seat entertainment experience." Robert's style is the perfect combination of inspiration and education.

Robert Vera, MBA, is an accomplished and respected entrepreneur, speaker, university professor, start-up investor, mentor, economic development catalyst, best-selling author, and adventurer.

Robert serves as the Founding Director of Grand Canyon University’s (GCU) Canyon Ventures Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship. He is also a professor of Innovation and entrepreneurship at GCU's Colangelo College of Business. The center serves as a model for the selection and rapid development of startups. He has mentored and led 38 entrepreneurs through the accelerator program to expertly smith ideas into successful companies. Since its founding in 2019, the accelerator has assisted in raising over $13 million in equity for its ventures and has launched three new companies into the Arizona business community with a combined valuation of nearly $70 million.

Robert is the Co-Creator of the STAR® model of Corporate Innovation. This universal model empowers organizations to discover and launch new market-dominating products, services, and solutions. The STAR® model’s universal blueprint for innovation is taught to learners in Grand Canyon University’s Doctor of Business Administration program.

He is a published best-selling and award-winning author of multiple books including, A Warrior’s Faith (Harper Collins/Thomas Nelson 2015). The story chronicles his friendship with a wounded Navy SEAL. The book earned the 2016 Illumination Publishers Award for Best Memoir. He is the co-author of Perfectly Wounded (Hachette/Twelve 2020). The book was selected as an Amazon Editor's Pick for best memoir.

Robert is a captivating speaker that meeting planners call the "Perfect Storm; A keen business mind, combined with actionable insights wrapped in an amazing storyteller.” Hailed by audiences as a powerful speaker, Robert's presentation style is the perfect combination of inspiration and education. His original speaking program; The Greatness Formula; How The Ordinary Becomes Extraordinary©, distills the three tenets of personal transformation that are at the core of living a purpose-driven, influential life. Robert has delivered his speaking programs to clients that include World Vision, American Funds, General Dynamics, US Army, Health Care Finance Association, Leadership Institute, Brain Injury Alliance, and more.

Robert began his professional career as a Staff Assistant to United States Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts where he managed military and veteran constituents' services. He later transitioned into a corporate finance career where he worked in several roles including a CFO leading the successful turnaround of a security company that was acquired by a private equity group. He worked as an analyst evaluating infrastructure projects in Latin America, and as a champion of entrepreneurs to structure and close growth financing. In 2007 Robert launched Lifestyle Health, a tech startup. The company offered individualized heart rate zone training and meal plans to corporate wellness clients. Lifestyle Health was one of several organizations across the nation selected to deliver the President's Challenge, an initiative of the US Department of Health and Human Services. Robert exited the company in 2014.

A former collegiate athlete Robert walked on and earned a role on Boston College’s Division I football team and was a member of the Hall of Fame Bowl Championship Team. An avid endurance athlete and adventurer, each year Robert leads a small group on a 48-mile non-stop trek across the Grand Canyon from South Rim to North Rim and back to South Rim. He is a mentor to military veterans and has led groups of wounded veterans to the 14,411-foot summit of Mount Rainier. He has piloted a tandem bike team with a disabled veteran stoker 6 days over 620 miles from San Francisco to San Diego, California in the Challenge Athletes Foundation Million Dollar Challenge. Robert is an Ironman Triathlete and has completed multiple 140.6-mile races in Idaho and Arizona. He has been a top finisher in the Mt. Washington Auto Road Hill Climb, billed by Bicycling Magazine as one of the most difficult hill climbs in the world.

Robert earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston College, a master’s degree in business administration from Grand Canyon University (GCU), and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Organizational and Industrial Psychology at GCU. Originally from Boston, Massachusetts, he moved to his home in Phoenix, Arizona in 2000. Robert serves his Arizona community on a number of boards. He is a former Honorary Commander of the 161st Arizona Air National Guard Copperheads Air Tanker Squadron. Robert is married and the proud father of two teenagers, he speaks decent Spanish and is working to learn Portuguese.