Available to book
Dan Cnossen
Servant Leadership
Adversity
Team Building
Dan Cnossen helps organizations build resilience and leadership under pressure, drawing on his experience as a former Navy SEAL and Paralympic champion. A leadership speaker and adversity keynote speaker, he is a seven-time Paralympic medalist and Harvard graduate.
Military
Paralympics
Athlete
Veterans Day
Motivational
Harvard University
Sports Leadership
Inspirational
Dan Cnossen is a former US Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander and one of the most decorated Paralympic athletes in Team USA history.
Raised on a fifth-generation family farm in Kansas, he lost both legs in combat against the Taliban in Afghanistan and was awarded a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star with Valor. Dan went on to become a seven-time Paralympic medalist in cross-country skiing and biathlon, including two gold medals across three Games, was named Best Male Athlete of the 2018 Paralympic Games, and was nominated for an ESPY Award. Alongside his athletic career, he earned two graduate degrees from Harvard University.
Dan's path from Navy SEAL to Paralympic champion, and on to Harvard, reflects a rare combination of physical resilience and intellectual discipline. He draws on his SEAL training, his combat experience, and his athletic comeback to show audiences how focus and adaptability hold up under the highest pressure, whether on a mission or a podium.
Audiences leave with a practical understanding of resilience, servant leadership, and collaboration, along with a clearer sense of how to keep moving forward when circumstances change without warning. Dan's stories give teams a concrete strategy for meeting setbacks head-on and rebuilding after failure.
Book Dan to give your audience a firsthand account of resilience that reshapes how they meet their own toughest challenges.
Topics, sessions and talks
Dan Cnossen led an 18-man SEAL platoon through multiple combat deployments before stepping on an IED that cost him both legs. This session draws on that experience to explore what leadership looks like under genuine pressure, when the mission is unclear, resources are limited, and failure is not an option. Dan shares the command principles, mental frameworks, and team dynamics he relied on as a SEAL officer, and how those same disciplines drive performance in competitive business environments.
After 40 surgeries and years of rehabilitation, Dan Cnossen picked up cross-country skiing for the first time and within four years stood on the Paralympic podium. By 2018, he had won six medals in eight days and was named Best Male Athlete of the Games. This session examines the mindset behind that journey: how to set audacious goals after catastrophic loss, build new capabilities from scratch, and sustain elite performance through the inevitable setbacks that define any long-term pursuit.
Dan Cnossen holds graduate degrees from Harvard in both public administration and theological studies, degrees he pursued while training for the Paralympic Games. This session explores the intellectual and emotional architecture of resilience: how high performers process adversity, find meaning in hardship, and rebuild identity after life-altering change. Drawing on his military career, his injuries, his academic work, and three Paralympic cycles, Dan offers a rigorous and deeply personal framework for thriving under pressure.
After losing both legs, Dan Cnossen chose not just to compete but to pursue a Harvard education simultaneously. Drawing on his master's degrees in public administration and theological studies, he explores the intellectual and philosophical foundations of resilience: how individuals reconstruct identity and purpose after loss, how organizations can build cultures that give people something to fight for, and why purpose is the most durable driver of sustainable excellence. This session is for leaders who want to move their teams beyond performance metrics and toward the deeper motivation that outlasts any incentive structure.
In SEAL training and deployment, the team is the margin between success and failure. Dan Cnossen draws on years of SEAL service, including leading an 18-man platoon through combat deployments, to examine what separates elite teams from average ones: how trust is built under pressure, what makes communication effective in high-stakes environments, and how leaders at every level create the conditions for consistent excellence. This session is built for organizations that need their people to perform not just in ideal conditions but in the ones they actually face.
Dan Cnossen is a former Navy SEAL Lieutenant Commander, seven-time Paralympic medalist, and two-time Harvard graduate, one of the few speakers whose credentials span elite military service, world-class athletic competition, and advanced academic achievement. That range gives audiences a rare, multi-dimensional model of performance under sustained pressure.
Testimonials
often considered together
Brent Gleeson
Accountability
frequently asked questions
Something we've not covered here?
Email dan.cnossen@getapeptalk.com or call PepTalk on +44 20 3835 2929 (UK) or +1 737 888 5112 (US), and one of our speaker agents will contact you within hours to confirm Dan's availability and fees. If you can, please include your budget upfront – it helps us fast-track your request. It’s also helpful to know the date, format (virtual or in-person), location, and a bit about your audience.
Dan Cnossen structures his sessions around three interlocking bodies of first-hand experience — SEAL command, Paralympic competition, and graduate-level academic study — using each as a lens to examine a single underlying framework for performance under pressure. He moves between personal narrative and transferable principle, grounding each concept in a specific moment from his military career, rehabilitation, or competitive record.
Dan Cnossen speaks on SEAL leadership and performance under pressure, resilience and identity rebuilding after catastrophic loss, and goal-setting and elite performance following life-altering setbacks. He is a seven-time Paralympic medalist, including two gold medals, who was named Best Male Athlete of the 2018 Paralympic Games after winning six medals in eight days.
No. PepTalk adds no booking fee, so you pay the speaker's fee and nothing beyond it. The service, from shortlist through to contracts and event-day logistics, is included. For repeat or multi-event bookings, PepTalk can agree preferential rates with your procurement team.
Share your event date, audience, format, objectives and budget, and PepTalk sends a hand-picked shortlist within 24 hours. Each suggestion comes with a profile, a fee and a recommendation on the strongest fit. Once you choose, PepTalk handles contracts, travel and logistics through to event day.
The typical fee range is the speaker's standard in-person fee in their home market, shown in their local currency. It moves with format, location, date and session length: virtual sessions and shorter slots usually cost less, while international travel and peak dates cost more. Send your brief to PepTalk and the team will confirm the exact fee in your currency.
Not all of them, and it makes no difference to your booking. PepTalk's network of 15,000+ speakers covers talent the team works with directly alongside speakers represented by agents and agencies worldwide. PepTalk approaches the speaker, negotiates the fee and handles contracting either way.
Three to six months ahead is comfortable for most events, and 12 months is better for large conferences, peak-season dates or one specific in-demand speaker. Shorter timelines are workable, and PepTalk regularly fills last-minute and replacement bookings within days. Availability is the constraint, so get in touch as soon as you have a date.
Get the right person
Tell us what you’re working on and we’ll match you with the talent your audience won’t stop talking about.
