When you have something that matters more than yourself it's amazing what you can achieve.
Mina Guli, water advocate, ultra-runner and founder and lead of Run Blue, a global campaign dedicated to solving the water crisis, is committed to making a difference in the world.
Following a successful 15-year career in law, finance and climate change, Mina established Thirst - a non-profit changing the way we think about water. Since its launch in 2012, Thirst has educated more than 2million students in China, trended on Chinese Twitter, set a Guinness World Record, and with the support of the Chinese Government, run innovation competitions with the participation of over 700,000 students.
Concerned at the pace of change, in 2016, Mina set out to demonstrate the power of having big, audacious goals, and the determination to do the hard things needed to achieve them. A confessed non-runner, that year Mina ran across 7 deserts on 7 continents in just 7 weeks, including Antarctica – a continent that left an indelible impression on her for its critical role in the water cycle. A year later, Mina ran 40 marathons in 40 days on 6 continents down 6 of the World’s great rivers – to promote the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 (water).
And in 2018 Mina set out to run 100 marathons in 100 days, breaking her leg at marathon 62. Rather than end the campaign, a global movement of people across the planet stepped up to share their stories and to run for water. The Run Blue movement was born.
From March 2022 to March 2023, Mina ran 200 marathons in 32 countries across the world, continuing to build Run Blue to become the biggest global grassroots movement on water in history, with the participation of people from over 200 countries and territories, over 3.5 billion media impressions and a wave of momentum built in advance of the UN 2023 Water Conference in New York.
Most recently, she completed her epic Keep the River Running campaign, running 2,000 miles down the entire length of the Colorado River—all to protect our planet's most vital water sources.
Along each of her routes, Mina interviews local people and water experts, sharing their stories with governments and with corporates across the world through images, stories, films and exhibitions, including at international for a such as COP and the UN Climate and Water Summits.
Mina is a highly acclaimed public speaker and frequent media commentator, featuring in hundreds of national and global newspapers, magazines and television programs around the world including the BBC, CNN, CBS, CCTV, ABC, France 3, Fox and Al Jazeera and in the New York Times, Guardian, Forbes, Fortune and the LA Times. She has served as the MC for high-level events at the UN, including at the recent UN High Level Political Forum, and for an opening event at the UN Water Conference attended by the King of the Netherlands and the President of Tajikistan.
In recognition of her incredible achievements, Mina received YPO Global Impact and Innovation Awards, and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, one of Australia’s most influential women, a “Global Visionary” by UBS and by Fortune Magazine in 2016 alongside Angela Merkel, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos and the Pope as one of the 50 greatest leaders in the world.
Talking Points
Running Out of Time: Leadership, Resilience, and Achieving the Impossible
When faced with insurmountable challenges, traditional thinking fails. Drawing from her extreme ultra-endurance expeditions—including running 200 marathons in one year and 2,000 miles down the Colorado River—Mina Guli reveals how to maintain peak performance and purpose under extreme pressure. She breaks down the mental resilience required to keep moving forward through injury, extreme heat, and severe exhaustion, and offers a blueprint for leading teams through uncertainty. Through vivid storytelling, Mina shows leaders how to turn seemingly impossible organizational goals into achievable, step-by-step victories.Running Out of Time: Leadership, Resilience, and Achieving the Impossible
• Resilience Under Pressure: Practical frameworks for maintaining focus, mental toughness, and morale during severe market or operational disruption.
• Goal Deconstruction: Strategies to break down high-stakes, long-term corporate ambitions into manageable daily executions.
• Purpose-Driven Execution: How aligning personal grit with a clear, authentic purpose unleashes discretionary effort across teams.
• Client ROI: Enhanced leadership adaptability, reduced burn-out risk, and a cultural shift toward proactive problem-solving across the organization.
Video
Mina Guli | Saxton Speakers
The founder and CEO of Thirst, Mina Guli is a global leader, an entrepreneur and adventurer passionate and committed to making a difference in the world. She is an inspiring speaker who combines passion for a critical cause with valuable personal leadership lessons for us all.Mina Guli | BSR Conference 2016 | Saxton Speakers
Mina Guli, CEO of Thirst and athlete who ran 40 marathons on seven continents to raise awareness of the water crisis, addresses the BSR Conference 2016. Mina is no stranger to driving meaningful change within corporations and organisations. She's the co-founder of Peony Capital, an investment company focused on developing climate-friendly projects, as well as the founder and CEO of Thirst, a non-profit with nearly 1.5 millions graduates and the endorsement of the Chinese Government. Let Mina share her learnings as a leader in organisational change and global strategies.Mina Guli | Keynote Address at the AISHK Sports Awards | Saxton Speakers
The founder and CEO of Thirst, Mina Guli is a global leader, an entrepreneur and adventurer passionate and committed to making a difference in the world. From simple beginnings in Australia, Mina's path has led her across to every continent of the globe, meeting a diverse array of people. She shares their stories with her global audience to further galvanise the growing community of champions for making meaningful change in addressing the water crisis. Invite Mina to share those thought-provoking stories with you and your community.Mina Guli | Running on Empty | Saxton Speakers
Mina Guli, founder of the #nonprofit Thirst, explains why #water scarcity is the greatest threat facing humankind today. Guli ran 29 #marathons in 38 days to raise awareness about the world's water shortage. Mina is incredibly passionate about ensuring future generations are in the best possible position to tackle the problems of tomorrow. It's what led her to found Thirst in 2012. Thirst collaborates with over 1,000 schools, utilises over 1,000 qualified volunteers, and has had nearly 700,000 students participate in its innovation competitions. Allow Mina to come speak at your next event to inspire the next generation of ambassadors and innovators in addressing the global water crisis.100 marathons in 100 days: Mina Guli's mission for water | Australian Story
Australian ultra-marathon runner Mina Guli wants everyone to know that the world is running out of fresh water. The 48-year-old athlete and CEO is on a mission to draw attention to the global water crisis. In order to do that she attempted a physical feat so extreme, most people would consider it impossible running 100 marathons in 100 days across the world. Mina is driven by urgency: By 2030, it's estimated the demand for fresh water will outstrip supply by 40 per cent But when her body literally broke during marathon 62, Mina thought all was lost. Unexpectedly, the campaign took on a life of its own on social media across the globe.Mina Guli's messages around water scarcity, water use and community engagement were close to our audience's heart and would and should resonate with all audiences as water is essential to al ... keep reading Australian Water Association
