Steve Solomon is a dual Olympian, business leader, and emerging voice on high performance, leadership, and the future of work.
He first came to national prominence as one of Australia’s leading 400-metre runners, becoming the first Australian since Cathy Freeman to reach an Olympic 400m final when he finished eighth at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Over more than a decade in elite sport, Steve represented Australia at two Olympic Games, five World Athletics Championships, and three Commonwealth Games, and later served as co-captain of the Australian Athletics Team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. His career in sport has given him a deep, lived understanding of performing under pressure, building resilience, leading teams, and sustaining excellence on the world stage.
Beyond athletics, Steve has built a career at the intersection of business, strategy, and innovation. He holds an undergraduate degree from Stanford University and a graduate degree from Duke University. Professionally, he helped build Uber Eats in Australia, working with some of the largest restaurant brands across Australia and New Zealand to formalise and operationalise their online food delivery strategy during a period of rapid market growth. He later worked on the investment team at TDM Growth Partners, one of the world’s leading growth equity firms, where he developed a strong foundation in long-term thinking, business quality, and strategic decision-making.
Today, Steve is a founding member of OpenAI’s team in Australia, where he works with senior executives across Australia and New Zealand to bring frontier AI into their organisations and transform the way teams work. Drawing on experience across elite sport, investing, operating, and artificial intelligence, Steve brings a rare perspective on what it takes to adapt, lead, and perform at the highest level in a rapidly changing world.
Talking Points
A Lap of High Performance
In this powerful and engaging keynote, Olympian Steve Solomon takes audiences on a virtual lap of the 400-metre track, using each stage of the race to unpack the real drivers of high performance. Blending elite sporting insight with hard-won lessons from pressure, discipline, failure, resilience and leadership, Steve shows how individuals and teams can set bigger goals, stay composed in chaos, learn from setbacks, and consistently perform when it matters most. Grounded in more than a decade at the highest level of sport, this talk is an energising and practical roadmap for anyone looking to unlock sustained excellence
A Lap of High Performance
Video
2x Olympian Steve Solomon shares 'A lap of the high-performance track' (GYG Franchisee Summit '23)
Steve Solomon delivers an inspirational keynote to business operators at the 2023 Guzman Y Gomez Franchisee Summit using his High Performance Framework of the 400m track that he knows so well.
