Simon van Velthooven

Olympic gold medalist in cycling and key member of the Emirates Team New Zealand who won the America's Cup in Bermuda in 2017.

After claiming New Zealand's first Cycling Track Sprint Olympic Medal in London, Simon was asked to trial, develop, and train the sailors for the Americas Cup Cyclor innovation.

After a lengthy trial and error period the cycle system was given the go-ahead and was one part of many outstanding innovations that helped the Team have a yacht that raced like a Ferrari in Bermuda.

Simon will provide a behind the scenes look and talk on; the ETNZ campaign, what the team overcame, the innovation and technology, and of course the team culture which allowed them to accomplish what they set out to do.

Testimonials:

'As a Microsoft employee I attend many conferences both in New Zealand and the US. At a recent Partner conference with Intergen I was really privileged to hear the story of Simon van Velthooven. As a New Zealand Citizen living in Auckland during the recent Americas Cup we were all in awe of the fantastic win from Team New Zealand. The story Simon told was so unique, as a medal winning Olympic athlete in cycling who had never dreamt that he would be a Sailor in the Americas Cup. He told us how he had been sworn to secrecy and had trained the professional sailors how to cycle like an Olympian to drive the boat with such power that had never been seen before. His story was humorous, humble, well told, engaging and overall incredibly interesting. I thought he made a fantastic guest speaker.'