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Sébastien Destremau

Sébastien Destremau Navigator, speaker, and author

Exceptional sailor, Sébastien Destremau transforms his round-the-world tours, his America's Cup campaigns, and his community engagements into lessons of leadership, resilience, and responsibility.

Languages
English, French
Duration
45 to 90 minutes
Formats
Conference, Keynote, Round table

Biography

Skipper, storyteller and speaker, Sébastien Destremau shares a rare experience of extreme environments to highlight the challenges of leadership, lucidity, and cohesion.

A sailor forged by the extreme

Sébastien Destremau has six world sailing championship titles and five America's Cup campaigns. He has participated in several prestigious offshore races, such as the Sydney–Hobart and the Volvo Ocean Race. These high-level experiences have shaped his leadership, sense of timing, and performance culture.

Facing, repairing, setting off again

He has experienced two Vendée Globe races that marked his life. In 2016–2017, he completed his round-the-world trip in 124 days, after an intense race. In 2020–2021, he abandoned off the coast of New Zealand after a series of damages. From these trials, he draws a deep lesson about resilience, lucid decision-making, and the courage to know when to let go.

A speaker who truly engages

Sébastien Destremau transforms his stories into concrete teachings for businesses: stress management, risk culture, decision-making, teamwork, motivation. He creates lively, interactive conferences tailored to your challenges, and also develops stage and video storytelling formats.

A commitment beyond sports

Author of several works, he is also the president of the FaceOcean association, which carries out humanitarian actions and ocean protection. Passionate about the future of sailing, he promotes more sustainable navigation and responsible leadership for future generations.

In the storm as in business, the true compass is found within.

— Sébastien Destremau
Would you like to invite Sébastien Destremau to your event?

Conferences

Through his talks, Sébastien Destremau connects the demands of the open sea to the challenges of leadership, clear-sightedness, cohesion and responsibility in an unstable world.

01

Resilience: staying the course despite the storms!

Transform the trial into action energy.

How storms, failures, solitude, and repairs at sea become lessons in resilience and bouncing back for teams and leaders.

  • Build individual and collective resilience
  • Navigate uncertainty and stress more effectively
  • Turn failure into useful learning
Ideal for Transformations, crises, CODIR, teams under pressure
Format Conference or Keynote · 45 to 60 min
02

Leadership in extreme situations

The performance of a solo... very collective.

How solo offshore sailing teaches courageous, consistent, responsible, and aligned leadership under pressure.

  • Strengthen managerial courage
  • Stay clear-headed under pressure
  • Align decisions with values
Ideal for Leaders, managers, leadership seminars
Format Conference or Workshop · 45 to 90 min
03

Decision making in uncertain environments

Decide quickly, fairly, and clearly when everything is in motion.

How to decide in volatile conditions: changing weather, breakdowns, fatigue, risk, and intuition.

  • Improve the quality of decisions
  • Manage risk and biases more effectively
  • Decide without going off course
Ideal for Management committees, project teams, crisis management
Format Conference · 45 to 75 min
04

Team cohesion: navigating together

Even a lone wolf never succeeds alone.

How trust, complementarity, support systems, sponsors, technicians, and collective dynamics build individual performance.

  • Create lasting collective momentum
  • Strengthen trust and feedback
  • Break down silos around a shared project
Ideal for Teams, agreements, kick-off, cross-projects
Format Conference or Workshop · 45 to 75 min
05

Ocean, sobriety, decision

Sustainable leadership in extreme conditions.

How limited resources at sea teach frugality, prioritization, sustainability, and responsible performance.

  • Do better with less
  • Weigh speed against preservation
  • Anchor sustainable, concrete decisions
Ideal for CSR, industry, innovation, management committees, climate events
Format Keynote or Conference · 45 to 60 min

For which events?

Sébastien Destremau speaks at the key moments where people, performance and impact matter.

  • Seminars and conventions
  • Leadership committees and strategic talks
  • Product launches
  • CSR and climate events
  • Institutions, schools and universities

Possible formats

Formats adaptable to your goals and context.

  • Inspiring talk
  • Impactful keynote
  • Participative workshop
  • Panel
  • Webinar

Why choose them?

A unique experience serving strong, useful messages.

  • Field experience backing the message
  • Authentic and inspiring stories
  • Human, demanding and accessible approach
  • Tailored content aligned with your stakes
Would you like to invite Sébastien Destremau to your event?

Videos

Discover Sébastien Destremau in action: excerpts from conferences, testimonials, and short formats to understand his journey and messages.

Looking for more content or a specific clip? Contact us
Surviving the Hell of the Vendée Globe 13:57
Short format

Surviving the Hell of the Vendée Globe

Sébastien Destremau tells how setbacks, fatigue, and solitude become lessons in resilience.

Watch video
“Stay the Course!” 03:37
Conference clip

“Stay the Course!”

How to decide alone in the storm, remain clear-headed, and align your choices with your values.

Watch video
The Vendée Globe Finish 05:18
Interview

The Vendée Globe Finish

Sébastien Destremau describes his arrival at the Vendée Globe as an intimate and immense victory, a testament that in extreme situations anyone can find within themselves unexpected resources.

Watch video

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