PROFILE
A 33-year veteran of NASA, Gregory Robinson is the former director of the $10 billion dollar James Webb Space Telescope (Webb). With 100 times more power than its predecessor, the Hubble Telescope, Webb is considered one of NASA’s greatest achievements of the 21st century. Robinson’s role in not only turning around an over budget program that was tarnished by a series of setbacks—but actually raising its efficiency rating from 55% to 95%—is attributed to his winning leadership style and willingness to shake up the status quo.
He is credited with radically streamlining communications with multiple stakeholders (including four different committees in Congress, the Office of Management, Budget, aerospace contractors, international space agencies, the White House and more), smoothing political tensions, motivating teams and elevating transparency. He also drew widespread praise for his calm, soft-spoken leadership and communications style, and effective oversight of nearly 20,000 scientists, engineers and support staff in 29 countries and 14 U.S. states.
Today, Webb is one million miles from Earth, transmitting never-before seen images. Over its projected 20-year lifespan, the space observatory is expected to capture galaxies being born and record the very origins of the universe itself, in many ways thanks to Robinson’s quiet, unassuming and highly effective leadership.
In honor of his achievements, Robinson was named to TIME Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2022 and EBONY’s 2022 Power 100 lists, and is a recipient of the TIME100 Impact Award. He was named 2022 Federal Employee of the Year and received the 2022 Distinguished Presidential Rank Award, one of the highest awards bestowed upon career senior executives by the President of the United States of America. His talents were also recognized by Columbia University, which recruited him to the faculty of the School of Professional Studies, where he now lectures on information and knowledge strategy and leading large, complex projects.
SPEAKING TOPICS
Large Leadership Lessons from the James Webb Space Telescope
What does it take to successfully lead a complex project? In 2018, Gregory Robinson was persuaded to lead the James Webb Space Telescope project for NASA, which was over budget and behind schedule. To successfully launch and deploy the telescope in space, Greg had to coordinate the work of 20,000 people in 29 states and 14 countries. Today, the telescope is expanding our knowledge of the universe, and due to Greg’s transcendent leadership, humanity will never look at the night sky the same.
In this exciting and story-filled talk, Greg shares the challenges, setbacks, and leadership lessons learned. You will see exciting footage of the launch and deployment while learning how to work with stakeholders, teams, and partners.
Audiences will come away understanding how to manage up and manage down, tell stories with data, and change the culture person by person to focus everyone on the same thing: mission success.
Taking on Your Own Moonshot
Are you looking to inspire your organization to reach for the stars, conquer a huge challenge, or simply see the value of teamwork, open communication, and innovative thinking?
Let NASA veteran Gregory Robinson guide you on a journey to the far reaches of space and limitless human potential, going behind the scenes at NASA against a backdrop of awe-inspiring photos from the James Webb Space Telescope.
Sharing the story of how he led a team that transformed a failing program into one of humankind’s greatest achievements, Robinson provides universal lessons on overcoming challenges, building trust and collaboration with stakeholders, teams, and partners, and adjusting the culture to focus on mission success.
Perfect for “all hands” meetings, kick-offs, product launches, or any event in which you want to inspire your group to achieve great things together.
A NASA-Inspired Approach to Leading Innovation in Any Organization
Today, most organizations must innovate or fall behind. But what’s the key to leading innovation and overcoming challenges and failures?
At NASA, Gregory Robinson led some of the smartest people in the world, some of them the unique experts in their fields. But even though they were brilliant engineers and scientists, the James Webb Space Telescope mission was still over budget and years behind schedule.
Using real-life examples from his 33-year history at NASA, set against a backdrop that takes you a million miles from Earth, Greg Robinson shows how the human element is more critical than ever for innovation.
Audiences will learn that in order to innovate, you need to change the culture by prioritizing relationship-building, creativity, knowledge-sharing, and open communication without fear. And they will leave understanding when to lead and when to support, how to manage up and how to manage down, and how to collaborate to problem-solve.
From Sharecroppers’ Son to TIME’s Most Influential People List
Just being an engineer in a time when few Blacks were in STEM professions would have been an achievement. Just getting into NASA—where the ranks of Black professionals were few and far between would have been an inspiring success story. But Gregory Robinson’s against-all-odds journey to leading the James Webb Space Telescope program had a starting point worthy of Hollywood.
Born the ninth of eleven children to tobacco sharecroppers in southern Virginia, where the legacy of Jim Crow was still strong, Robinson attended segregated schools until the age of 10.
In this inspiring talk, HBCU graduate Robinson shares how he went from the tobacco fields to being named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people– and how lessons learned through humble beginnings propelled his much-honored career.
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