Dave Williams

Topics

Presentations

Motivation & Peak Performance – Reaching for the Stars
Williams understands what is involved in achieving peak personal performance: endurance, persistence, and the ability to overcome obstacles. He believes success is built on a combination of effective judgment, skill, and knowledge. Williams shows you how to manage emotional energy for yourself and your team.

Risk Management – Don't take chances; manage risks
Williams believes in a "no error strategy," which involves defining methods that establish zero tolerance for mistakes. Relying on his experience as an emergency room doctor and as an astronaut, he knows the catastrophic consequences that can happen when lives are at stake.  

Environmental Stewardship
From someone who has seen earth from a unique perspective, up high in space and from underwater as well as a scuba diver, Williams gives his thoughts on the importance of the effects of human habitation, the history of the human condition and our approach to planetary stewardship.

Health Care & Technology
Williams uses his clinical research in emergency medicine, early identification of trauma patients at high risk, and his work in Medical Robotics to discuss innovative technologies that assist the development of local and remote patient care.

Summary Profile

Dave Williams joined an exclusive club when he blasted into space aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia, and again on Shuttle Endeavour where he walked out into the great beyond. Having also lived and worked in the world’s only underwater ocean laboratory, he became Canada’s first dual astronaut and aquanaut. 

Williams is one of the NASA space program’s most accomplished astronauts, setting records in spacewalking. The veteran of two space shuttle missions has logged more than 687 hours in space, including three spacewalks, the highest number of spacewalks ever performed in a single mission. His work with NASA also continued on the ground when the space agency appointed him as director of the Space and Life Sciences Directorate, making Williams the first non-American to hold a senior management position.

With a passion for healthcare and risk management, prior to entering the Canadian Space Agency’s program, Williams worked as an emergency room doctor and later as director of emergency services at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto. Today, he is director for the new McMaster Centre for Medical Robotics, leading a team dedicated to developing innovative technologies to assist the development of local and remote patient care.

A true Canadian hero, Williams is down-to-earth with a compelling and unique approach to peak performance, environmental stewardship, our futures and risk management.

Client Testimonials:

"Dr. Dave Williams opened our annual national conference with a compelling, funny, entertaining and poignant presentation that had our delegates talking in the corridors for days afterwards. His professionalism and incredible photos (that accompany his presentation) both took my breath away. A perfect start to this academic and networking conference of 800 delegates."

Canadian Pharmacists Association

“Wonderful storyteller, bringing to life the experiences of well-known sports events and personalities. He was the perfect speaker for our event!” 

Canadian Wholesale Drug Association