Robyn Benincasa

Robyn Benincasa: Profile

Robyn Benincasa accepts full blame for inspiring people to do insane things like climb Mount Kilimanjaro, run their first triathlon, start their own adventure racing teams, or start their own businesses. This is, after all, who she is and what she does: she inspires people to do amazing things.

Ms. Benincasa has made an art form of extreme performance by competing and winning at the highest levels of sport and business. Revered as one of “California’s Fittest Women”, she spent her youth competing at the state and national level in gymnastics, diving, cross country, and judo in which she became a national champion. Soon after earning a Marketing degree from Arizona State University, Robyn ‘started at the top’ Fortune 500 pharmaceutical company where she earned the prestigious “Rookie of the Year” award.

While consistently achieving top sales in her day job, Robyn Benincasa completed six Ironman races, with two podium finishes. Then the adventure race bug bit.

In her 15-year career as a professional adventure racer, Ms. Benincasa has competed in close to 40 expedition-length events—gnarly, multi-day, multi-sport killers such as Primal Quest and Eco-Challenge. She has biked through jungles in Borneo, climbed Himalayan giants in Nepal, trekked across lava fields in Fiji, rafted rapids in Chile—and racked up multiple world championship titles along the way. In her spare time, she is a full-time firefighter in San Diego, on the nation’s first all-female crew.

NBC, ABC, CNN, ESPN, USA Network, Discovery Channel, Outdoor Life Network, PBS and FOX have all featured Robyn Benincasa and her amazing accomplishments. Add to those network credits editorials in Fast Company, Sport Illustrated, Vogue, Corporate & Incentive Travel, The New York Times, Outside, and Harper's Bazaar. She will be the official ‘cover girl’ for a feature story in the November 2009 issue of Health Monitor, that has a circulation of 3 million medical doctors’ offices and hospitals. Also look for the double-page spread on Project Athena (her non-profit foundation) in Triathlete Magazine currently on newsstands. In December 2009, Runners World features her with her Project Athena team as the lead image for their “Running Heroes of 2009” article.

Ms. Benincasa launched World Class Teams and its sister company Flashover Seminars to bring her unique and inspiring perspective on teamwork to the corporate world via keynotes, seminars and teambuilding programs. Starbucks, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Aramark, Honda/Acura, Tony Robbins, Allianz, Wal-Mart, Timberland, Napster, AT&T and Earthlink rely on her “Extreme Performance: Why Winners Win,” “High Performance Leadership,” and her signature program “The 8 Essential Elements of Human Synergy.” Her unforgettable presentations have taught countless high-performance leaders all over the world about “Building World Class Teams” and the ‘followership’ skills necessary for dynamic role shifting and true teamwork.

Robyn Benincasa founded the Project Athena Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to helping women who've endured medical setbacks achieve their athletic dreams, whether it means climbing Mount Kilimanjaro or running a local 10K. The goal? To encourage survivors not just to survive—but to thrive in the wake of their diagnoses.

“The biggest, strongest, and fastest competitors are not guaranteed a successful finish. It’s the teams that truly understand interdependence, have empathy for one another, share common ideals, manage adversity well, and check their egos at the start line that win these races. In my experience, the same is true in the corporate world.” –Robyn Benincasa