Lee Rubin: Leadership Speaker

Team building keynote speaker Lee Rubin is a former Penn State Football captain who helps organizations build high performance teams through leadership and accountability.

Lee Rubin - Image 04 (November 3, 2026)

Quick Facts:

    • Former Captain of the Penn State Football Team
    • Over 20 years of leadership development experience
    • Author and team dynamics expert
    • Corporate leadership background with real world management experience

Formats:

  • Keynote Speaker and Team Building Expert

Audiences:

  • Corporate leadership teams, sales organizations, educational institutions, associations and companies focused on culture, accountability and performance.

Outcomes:

    1. Practical strategies to build trust and accountability within teams
    2. Clear frameworks for aligning individual roles to team goals
    3. Sustainable methods for elevating performance and collaboration
7 min read
Reviews: (0 reviews)
  • Travels from: New York, NY
  • **US Fee range: $10,001 - $20,000

Talent Services

Keynote Topics:

Team Building Keynote
Machines are evaluated based on the output of the entire unit, not the impressiveness of their individual parts.

Extraordinary teams, like great machines, require certain components that hold their pieces together. While most organizations focus exclusively on building the skills of their individual members, elite organizations invest in the “stuff” that transforms a collection of talented individuals into extraordinary, machine-like teams.

Key Points

  • Individuals must make sacrifices to achieve the team’s COMMON GOAL
  • Open and honest COMMUNICATION is the foundation for trust
  • Daily, focused discipline is the key to CONSISTENCY

Peak Performance Keynote

Peak Performers think differently than everyone else – including others with more “natural” ability. During this engaging keynote, Lee explores the characteristics found among the high achievers across industries and disciplines.

Lee masterfully weaves vivid stories with universal truths into a memorable experience. Audiences leave inspired and equipped to apply the lessons learned, and take their performance to new heights.

Key Points

  • Developing a clear sense of IDENTITY is critical to reaching your full potential.
  • Setting specific and lofty GOALS will drive you past your comfort zone.
  • Winners embrace ADVERSITY and leverage their challenges for individual and team growth.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are critical issues that require constant attention. Leaders who are having lasting success in those areas are focusing their efforts on building a championship culture. Any efforts to manufacture quantitative results without doing the deeper work of creating an inclusive culture where everyone is able to bring their best selves to work each day, will be short-lived. This insightful, engaging talk identifies the specific areas of focus that contribute to a championship culture.

Specifically, championship cultures are identified by

  • Team members who leverage a diverse collection of individual strengths to achieve a COMMON GOAL
  • Open & Honest COMMUNICATION to foster a culture of trust.
  • CHEMISTRY. Challenges are embraced as opportunities to learn and grow as a team
  • CURIOSITY. Team members seek first to understand the uniqueness of fellow team members and value their perspectives
  • CONSISTENCY. Since there are no quick fixes, teams make a long-term commitment to the behaviors that contribute to a culture of inclusion

Talent Short Bio

Lee Rubin is a keynote speaker and TEDx presenter known for his ability to help organizations understand the Five Components of Extraordinary Teams. For more than 30 years, he has been building high-performance teams in corporate America, professional associations, and the collegiate sports world, sharing a framework, mindset and useful tools that help leaders transform a collection of talented individuals into an extraordinary, collaborative team.

Lee’s foundation in teamwork was established early at Penn State University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Speech Communications with a minor in Business. As a college athlete, he served as Captain of the Nittany Lions football team and earned several accolades.

Today, Lee is one of the most sought-after voices on team building and leadership. He has delivered keynotes for leading Fortune 500 companies—including Johnson & Johnson, Sony, and JP Morgan—as well as colleges and organizations across the country.

Lee Rubin is a keynote speaker and team-building expert who helps organizations strengthen collaboration, develop leaders, and build high-performing teams. A former captain of the Penn State football team, he draws on experience in athletics and corporate leadership to explore what enables individuals to succeed together.

At Penn State, Lee learned that talent alone does not create a cohesive team. His experiences as a player and captain shaped his understanding of unity, resilience, preparation, and shared responsibility. Those lessons became the foundation of his approach to leadership and team development.

After football, Lee entered the corporate world, where he gained firsthand experience managing people, supporting performance, and encouraging collaboration. Working in business gave him a broader perspective on the challenges teams face, including competing priorities, different working styles, and the need to maintain alignment under pressure.

Lee connects these two environments through practical discussions about team dynamics. His presentations examine how individual contributions affect collective results and how leaders can create conditions that help people work toward a common objective. He encourages audiences to consider their responsibilities to teammates alongside their personal ambitions.

With more than two decades of experience in leadership development and team dynamics, Lee brings an engaging, accessible approach to the stage. His stories connect lessons from competitive sport with everyday workplace situations, giving audiences a way to reflect on how they communicate, respond to setbacks, and support one another.

For leaders, his message offers an opportunity to examine how their actions influence team culture. For employees, it highlights the role each person plays in building a collaborative environment and contributing to shared success.

Lee’s presentations are suited to corporate conferences, leadership meetings, team development programs, and educational events. By connecting personal experience with practical insights, he helps audiences think more deliberately about what it means to be a teammate—and how to turn a group of capable individuals into a team working with shared purpose.

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