Ron Garan has led at every altitude — ten feet above a runway in a failing F-16, sixty feet below the ocean in the world’s only undersea lab, and 240 miles up during 178 days in space. Each one taught him something the others couldn’t.
His signature keynote distills it all into one trainable skill he calls the Dolly Zoom — borrowed from the famous film technique where the camera pulls back while the lens zooms in: holding the widest possible perspective and the sharpest ground-level detail at the same time.
Audiences leave knowing how to price risk with clear eyes, build trust that holds under pressure, and turn change into their biggest opportunity.
Book Ron For Your Next ConferenceRon’s audiences don’t just leave inspired — they leave with a skill. In his keynotes, teams learn the power of the Orbital Perspective and how to apply it through the Dolly Zoom: zooming out to see the whole board while keeping the critical details in sharp focus. Both at once, not alternating.
It’s the perspective that let fifteen nations — some of them former enemies — build the most complex structure in human history, and it’s the same one that helps organizations work together to achieve the seemingly impossible.
the leaders everyone wants to work for hold two altitudes at once: the big picture and the ground-level detail. It’s not a personality trait. It’s a trainable skill.
“Ron’s opening keynote talk perfectly framed the rest of our offsite. True collaboration requires us to step outside of our comfort zones in order to embrace innovative approaches.”
As a veteran combat pilot, Ron served in the Gulf War flying an F-16 for the U.S. Air Force. He then flew as an instructor in the Air Forces’ elite training unit at the Fighter Weapons School. In 1994, Ron attended US Navy Test Pilot School and flew test missions in the 39th and 40th Flight Test Squadrons at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
Ron was selected and started training as an astronaut in 2000. In 2008, he flew his first mission as a crew member on Space Shuttle Discovery to carry up and install the Japanese laboratory to the International Space Station. In 2011, Ron’s second mission to space, as a fully integrated crew member, began on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Ron served on the ISS for six months during Expeditions 27 and 28.
Ron created the Manna Energy Foundation in 2005 and co-created the social enterprise, Manna Energy Limited the following year. Manna has conducted extensive development work in Africa and has worked with partner organizations to provide clean water to millions in Kenya and Rwanda. It’s been recognized as one of ten top innovators in the field of water purification.
In 2016, Ron joined World View, an innovative commercial spaceflight company. He helped build the company from a start-up to operational status—leading the development of a brand-new market in the stratosphere. During his tenure, he has served as chief pilot, senior vice president, and co-president and as a strategic advisor.
Ron Garan inspires teams and organizations from around the world to create exponential progress by turning challenges into opportunities, ideas into action, and fear into focus.
“Floating in Darkness is a riveting must-read for navigating our time of fear and upheaval – vividly describing dog-fights, seafloor living, space flights and space walks” – Emilie Sydney-Smith – CEO, EXOworks
Have you ever had a dream that felt real? A dream so real that it changed your life forever? That’s exactly what happened to Alexa, a young girl with great curiosity and a wild imagination. Put on your spacesuit and go on a journey with Alexa that starts in the classroom and ends on the moon! This story aims to inspire children to dream big and never stop being curious about space.
For astronaut Ron Garan, living on the International Space Station was transformative. If fifteen nations (some of them former enemies) can work together to create and run the most complex structure ever built in space, why can’t we work together to solve our problems on earth? Garan shows how we can all gain this “orbital perspective” to guide and inspire our efforts to build a better world.
In 1991, I was asked to fight a war for my country and for the world. Although I believe war is humanity’s biggest failure, I had no moral reservations about going into combat during Operation Desert Storm. I was willing to give my life to a cause I believed was just.
Once again, I feel called to devote my life to a cause. But this cause is not a conventional war. This is not a war of aggression or a two-dimensional fight between “us” and “them”. For the first time in my life, I am filled with a deep concern for our future. A very narrow and dangerous worldview has appeared in the mainstream. Coupled with decades of pilotless drift toward environmental and social cliffs, this worldview has put us on a very dangerous trajectory.
I believe that mind-sets, actions, and policies being “sold” as beneficial are leading us to the brink of destruction. I truly believe what we do in the next few years will determine whether humanity will thrive or collapse. I believe the awe-inspiring perspective of our planet from space holds the key to victory.
It is the unifying missing link. To come out on the other side of this divisive turmoil, we must completely flip our perspective. To solve our problems, we must zoom out to get proper perspective and reframe the issues.
We need to shoot for an aspirational destination. By focusing on a destination where all of humanity and the entire living ecosystem can thrive, we can move toward long-term collaboration and interdependent thinking. We must shift people’s perspective away from the cancerous selfishness of parochialism, tribalism, nationalism, racism, sexism and limited short-term thinking toward the bigger, more accurate picture. The stakes have never been higher.
I invite you to take a small step in the right direction with me. We are building a community of people who will help shift the trajectory of our society toward a better future for all. Start by clicking here to get a five-step e-mail series focused on maximizing positive impact in your life and our world. Please join us.
