Past Speakers

Carolyn Rivera

By January 22, 2018 October 7th, 2022 No Comments

From the Jungle to the Boardroom

Carolyn is a motivational speaker, leadership trainer, learning and development executive, reality television star and soon to be author. Carolyn’s professional career is rooted in the corporate world where she has worked for Fortune 50 companies for over 25 years.  Her personal areas of expertise include leadership development, learning and development, talent management, performance management, operations and linking performance to business results.  Her responsibilities have included creating and executing strategic business plans, implementing a performance based culture, and achieving business results through change management practices.  Throughout her corporate career, Carolyn’s focus has been developing leaders.  Leadership is a passion for Carolyn and she has used her talent to help organizations achieve results far beyond their initial expectations.  Her personal success is attributed to her need to constantly learn and grow.  Carolyn is committed to mastering her own personal leadership first.  By leading herself to achieve more, pushing her own limits, and eliminating obstacles she has become an effective leader capable of transferring her talent to management teams and organizations to achieve great results.

​Carolyn has had both front-line experience as well as partnership experience which has given her a well-rounded background to succeed in any environment.  More than 25 years of her career was spent in Learning & Development.  Linking learning plans to business needs and building leadership bench strength in each and every company.

Carolyn has been married for 29 years to her high school sweetheart Jo’el.  They have three beautiful young adults; Gabi, Dani and Jo’el Junior.  Carolyn has a unique background as she auditioned for Survivor for four years before she was selected as a contestant.  She appeared on Survivor Season 30 Worlds Apart.  She was tireless in her ambition and motivation which was ultimately recognized when she finished as runner up.  Carolyn thrived as a contestant on Survivor- she loved the entire experience and all the challenges that came with it.  She is accustomed to pushing beyond her personal limits.  She is a life long learner who is always looking to use her everyday experiences to continue to grow as an individual.  She has completed 2 Tough Mudder races, 1 half marathon and for thrills has gone skydiving.

Carolyn’s friends will also confirm her love for Karaoke with her go to song being “I Will Survive”.  She loves to play softball & volleyball and listen to pop music.  Her motto in life is “You are who you think you are” and “Visualize Tomorrow, Focus Today!