Bo Hanson

Boden Joseph "Bo" Hanson (born 7 August 1973 in Port Kembla, New South Wales) is a four time Australian Olympian rowing, three time Olympic medalist, specialist coaching consultant, corporate trainer and presenter. Hansen won his three bronze medals at the Atlanta, Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) Olympic games His professional career includes founding high-performance consultancy Athlete Assessments in 2007, and Team8 which presents to corporate audiences. He raced in further Queensland King's Cup eights in 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 and he stroked those crews on several occasions.

Hanson first contested national titles at the Australian Rowing Championships in 1991 when he won both the U19 pair and the U19 coxed four national championships in Brisbane Grammar Old Boys crews. In 1994 he contested the national single sculls title in University of Queensland Boat Club colours. Later when he relocated to Sydney he rowed from the UTS Haberfield Rowing Club. He rowed in the seven seat of the Australian men's eight who made the Olympic final and finished in fifth place. They were up against the gun British foursome including Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent. At the 1998 World Rowing Championships Hanson and the Australian coxless four finished in fourth place. At the 1999 World Championships in St Catharines Canada, they won a silver medal behind Great Britain. The Australian's took bronze and Redgrave's fairytale five Olympic gold medal came true.

In the next Olympiad Hanson didn't compete at a single World Championship or World Cup although he continued to row at the elite national level. He was selected for the 2004 Athens Olympics in the six seat of Australian men's eight who took the bronze medal in Athens. It was Hansen's last representative appearance.

High performance consultant and presenter During the later stages of his career, Bo attempted to understand how his behaviour related to his training, racing and performance results. Hanson studied the DISC behavioural theory, the Myers Briggs Personality Type Indicator, Emotional Intelligence and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). Using DISC behavioral profiling, Hansen found his last years of rowing more enjoyable and successful.

Athlete Assessments

Hanson commenced a professional career post-rowing using the experiences gained at the Olympics as well as formal university education, and training and development qualifications. With a team of sports coaches, IT developers and other DISC accredited professionals, Hansen developed AthleteDISC, and started the business Athlete Assessments in 2007. That business developed the first sports version of DISC theory and behaviour profiling. CoachDISC, a similar tool specifically for sports coaches, followed in early 2009. After client requests, in early 2011 the ManagerDISC was launched as a development tool specifically for sports managers and administrators. Assessments created the first online sports-specific behavioural profiling tools for athletes, sports teams and coaches. Hanson is accredited in the use and administration of the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator, DISC Profiling and Emotional Intelligence (Emotional Competence Inventory 360).

Team8

In the business Team8, Hanson trains and presents to clients such as American Express, Bain Consulting, Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, Macquarie Bank, Insurance Australia Group and Telstra. Hanson's presentations include leadership development and all aspects of teamwork - goal setting, team attitudes and communication. Hanson draws unique parallels between the world of elite sport and high performance business.

Fitzroy Australia Resources

Commencing in September 2019, Bo began presenting a series of team leadership modules in partnership with Fitzroy Australia Resources to their Carborough Downs colliery employees.