Daniele Sauvageau
Daniele Sauvageau is a trailblazing leader in women’s hockey world wide and a respected figure in high-performance coaching. In June 2025, she made history as the first woman inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in the Builder category, recognizing her transformative impact on the sport .
Sauvageau’s coaching and managing career includes 10 Olympic Games and multiple IIHF World Championships. She led the Canadian women’s team to a gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, ending a 50-year gold medal drought for Canadian hockey . Her leadership as head coach and general manager was instrumental in Canada’s success, including seven consecutive world championships and a silver medal at the 1998 Nagano Olympics .
Beyond hockey, Sauvageau served for 33 years in law enforcement with the RCMP and Montreal Police, including in the narcotics division. She currently advises in strategic development . She also founded the first women’s hockey program at the University of Montreal and served as an associate professor at HEC Montréal.
Speaking topics
- Leading a Team to Victory
Instinct of winning is relevant in sports as well as in business. To lead a team to victory, we must accept challenges and work in team through adversity. Danièle Sauvageau knows something about it…
Spend a moment in the shoes of a director & head coach of an Olympic gold medalist National Team, a strategist of the Canadian sport system and an international coaches mentor, and understand the power of mobilization.
Each time Danièle gives a presentation, she captivates and inspires her audience, as she speaks about adversity and resilience, the notions of leadership and a winning team, and about what she has experienced, studied and applied.
Daniele Sauvageau will inspire you, will guide you through the strengthening teamwork and leadership skills that will lead you to victory, to the ultimate goal – Gold.
Some topics presented during her conferences!
- Adversity: knowing when to change course ;
- Leadership in an organization! ;
- Secrets of coaching! ;
- Evaluating ;
- Strategies of management ; !
- Components of a winning team ;
- Winning: it’s about embracing change.
- Three Keys to Success – Respect, Responsibility, Commitment
Video clips
Speaker testimonials
Daniele did a magnificent job! I was really pleased to have her at our Coaches Symposium. She captivated our coaches. For example, when she was talking there were no side convos or comments, not a lot of movement and all eyes stayed forward and on Daniele. She did a great job of summarizing her story with some main important points. Daniele also injected some good humour to keep people engaged. Audience loved her and was very glad to learn from her experiences. She was very good and exceeded my expectations. I would recommend Daniele as a keynote speaker.