The Sport Performance Summit

Alex is a four time Pro-Bowl center currently playing for the 2016 NFC Champions Atlanta Falcons. He played college football for California Golden Bears before being drafted as the 21st overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft. On March 9, 2016, he signed a five-year, $45 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons and subsequently played in the epic Super Bowl earlier this year. He’s currently one of the best players in his position in the sport, and his grit and determination was proven as he played through the games against the Patriots with a broken leg.

General Robinson is the highest ranking female General in US history, and was named in Time magazine’s list of 100 most influential people for 2016. In May 2016, she took over as leader of U.S. Northern Command, becoming the first female service member to lead a unified combatant command after being inducted by President Obama. NORAD conducts aerospace warning, aerospace control, and maritime warning in the defence of North America, while USNORTHCOM partners to conduct homeland defence, civil support, and security cooperation to defend and secure the United States and its interests.

Stuart Lancaster is currently part of the senior coaching team at Leinster Rugby Club. Prior to this, he served as the Head Coach for the England Rugby Football Union from 2011 to 2015. Before he was appointed Head Coach, Stuart was the Elite Rugby Director to the RFU and Director of Rugby for Leeds Carnegie. During his tenure, he lead England to achieve runners-up for the 2012, 2013 and 2014 Six Nations Championship including a Triple Crown in 2014, and was the only team to beat New Zealand (Ranked no.1 in the world) in 2012.

Sydney Finkelstein is the Steven Roth Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He holds a Masters degree from the London School of Economics and a Ph.D. from Columbia University. Professor Finkelstein has published more than 80 articles, as well as 21 books, including the #1 bestseller Why Smart Executives Fail. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Management and on the global Thinkers 50 list of top management thought leaders. His latest bestselling book is Superbosses: How Exceptional Leaders Master the Flow of Talent, which LinkedIn Chairman Reid Hoffman calls the “leadership guide for the Networked Age,” while Jeff Immelt, Chairman and CEO of GE, says “Superbosses gives leaders a playbook to bring out the best in their people.” He is also the co-founder of Superbosses, Inc., a startup that trains managers to become more effective and innovative leaders via a best-in-class digital learning platform. He can be reached on twitter: @sydfinkelstein.

Jill was named the eighth head coach in U.S. Women’s National Team history on May 16, 2014, and in just a little under 13 months later she led the USA to victory at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. She also holds the role of Development Director of the United States Soccer Federation, overseeing the national youth teams development program. At the end of 2015, along with a number of other honours, Jill was named the CONCACAF Female Coach of the Year and the FIFA World Coach of the Year for Women’s Soccer, making her the first American to do so. Jill is a hugely experienced coach and with the great success she’s had with USWNT, she’d be able to share her experience and insight on numerous areas of her role.

With a number of Sweet 16 appearances, eight NCAA Tournament berths, Big Ten regular-season and tournament titles and an international gold medal on his résumé, Matt is widely regarded as one of the brightest young minds in all of college basketball. In the 2016/17 season, Matt led Purdue to their first Big Ten title since 2010 with a 27-8 record, and impressively finishing above other powerhouse programmes in Wisconsin, Maryland, Indiana and Michigan State. Part of Matt’s success has come from a change in recruitment strategy, in which he has placed more emphasis on the person rather than just outright talent. He’s also transformed the culture at Purdue, something in which his players believe has been key to their success.

In 17 seasons as head men’s basketball coach at the University of Notre Dame, Mike Brey has guided the Fighting Irish to 382 victories, an average of 22 victories per season, three trips to the NCAA Sweet 16, back-to-back NCAA Elite Eight appearances in 2015 and 2016 and the 2015 ACC Championship. Second on the all-time wins list at Notre Dame and boasting 481 career wins as a head coach, Brey has led the Irish through the program’s most sustained period of excellence since his hiring in July of 2000.

The 2016-17 Fighting Irish began the season with a nine-game win streak while capturing the 2016 Legends Classic Championship with wins over Colorado and Northwestern at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. Notre Dame began the Atlantic Coast Conference season with five victories, then rattled off six consecutive victories to close the conference season and earn a double-bye in the ACC tournament. Wins over No. 21/21 Virginia and No. 16/17 Florida State propelled the Irish to their second ACC Championship game appearance in four years as a member of the conference. The Irish earned a fifth seed in the 2017 NCAA Championship, defeating Princeton before falling to fourth-seeded West Virginia in Buffalo, New York. The 2016-17 Notre Dame team set program records for wins in a three-year span (82) and matched the school records for wins in a four-year span (97) and NCAA tournament victories in a four-year run (seven).

Pat has been spearheading Seattle’s rushing attack since the 2011 season, which has seen it consistently perform as one of the best in the NFL, while the teams running game ranks first in the NFL with 13,144 rush yards since 2011, and had a franchise-record 25-game streak of 100-plus rushing yards from 2014-15. As you can imagine with those stats, he’s one the most highly rated tactical coaches in the game, but just as impressively he is one of the key cogs in Pete Carroll’s team that has developed one of the strongest and world renowned culture’s in sport. They are relentless in their pursuit of success, and after both Pete and Pat met working at for Arkansas Razorback’s football program, then in California with the USC Trojans between 2005-2009 , they have formed a powerful relationship that has been integral to the successful program they have built in Seattle, winning the 2013 Super Bowl along the way.

Miguel is a Broadway and screen actor currently playing the lead role of Alex Hamilton in the highly acclaimed musical, Hamilton. It’s the most popular and inspiring musical on Broadway in the US at the moment, and since its first show in 2016 has been nominated for no less than a record breaking 16 Tony awards (beating the previous record held by The Producers and Billy Elliot) and also won a Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album, amongst many accolades. The show became a national sensation after the author of the musical, who also stars in it, decided to give the historical figure a hip-hop makeover, resulting in the show becoming completely sold out for the rest of 2016.

Derrick joined The Joffrey Ballet, which is considered one of the best of its kind not only in the USA but the world, as a seasonal dancer in 2003, then became an Arpino Apprentice in 2004, and was promoted to full company dancer in August of 2005. He trained at the San Jose Cleveland Ballet School and received scholarships to San Francisco Ballet School and The School of American Ballet, and also attended American Ballet Theatre summer intensives for several years. Since joining has performed in shows such as The Nutcracker, Romeo and Juliet,Viva Vivaldi, Cinderella and Tarantella amongst many others.

Jeff is Chief Learning Officer, Leader Development & Performance, at Deloitte.  His scope includes Deloitte’s leadership development strategy, onboarding through executive development activities for Deloitte’s 75,000 professionals and partners, the Communication Excellent team in USI, as well as performance management approach and analytics.  A key focus is integration of these efforts – to drive a strengths-based and outcome-focused approach in how we develop leaders and fuel their performance.

Ryan Towey is the Head Coach of Evil Geniuses’ Halo division, who currently sit amongst the top five Halo teams in the world. Evil Geniuses as an organisation are ranked as the number one team in eSports, accumulating just shy of $16million in prize money. Prior to becoming a head coach, Ryan also had a successful career playing competitive Halo, making it to 15 finals out of the 20 international tournaments he competed in. As a head coach, Ryan holds a couple of impressive accolades: he is the ‘winningest’ coach of all time within Halo and is also the longest tenured coach of any team. Ryan will give insights in what it take to be a successful eSports coach, with particular emphasis on decision-making, before and during game play, as well as, data vs. intuition, performing under pressure and in-game awareness.

Eric Barker’s humorous, practical blog, “Barking Up the Wrong Tree”, presents science-based answers and expert insight on how to improve performance at work and life. Over 290,000 people subscribe to his weekly newsletter and his content is syndicated by Time Magazine, The Week, and Business Insider. He has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic Monthly, and the Financial Times. Eric is also a sought-after speaker and interview subject, and has been invited to speak at MIT, Yale, West Point, the University of Pennsylvania, NPR affiliates, and on morning television.

Jason Patera has been part of the Academy community for nearly 20 years, serving as a faculty member, Chair of the Music Department, Assistant Head of School, Principal, and Head of School. As Chair of the Music Department, Patera oversaw the development and implementation of several innovative curricular projects, including award-winning programs in music composition and jazz performance. Under his leadership in the administration, the school’s academic program has grown and flourished. A jazz pianist and drummer, Patera is a summa cum laude graduate of Berklee College of Music, where he studied arranging and contemporary writing. He also founded the college’s newspaper The Groove, now in its 20th year of publication. Patera also holds a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership and has been recognized by the U.S. Department of Education for excellence in teaching.

Michael is the Professor and Director of the Wharton Neuroscience Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania, which is considered one of the top 10 neuroscience department in the world. Alongside his role as Director of the initiative, Michael’s research primarily focuses on the brain’s decision-making processes, and his work is also geared towards how people can become more precise in the identification of talent, enhancement of performance and advancement of human potential.

Dave has had one focus throughout his professional life, and that is American Football. After being drafted by the Houston Texans in 2006, he spent the next 6 years in the NFL with the team as well as stints with the Washington Redskins, Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks. After his NFL career ended, David studied and received his MBA at USC Marshall with a focus on data science. He came across two A.I. professors at USC, which then led to him getting his first job at Second Spectrum – a company which initially just focused on NBA, but he then helped them branch out into the NFL and MLB.

Transformative, forward-thinking and always striving to help others realize their full potential. As an in-demand speaker, author, strengths-based performance coach and instructor of one of the most popular undergraduate courses at New York University, Dan’s expertise in positive psychology helps people lead thriving, successful lives. Employing cutting-edge research into positive psychology and peak performance, Dan works with students, established and high-potential performing artists, athletes and numerous Fortune 500 companies and executives around the world helping them manage stress and anxiety, achieve well-being, uncover their core strengths and define and realize their own brand of success.

With a deep passion for helping the next generation of talent achieve their utmost potential, Dan, along with his co-author and teaching partner Dr. Alan Schlechter, penned U Thrive: How to Succeed in College (and Life).  Filled with fascinating science, real-life stories and tips for building positive lifelong habits, U Thrive addresses the opportunities and challenges every undergraduate faces and helps students grow into the happy, successful alums they all strive to be.