The Sport Performance Summit

Pat joined Cricket Australia as Executive General Manager, Team Performance in November 2011.
During this period, Pat has overseen victories in the men’s and women’s World Cups and Ashes series, in which both the men and women currently hold the Ashes. Pat’s role oversees all elite competitions and includes developments in coach education, pathway changes and restructuring of domestic competitions. Pat is a former rugby union international, winning numerous awards as a player and later as a coach. In 2004 he became director of rugby at Leicester Tigers before moving back to Australia in 2007 to become General Manager of the High Performance Unit of Australian Rugby Union.

Before becoming one of the ring’s most imposing wrestlers, Bloom first operated on the football field as an offensive lineman at the University of Pittsburgh before turning his focus to the ring. He joined WWE shortly after, making his debut in 1999 during the height of WWE’s celebrated Attitude Era. He also spent years as New Japan Pro Wrestling’s gaijin ace. After an impressive career in the ring, Bloom was named the Performance Center Head Coach in May 2015, where he now passes on his knowledge of the sport and unique skills to WWE’s future Superstars.

Canyon is the Senior Vice President of Talent Development at WWE. In this role, Canyon is responsible for the recruitment and development of WWE Superstars both domestically and globally, he is the de facto athletic director, and leads corporate and business development around the TD system. Prior to joining WWE, he previously served as the strategic CFO of the Association of Volleyball Professionals and also operated as a bond analyst at the Diamondback Capital Hedge Fund. Prior to his business career, Ceman enjoyed a 15-year career as a Professional beach volleyball player, including 10 years in the top 10 in the U.S., and a silver medal in the 1997 World Championships. He holds a BA/ MA from Stanford, and an MBA from UCLA.

Angus Mugford is the Director of High Performance for the Toronto Blue Jays and is working to help build a collaborative, high performance culture with the organisation. Angus is passionate about developing a team that is truly interdisciplinary in nature, comprising great leaders and people who are serving others to fulfil their potential. Dr. Mugford previously served as the Director of the IMG Institute, leading mental performance consulting for corporate, sport and tactical athletes, whilst working alongside and seeing the development of the Mental Conditioning team at IMG Academy. Dr. Mugford is an accredited sports psychology support member of BASES (British Association of Sport & Exercise Sciences), a Chartered Psychologist with BPS (British Psychological Society) and the US AASP (Association of Applied Sport Psychology), a Certified Consultant with APA (American Psychological Association). In addition, he is a full Member and on the Sport Psychology Registry for the USOC (United States Olympic Committee) and in 2015 was elected president of AASP in 2015.

Dehra Harris is a physician and teacher who is an expert in coaching for high performance. She has special expertise in helping people to provide high impact feedback in a relationship context that fosters their learner’s autonomy and skills for self-awareness. She is passionate about translating traditionally academic pursuits such as neuroscience, psychology and learning theory into actionable insights that can be used across disciplines. This has led her to work in settings as diverse as screenwriting, business, military, and major league sports. Through her work with healthcare providers at Washington University School of Medicine, she coaches students on how to work in teams and how to communicate effectively during medical encounters. Her research focuses on understanding the impact of stressors on health professionals and identifying the key behaviors that drive team performance as well as patient and team satisfaction across different health disciplines, in order to provide individualized coaching that improves the performance of healthcare teams. She has received the Washington University School of Medicine Class of 2018 Distinguished Service Teaching Award and Washington University School of Medicine Class of 2017 Full-Time Clinical Teacher of the Year in recognition of this work.

Dave Hadfield operates within the high performance coaching and mental skills setup within New Zealand Rugby Union. Dave has also had a long-standing involvement within Super rugby, where he has worked with most of the provincial teams in the Super Rugby setup including the Crusaders and Hurricanes. His work also involves dealing directly with the coaches, rather than solely the players, in effect coaching the coaches in aspects of their role. Dave also has a Masters degree in psychology, he also has a diploma in management and has lectured in coaching and leadership at Massey University.

Preston is the co-founder and director of the Mission Critical Team Institute (MCTI). Prior to co-founding the MCTI, Preston trained as a Wilderness Emergency Medical Technician, a NAUI Rescue Diver and an Ocean Lifeguard Trainer, and has led both terrestrial and marine Search and Rescue teams. Preston continues to focus his research in the area of human interaction with uncertainty, with a specific focus on supporting Instructor Cadre Collaborative Inquiry Communities within Military Special Operations, Emergency Medicine, Tactical Law Enforcement and Urban and Wilderness Fire Fighting Organizations.

Coleman is a former Navy SEAL officer, where he spent 13 years on active duty in the U.S. Navy ultimately serving overseas during six operational combat deployments in both the Afghanistan and Iraq. While in special operations, Coleman also served as a Training Officer at both the basic and advanced Naval Special Warfare (SEAL) training schools. He led the training and development of approximately 800 basic and advanced special operations students through the military’s most high-risk training programs, including the infamous Hell Week in BUD/S training. He now operates a researcher and contributor to the Mission Critical Teams Initiative and as a Partner at Anchor Capital Holdings, LLC.

David Hesse is the Vice President for Performance at IMG Academy. He oversees Athletic and Personal Development (APD), the team of specialist performance coaches who work across strength and conditioning, sports medicine, nutrition, mental conditioning, vision training and leadership and life skills programs. David and his team are responsible for delivering a world class system on sports performance training for athletes ranging from the most talented high school athletes in the country to elite professionals. The APD programs are holistic in nature and support the development of our student-athletes both academically and athletically. Originally from Glasgow, Scotland, David is a graduate with degrees from the universities of Edinburgh, Sheffield and Loughborough. He initially trained as an Organizational Psychologist and began his career as a management consultant with Ernst & Young where he specialized in business transformation and organizational change before moving into sport. Immediately prior to joining IMG Academy, David was working with the management team at Sport Scotland Institute of Sport helping Scottish sport gear up for the London 2012 Olympics and Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.