The Sport Performance Summit

Sean was named Nets’ general manager in February 2016 and oversees all aspects of the team’s basketball operations. He joined the Nets after spending the past five years with the San Antonio Spurs, including the last two seasons as the team’s assistant general manager, a season as an assistant coach on the Spurs’ 2014 NBA Championship team and one season as the team’s director of basketball operations and general manager of the Spurs’ NBA Development League affiliate, the Austin Spurs. He had a 12 year playing career originally being drafted by the Knicks, then moving to the Raptors, Heat, Suns, Hornets, Trail Blazers as well as the Spurs, where he won the 2005 NBA Championship. He also studied Political Science at University of California, Berkeley prior to his NBA career. Sean in his first role as GM, alongside Kenny Atkinson who is also in his rookie year as Head Coach, are forming a dynamic duo tasked with rebuilding the franchise from a very poor period in the team’s history, and have plenty of plaudits for their approach so far.

Gregor Townsend took on the position of Scotland Head Coach in the summer of 2017 after five seasons at the helm of Glasgow Warriors. The Gala man made an immediate impact at the Scotstoun club, leading the side into the Play-Offs in his first season (2012/13) before reaching the PRO12 Final in 2014, ultimately losing to Leinster. In 2015, however, Townsend led Glasgow to title success, defeating Munster 31-13 to lift the Guinness PRO12 trophy, before enjoying another first in his final year, when the club reached the knockout rounds of the European Champions Cup for the first time. Townsend was named Guinness PRO12 Coach of the Year twice during his time in the west of the Scotland, a club he joined from his position as Assistant Coach to the Andy Robinson with the naitonal team (2009-2012).

Jack Levis, Senior Director of Industrial Engineering, drives the development of operational technology solutions.  These solutions require advanced analytics to re-engineer current processes to streamline the business and maximize productivity. Jack has been the business owner and process designer for UPS’ Package Flow Technology suite of systems which includes its award winning delivery optimization, ORION (On Road Integrated Optimization and Navigation).  These tools have been a breakthrough change for UPS, resulting in a reduction of 185 million miles driven each year. ORION has completed deployment and is providing significant operational benefits to UPS and its customers.  UPS estimates that ORION is reducing costs by $300M to $400M per year. Having earned his Bachelor of Arts in psychology, from California State University Northridge, Jack also holds a Master’s Certificate in Project Management from George Washington University. He is a fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences (INFORMS), receiving their prestigious Kimball Medal and the President’s Award. Jack holds advisory council positions for multiple universities and associations, including the U.S. Census Bureau Scientific Advisory Committee.

Jim Collins assumed his current role with UPS in March 2017. Jim is Vice President of Industrial Engineering and is responsible for four groups within Corporate Industrial Engineering: Package Process Management (PPM), Technology Support Group (TSG), PMO (Program Management Office), and Corporate IE Work Measurement. Jim is responsible for many of the areas of Operations Technology development and implementation. Prior to his current role, Jim was responsible for IE in the US and, before that, he was responsible for the deployment of UPS’s ORION technology. Jim has 32 years of experience at UPS with 9 of it in Operations and the remainder with increasing levels of responsibility in IE.

Lee Daniel Kravetz is the bestselling author of Supersurvivors (Harpercollins/Harper Wave).  His work has been translated into ten languages.  He has written for print and television, including The New York Times, Psychology Today, The San Francisco Chronicle,and PBS.  He has been featured in Time Magazine, theHarvard Business Review, and Fast Company, and is a founding board member of the Lit Camp Writers Conference.  He holds a B.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri – Columbia, a M.A. in psychology from Santa Clara University, and received a post-graduate fellowship from Stanford University. He lives in Northern California with his wife and two children.

Trevor is an NBA power forward for New York’s very own Brooklyn Nets. After being drafted at 23rd overall in the 2010 draft by the Minnesota Timberwolves, he was immediately traded to the Washington Wizards, where he would play for four seasons – he then spent two seasons with the Utah Jazz before joining the Nets at the beginning of last season. A self-confessed entrepreneur, he actually already owns 18 companies and amongst these acquisitions are sports academies, a private high school, a record label, and a VC firm.

Lieutenant Colonel Darcy Schnack graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1996 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Transportation Corps.  She later earned her Master’s degree from Boston College in 2006 and is currently working on her PhD in Sociology.  Darcy has served at various levels of leadership in the U.S. Army, two tours in Iraq as an Army logistician, and two tours teaching in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership where she served as the Military Leadership Course Director.  She is currently the Director of West Point’s Center for Enhanced Performance, which houses their Performance Psychology and Academic Excellence programs.

David Dabscheck is the CEO of GIANT Innovation, which transforms the way organizations and people think and act to become world-class innovators. David has helped a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies, global NGOs, and public sector agencies develop and implement sustainable innovation and creativity programs. He is an advisory board member for several Israeli and New York technology companies, a mentor for many leading accelerator programs and the founder of the Innovation Leaders Round Table, a New York City based gathering of over 100 executive and senior level innovation practitioners. GIANT Innovation’s methodology was developed by David together with it’s Academic Advisory Board and combines the best of design thinking, lean startup, creativity and storytelling principles.

David is also a thought-leader on innovation topics and his work has appeared in publications such as Fast Company, the Boston Globe, the Observer, and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. He has served as a Visiting Scholar at Columbia Business School in innovation strategy and an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Recordo is a FDNY firefighter assigned to Ladder Co. 174 in East Flatbush, Brooklyn and also serves as the Senior Drill Instructor for the FDNY’s Probationary Fire School. As well as this, he’s a 1st Lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps, currently serving as a platoon commander with Golf Company, 2nd Battalion, 25th Marines and has also served two combat tours in Iraq and also deployed to Kosovo.

Chris has been a member of the New York City Fire Department since 1995 and currently holds the rank of Battalion Chief. He has worked on numerous initiatives for the Fire Academy and serves on the tactical training committee for the FDNY’s Mental Performance Initiative.

Eric is an operational commander in the Iowa City Fire Department, and a veteran of the United States Marine Corps. He is a graduate of the National Fire Academy’s Executive Fire Officer Program where his research focused on rapid tactical decision-making under stress and the psychological/physiological effects of stress on tactical performance.  Eric has also authored a book on the mental toughness of a firefighter, and is heavily involved in the leadership development and human performance optimisation programs for fire-rescue organizations.