The Sport Performance Summit

Kyle is a Canadian hockey executive who is currently serving as the General Manager of NHL side, the Toronto Maple Leafs. Prior to his transition to General Manager, Kyle held the role as Assistant GM, whilst also operating as the General Manager of the Toronto Marlies, the Leafs AHL affiliate. Kyle was hired as Assistant General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2014, at the age of 28, and at the age of 32, becomes one of the youngest General Managers in NHL history.

Ryan is a world-renowned writer and media strategist. At the age of 19, he dropped out of college to apprentice under Robert Greene (author of The 48 Laws of Power) before going on to become the Director of Marketing for American Apparel. Through his own creative agency Brass Check, he has advised clients like Google, TASER, and Complex, as well as many prominent bestselling authors. He has authored seven books, including The Obstacle Is the Way, Ego Is the Enemy, The Daily Stoic and most recently Conspiracy. The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy in particular have been incredibly popular with world-class coaches and athletes.

Ben is the Vice President of Baseball Operations at the Toronto Blue Jays. Prior to Ben’s move to the Blue Jays, he was the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Boston Red Sox between 2011 and 2015, in which he oversaw the Red Sox World Series championship in 2013. He succeeded Theo Epstein in that position, having worked in the team’s baseball operations office since 1999, before Epstein’s arrival. Ben is considered one of the top executives in MLB, someone who has built a championship team with the Red Sox and is now trusted with being a key cog in the Blue Jays’ attempt to bring a World Series to Toronto.

Paraag is in his 18th year with the 49ers, currently serving as both President of 49ers Enterprises & Executive Vice President of Football Operations. On the team side, Paraag continues in his long-respected role as the team’s chief contract negotiator and salary cap architect, while overseeing the team’s football analytics department, among other football duties. He is responsible for the 49ers compliance with the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement and works alongside general manager John Lynch and head coach Kyle Shanahan on all aspects of the club’s football operations. In his strategic role, Paraag oversees outside business ventures and major investment opportunities for the club.

Jeremy Bettle is the Director of Sports Science & Performance at the Toronto Maple Leafs. In his role, he oversees all areas of the Maple Leafs, Marlies and prospects as it relates to strength and conditioning, nutrition, injury prevention, injury rehabilitation and all factors pertaining to athlete performance optimization. Prior to joining the Leafs, Jeremy spent four seasons as the Head of Strength & Conditioning at the Brooklyn Nets. He has also had spells at Team USA Men’s Basketball, USA Rugby and the University of California Santa Barbara.

Jen is a Managing Director at IDEO, based at their HQ in San Francisco. She provides senior creative leadership to more than 50 designers across service, brand, product, media, and technology projects as they build solutions that help organizations shift within or disrupt the market. IDEO are one of the world’s leading organisations in global design and creativity, and have won more design awards than any other company in history.

Alex is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist and author who writes about the science of endurance. As the “Sweat Science” columnist for Outside Magazine, as well as a contributor to publications such as the New York Times and the New Yorker, he has built a reputation as an incisive commentator on scientific research in sports. His latest book, the New York Times bestseller Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance, explores how the brain influences what we perceive as physical limits. Prior to becoming a journalist, Alex completed a Ph.D. in physics at the University of Cambridge, worked as a postdoctoral researcher for the National Security Agency, and competed for the Canadian national team as a track and cross-country runner.

Marty Lauzon enters his ninth season with the Falcons and his sixth season as director of sports medicine and performance. He spent the previous four seasons as the Falcons head athletic trainer and brings 22 years of experience in athletic training to the team. Lauzon will be responsible for handling all aspects of the club’s athletic training department. In 2009, he spent a year as the director of sports rehabilitation for NovaCare-NE Ohio. Lauzon spent 10 seasons with the Cleveland Browns, serving from 2005-08 as the team’s Head Athletic Trainer.

Denise is a Decision Coach & Performance Architect, who is an expert in advanced emotional intelligence. She founded The ReThink Group in late 2003 in order to solve the challenges of slumps, repetitive mistakes and confidence crises in the trading industry, where most of her work has taken place. She is also the author of the book Market Mind Games which looks at the psychology of investing, trading and how to evaluate risk.

Owen is the Chief Rugby Correspondent for The Times and the author of two sports books, notably The Talent Lab. Through his work with The Times, The Telegraph & the Independent, Owen has covered six Olympic Games, three winter Olympics, two World Cups, six Rugby World Cups, four Lions tours and eight Ryder Cups. Owen has won a host of awards including three times Sports Reporter of the Year, three times Sports Feature Writer of the Year and he is the current Rugby Writer of the Year.

Troy has more than 15years experience working in applied sport science and sport leadership positions, spanning working in three countries (UK, Canada and USA), with more than 10 different Olympic and professional sports and assisting more than 50 Olympic medalists. Since Aug 2015, Troy has been the High Performance Director of US Ski & Snowboard.

In this role Troy leads a team of ~25 Sport Science, Sport Medicine and Sport Education practitioners to help athletes to fulfill their dreams and win Olympic medals.  Most recently Troy oversaw all aspect of High Performance support at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympic Games, where U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes recorded 15 Medals, including 7 Gold medals.

Scott Riewald is a Senior Director for Winter Sport High Performance with the US Olympic Committee. In this role, Scott works with a team of sport science and medical providers to develop and implement high performance strategies, with the goal of putting winter sport athletes on the podium at the Olympic Winter Games. Scott is also involved in the field of talent identification and talent transfer and is overseeing an initiative within the USOC to actively engage in these areas. Previously, Scott has worked as a sport scientist for USA Swimming and the US Tennis Association.

Ceci is a performance coach for the Indians, where she assists players and staff at the Major League and AAA levels of the organization in the continued development and integration of programs and services that enhance performance and mental and emotional development. Ceci previously worked for the United States Army for six years from 2008-14, working for the Special Warfare Center and School, primarily with Special Forces soldiers, and was the “Head of Performance” for the Special Operations Cognitive Enhancement Program (SOCEP).

L.J. Brock is Chief People Officer at Citadel. He is responsible for leading the firm’s comprehensive efforts focused on hiring, developing and retaining the absolute best and brightest talent that will drive Citadel’s future. L.J. is also a member of the firm’s Portfolio Committee.

Prior to joining Citadel, Mr. Brock served as Vice President of the Global Talent Group and People Infrastructure at Red Hat (a global leader in enterprise technology), where he led an aggressive talent growth strategy and increased annual hires from 600 to 3,000+. In this role, he also spearheaded an industry-leading employee referral program and focused on performance management and leadership development across the company.