Keynote Speakers
Dan Siegel
Charles van Commenee
David Sheepshanks
Vern Gambetta
Steven Blair
Kim Bennell
Daniel Coyle
Karim Khan
Michael Kjaer
Per Renstrom
Daniel Lieberman
Frank Ponissi

Dan Siegel

UCLA School of Medicine

Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., is an internationally acclaimed author, award-winning educator, and child psychiatrist. He is currently a clinical professor of psychiatry at the UCLA School of Medicine where he serves as a co-investigator at the Foundation for Psychocultural Research Center for Culture, Brain, and Development and co-director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center.

He is also the Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute, an educational center devoted to promoting insight, compassion, and empathy in individuals, families, institutions and communities.

Dr. Siegel also serves as the Founding Editor for the Norton Professional Series on Interpersonal Neurobiology, a clinically focused library translating a wide range of sciences for the therapeutic practitioner.

His book, The Developing Mind, introduces this new interdisciplinary approach of understanding the mind and mental health and integrates a wide range of research domains in exploring the basis of healthy human development. His book with Mary Hartzell, M.Ed., Parenting from the Inside Out, offers an application of this newly emerging view of the mind, the brain, and human relationships. His professional book, The Mindful Brain, explores the nature of mindful awareness as a process that harnesses the social circuitry of the brain as it promotes mental, physical, and relational health.

Mindsight offers the general reader an in-depth exploration of the power of the mind to integrate the brain and promote well-being. His latest professional text, The Mindful Therapist, explores the application of these ideas for the clinician’s own development of mindsight and neural integration.

For more information, please visit: www.DrDanSiegel.com.

Charles van Commenee

Head Coach, UK Athletics

Charles van Commenee is a Dutch athletics coach who is currently the head coach of UK Athletics. He began his professional career as a technical director and national coach for the Netherlands. He moved to take up similar roles for the British athletics team in 2001. Additionally, he has personally coached athletes to international medals, including Denise Lewis, Kelly Sotherton andHuang Zhihong.

Van Commenee first met British heptathlon athlete Denise Lewis in 1994 at an athletics meeting in Valladolid, Spain. Her coach Darrell Bunn could not attend the meeting and Van Commenee was asked to help her through the event. Impressed with his work, Lewis moved to Amsterdam to train with Van Commenee in 1997.

Van Commenee also worked with less prominent athletes, helping them improve their performances through sheer hard work—he coached Lieja Koeman at the Olympics and although the shotputter was ranked 23rd in the world she managed to finish ninth in the competition. In recognition of his achievements, he was named as the 2000 Amsterdam Coach of the Year. Following his success with Lewis, in 2001 he was appointed by UK Athletics as the technical director for the jumps and combined events. As director he took on responsibilities for British athletes including Dean Macey, Ashia Hansen and Jonathan Edwards, though they all retained personal coaches.

In 2004 the position of performance director became available at UK Athletics. Van Commenee was considered for the job but ultimately decided to leave the UK in favour of becoming technical director of the Netherlands athletics team. After a successful period in the Netherlands, where he took them to their second-highest ever Olympic medal tally at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, he returned to the UK to take up the position of national head coach.

David Sheepshanks

Chairman of St George's Park

David Sheepshanks is best known for his career in sport, in particular, with Ipswich Town where he was Chairman for 14 years, with the Football League where he was Chairman for 2 years and as a longstanding Board member of the FA. More recently, he was appointed to lead the National Football Centre, now renamed St George’s Park and under his Chairmanship this project is now under construction.

His business background was in the food industry where he worked initially in the seafood industry before establishing and becoming Executive Chairman and the majority shareholder of Suffolk Foods Ltd, a major manufacturer of mayonnaise and sauces, which he sold in 2004.

David joined the Ipswich Town Board in 1987 and was appointed Executive Chairman in 1995, a post he held until May 2009.

In January 1997 he was elected Chairman of the Football League with a mandate to drive a reorganisation and modernising process for the League, which he undertook in two years, appointing Richard Scudamore as its CEO.

Between 1997-2000 and again between 2003-2011 he has represented the League on the main Football Association Board, the FA International Committee and as a member and past Chairman of the FA Professional Game Board (FA, PL and FL).

In June 2011 he stepped down from a number of his football roles to devote more time as Chairman of St George’s Park and FA Learning, the educational arm of the FA responsible for Coach Education and professional development. St George’s Park is set to open in Summer 2012.

David is a Regional Chairman for Coutts Bank in Suffolk and Norfolk and also represents them nationally for their Sports and Entertainment business; other directorships include, Non-Executive Chairman of Environmental Biotech UK (drainage and maintenance specialists) alongside other various consultancies. He chairs the Suffolk Foundation and Ipswich Town Charitable Trust, alongside other voluntary sector interests.

He is also a known as a speaker on business motivation and leadership.

David is Deputy Lieutenant of Suffolk (2005) and was given an Honorary Doctorate from the University of East Anglia for services to the community (2004).

Apart from football, he is a keen watcher of cricket, a lover of music and gardening and an active participant of swimming, tennis golf and shooting.

David is married to Mona, with children Sophie (24) and Tom (21) and lives near Woodbridge in Suffolk.

Vern Gambetta

Director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems

Vern is currently the director of Gambetta Sports Training Systems.

As a pioneer in the field he is considered the father of Functional Sports Training. Vern is recognised internationally as an expert in training and conditioning for sport having worked with world class athletes and teams in a wide variety of sports.

He is a popular speaker and writer on conditioning topics having lectured and conducted clinics in Canada, Japan, Australia and Europe.

He has been a conditioning coach in Major League Soccer as well as the conditioning consultant to the US Men's World Cup Soccer Team. He is the former Director of Conditioning for the Chicago White Sox and Director of Athletic Development for the New York Mets.

Vern's coaching experience spans over 40 years at all levels of competition. His background is track and field, having coached at all levels of the sport. In addition Vern served as the first director of the TAC Coaching Education Program, an innovative programme designed to upgrade the standard of track and field coaching in the US.

He has authored over 100 articles and seven books on various aspects of training. He received his BA from Fresno State University in 1968 and his teaching credential with a coaching minor from the University of California Santa Barbara in 1969. In 1973-74 Vern attended Stanford University and obtained his MA in Education with an emphasis on physical education.

Steven Blair

University of South Carolina

Steven N. Blair is Professor in the Departments of Exercise Science and Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, and a Benjamin Meaker Fellow at the University of Bristol, England. Dr. Blair is a Fellow in the American College of Epidemiology, Society for Behavioral Medicine, American College of Sports Medicine, American Heart Association, and American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education; and was elected to membership in the American Epidemiological Society.

Dr. Blair is a past-president of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity, and the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education. Dr. Blair is the recipient of three honorary doctoral degrees--Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium; Doctor of Health Science degree from Lander University, U.S.; and Doctor of Science Honoris Causa, University of Bristol, UK. He has received awards from many professional associations,including a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health, ACSM Honor Award,Population Science Award from the American Heart Association, and is one of the fewindividuals outside the U.S. Public Health Service to be awarded the Surgeon General's Medallion. He has delivered lectures to medical, scientific, and lay groups in 48 states and 50 countries. His research focuses on the associations between lifestyle and health, with a specific emphasis on exercise, physical fitness, body composition, and chronic disease. He has published over 500 papers and chapters in the scientific literature, and was the Senior Scientific Editor for the U.S. Surgeon General's Report on Physical Activity and Health.

Kim Bennell

Director, Centre for Health, Exercise and Sports Medicine, University of Melbourne

Professor Kim Bennell is a research physiotherapist and Director of the multidisciplinary Centre for Health, Exercise and Sports Medicine, School of Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Kim's research focuses on conservative non-drug management of musculoskeletal conditions including osteoarthritis and osteoporosis with an emphasis on the role of exercise in both prevention and management.

Daniel Coyle

Author of The Talent Code

Daniel Coyle is the author of The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Grown. Here’s How, a new way to get really good at almost anything based on how our brains work. The secret comes down to the physiology of learning, or what happens to the architecture
of the brain during practice.

In his research for The Talent Code, Daniel visited nine hotbeds of talent around the world in different fields to find out how they consistently produce extraordinary performers. The key, he found, is the right kinds of practice, coaching, and motivation, all of which work together to improvethe function of the brain.

The Talent Code is Daniel’s third book on performance.

Lance Armstrong’s War, a New York Times bestseller, chronicles the year Daniel spent following Lance Armstrong when Armstrong won his record-breaking sixth consecutive Tour de France.

Hardball: A Season in the Projects was Sporting News’s book of the year and became the Keanu Reeves movie of the same name. It describes his experiences coaching little league in a Chicago housing project.

Daniel Coyle is a contributing editor at Outside magazine and a former Senior Editor. He has been nominated twice for the National Magazine Award and he’s been featured
in The Best American Sports Writing.

He has written for Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, and Play. He has appeared as a guest on Good Morning America, ABC World News Tonight, Nightline, ESPN, CNN, All Things Considered, Weekend Edition, Talk of the Nation, and many other national programs.

Dan has worked as an adjunct faculty member at Medill School of Journalism, Northwester University.

Karim Khan

Editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine and Associate Professor, University of British Columbia

Professor Karim Khan, MBBS, PhD, FACSP, is at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and editor of the British Journal of Sports Medicine. A sports physician, Karim was a major contributor to the paradigm shift that ‘tendinopathies’ are not inflammatory conditions and this led to increased recognition of the need for active exercise as treatment – instead of cortisone and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.

Karim is also a strong advocate of physical activity for public health. Bone health and falls prevention has been one focus. He is a founding investigator in the $40 million research enterprise at the University of British Columbia called the Centre for Hip Health and Mobility. Here over 100 investigators, including a large number of clinicians, collaborate to improve the health of Canadians across the lifespan by improving their mobility and promoting physical activity.

Karim is well known to many through earlier editions of Brukner and Khan’s Clinical Sports Medicine. The brand new 4th edition (including online video Masterclasses) will be launched at UKSEM. Karim practices what he preaches and accumulates 60 minutes of physical activity daily.

Michael Kjaer

Institute of Sports Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen

Michael Kjaer MD DMSci is Professor in Sports Medicine at the University of Copenhagen Denmark, as well as Head and Chief Physician at the Institute of Sports Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen. He is board certified specialist in Rheumatology. The main research area is extracellular matrix in tendon and skeletal muscle and its adaptation to mechanical loading - basal mechanisms and clinical relevance for tissue injury, tendon overloading and age-related muscle loss.

Per Renstrom

Professor Emeritus in Sports Medicine, Karolinska Insituet, Stockholm

Per Anders Frans Hjalmar Renström worked in Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at Göteborg University in Sweden 1972-1988, at University of Vermont, Burlington, USA 1988- 1997, at Karolinska Institutet 1987-207 where he now is professor emeritus. Per defended his PhD. 1981.

Per has been very active in research in Orthopedic sports medicine including clinical studies on management, surgery, rehabilitation and prevention of injuries occurring in sports and physical activity, basic research in biomechanics of knee and ankle ligaments and the healing of Achilles tendon injury, as well as research in amputation and prosthetics. Per has been author of 172 original scientific publications in peer reviewed journals. Per is the author or editor of 16 books and 72 full chapters in books and proceedings.

Per was 2000-2008 by the Swedish Government appointed chairperson of the Swedish National Research Council of Sports Science, chairperson for Special Olympics, Sweden 1999-2007 and elected into the Swedish Academy of Sports 2001.

Per was president 2003-2005 of the international worldwide organization ISAKOS - the International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopedic Sports Medicine and vice president 1990-1998 of FIMS –the International Sports Medicine Federation. Per is member of the Medical and Scientific Commission of the IOC- International Olympic Committee since 1996

Per has been Physician for the Swedish Davis Cup team in tennis for several years. Per is member of the ATP World Medical Services Committee and of the Sports Science and Medical Commission of the ITF - International Tennis Federation.

Per received FIMS´s highest honor the Gold Medal in 2000. Per was 2009 elected Honorary member of ISAKOS 2003 of AANA and 1992 by the Swedish Society of Sports Medicine. In 2008 Per was awarded Honorary Fellowship by the Faculty of Sports and Exercise Medicine in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. In 2009 Per was inducted in the Hall of Fame by AOSSM. In 2010 Per received the “Duke of Edinburgh Prize” awarded by the Institute of Sport and Exercise Medicine (UK). In 2011 Per was awarded Honorary Membership in the Faculty of Sports Medicine and Exercise (UK) in London.

Daniel Lieberman

Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University

Daniel Lieberman is Harvard College Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University; he is also a member of Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology.

He was educated at Harvard (AB ‘86, PhD ’93) and Cambridge (M.Phil. ’97). His research is on how and why the human body is the way it is, with particular foci on the origins of bipedalism, how humans became superlative endurance runners, and the evolution of the highly unusual human head. To address these questions he combines experimental biomechanics and physiology, paleontology, and comparative anatomy.

He teaches a variety of courses on human evolution, anatomy, and physiology, and has published 3 books and more than 100 articles. His latest book is "The Evolution of the Human Head (Harvard University Press, 2011). His work on barefoot running, which he also practices, has earned him the nickname "The Barefoot Professor."