CEO of Senaptec, Member of the SSL's Advisory Team
Joe Bingold is the CEO of Seanaptec- a sensory performance technology company. Joe was a triple major at M.I.T., an 8-year veteran of the US Navy, and a graduate of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business. He served as an officer for the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Program with responsibility for the electronic control systems for nuclear power plants on aircraft carriers and submarines. He brings a wide range of business experience from co-founding a previous successful startup and a director of marketing at Tektronix. Bingold is graduate
Performance Analyst
As a former member of the 2004 Jamaican Olympic track and field team, Richard James brings a unique perspective to his role as SSL’s Strength and Conditioning Coach, having the dual experience of an athlete training for the Olympics as well as nurturing and producing an unprecedented four Olympians during his decade-long tenure at Long Island University’s (LIU) Division 1 Athletics Department.
During the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, James represented Jamaica in the 4×4 relay, training alongside 11-time world champion and arguably one of the best runners of all time, Usain Bolt. That same year, Richard became the indoor world champion mile relay for Team Jamaica in Budapest. As a standout for the LIU track and field team, James became the school’s first male All-American in the 400-meter dash at the 2003 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. In addition, he was named the Most Valuable Player at the 2003 NEC Outdoor Championships and was named the Most Outstanding Performer four times. Overall, he racked in 13 individual championships during his illustrious career at LIU. Richard was inducted into the LIU Brooklyn Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.
Richard graduated from LIU in 2004 with a bachelor’s degree in Sports Science and Exercise Physiology. He received his master’s degree in Exercise Physiology from LIU in 2016. Richard has been an adjunct professor at LIU for the past 8 years in the sports science department. As the university’s head strength and conditioning coach, Richard coordinated and developed specialized workout programs specific to an athlete’s sport and position. Richard oversaw all 18 sports on campus; working directly with each athlete to ensure optimal performance with an equal emphasis on injury prevention. Under his leadership, the injury prevention program that he developed led to the lowest number of non-contact sports-related injuries per team in the university’s history.
Richard’s main areas of expertise are in taking a scientific approach to weight-training, power and speed training, flexibility training, plyometrics, and conditioning. The specialized programs he developed at LIU saw almost all athletes see a peak in levels of physical development within their first year of strength training. His unique approach to training also played a pivotal role in the success of the D1 track and field teams, thus leading to their achievement in capturing three straight Northeast Conference Championships.
As a highly sought-after strength coach, Richard has extensive experience and a proven track record of training both Olympic and pro athletes from multiple different sports and disciplines. In addition to nurturing and producing four Olympians, Richard has trained multiple baseball athletes; some that have gone on to play professionally. Of note, Richard has also trained and worked with 2-time All American and 2-time Olympian, Julius Mutekanga in distance running, and Soccer Left Back Player Adam Ozeri from Racing Club in Argentina in 2014.
Gerald Beckman is nothing short of an accomplished leader with deep experience across multiple fronts that of which include strategic development, business planning, governance, corporate positioning, and equity fundraising. For decades, Mr. Beckman has lead startups, turnarounds, mergers/acquisitions, leveraged buyout funds, non-profit foundations and publicly held companies through various stages of funding and development. Not only has Mr. Beckman held multiple senior management positions including Chief Executive Officer, President, or Managing Partner in more than ten companies with sales ranging from $10 million to more than $1 Billion, he has also served as Chairman of the Board and Director on more than twenty companies. Mr. Beckman has helped manage companies such as General Electric (RCA Semiconductors), IBM, Exxon Enterprises, and GE-Bull (Honeywell). Steering away from Mr. Beckman’s unprecedented track record, Mr. Beckman graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute where he both earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and was appointed Battalion S-1 Commander in the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets. In addition, Mr. Beckman has served as the co-founder and director of Technology Horizons Foundation, the president and secretary of America’s Heroes First Foundation, and is CFO of Military Appreciation Partnerships – all nonprofit organizations geared toward having high impact benefits for humanity. All in all, Gerald Beckman brings invaluable experience in multiple fields to the Sports Science Lab’s Advisory Team.
Director of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Sport Research- St. John's University
David P. Hedlund, Ph.D., is the Director of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Sport Research (IISR) and an Associate Professor in the Division of Sport Management within the Collins College of Professional Studies at St. John’s University. Dr. Hedlund earned a Ph.D. in Sport Management, with a focus on Sport Marketing and Consumer Behavior and a certificate in Measurement and Statistics from Florida State University. He has more than 20 years of domestic and international experience in sport, esports, coaching, business, education and analytics. His areas of sport expertise and research include management, marketing, consumer behavior, coaching, esports and analytics. In recent years, Dr. Hedlund has also acted as a international speaker and consultant for dozens of domestic and international businesses, organizations and entrepreneurial ventures.
Strength and Conditioning Coach, Posturologist, Somatotherapist, Exercise Kinesiologist, Member of SSL’s Advisory Team
World-renowned posturologist and strength and conditioning coach Paul Gagne brings 25 years of expertise and dedication to the SSL advisory team. His whole-body approach to improving athletic performance and experience with world-class athletes make him one of most sought-after strength and conditioning experts. Paul is recognized as a coach who is always on the cutting edge of athletic performance. His expertise in training protocols for posture, rehabilitation, muscular balance and performance enhancement have helped many professional athletes improve performance and reach their full athletic potential. While Paul addresses individual needs of every athlete, his basic approach to training always starts with building a solid base for general conditioning, followed by improving the posture by addressing muscular imbalances and weaknesses; and then developing a strength and conditioning program. By taking this whole-body approach to training, Paul’s method ensures that athletes stay on top of their game and reach their full athletic potential. Paul’s dedication to optimizing athletic performance is evident in his passion for sharing his knowledge and educating others. He teaches seminars on posturology, injury prevention and training methods for enhancing performance and has written many articles on these subjects. One of Paul’s many professional accomplishments is the development of a unique postural and functional evaluation and training system This system identifies and corrects any postural and muscle imbalances that may inhibit athletic performance and has benefited many professional athletes. Paul also developed golf-specific training protocols with the David Leadbetter Golf Academy. Paul has an impressive list of clients and has worked with world champions and top athletes from a vast array of sports, including some of the top NHL athletes for the past 25 years. His clients include the UFC World Champion Georges St Pierre, Olympic freestyle skiers Dufour-Lapointe sisters Justine, Maxime and Chloe, LPGA’s Michelle Wie, PGA 2005 US Open Winner Michael Campbell, NBA team Portland Trail Blazers’ Juan Dixon, as well as professional NHL players Milan Michalek from Toronto Maple Leafs, Ondrej Pavelec from Winnipeg Jets, Michael Frolik from Calgary Flames, Derick Brassard from New York Rangers, Jonathan Huberdeau from Florida Panthers, Jonathan Drouin from Tampa Bay Lightning, Marc-Andre Fleury from Pittsburgh Penguins and Zbynek Michalek from St. Louis Blues.
Head Archery Coach for Columbia University, Member of SSL's Advisory Team
Derek Davis is one of the most well-known US collegiate archery coaches. Derek joined Columbia Athletics in August of 2003 as an assistant coach. Davis has lifted his profile, and those of his student-athletes, to the highest levels every year since becoming the head coach in August of 2004. Each year under his tutelage the program has reached new heights. At the 2015 National Outdoor Collegiate Archery Championships, Columbia captured the gold medal in both the recurve and compound divisions. This was the first time in program history that Columbia finished first in the compound division. 11 years’ prior, Davis’ first team, the 2004-05 squad, won the U.S. Intercollegiate championship in Women’s Recurve, Columbia’s first-ever national title. Overall, Davis has coached five recurve teams to gold medal finishes and one compound team – 2005, 2008, 2011, 2013, 2015. In 2014, the U.S. Olympic Committee named him the National Coach of the year. The previous year Davis was awarded the Doc Counsilman “Science” award – which is awarded to a coach that utilizes scientific techniques/equipment as an integral part of their coaching method or has created innovative ways to use sports science. Davis called upon SSL to conduct an assessment of his archers. This proved to be a success as the team claimed the national title. During his tenure at Columbia, Davis has produced a number of All-American and All-East honorees, as well as a host of USA Archery All-Academic team members. The 2009 squad set a program record – the season saw a record number of Columbia archers earn All-East, All-Academic, and All-American honors. The 2015 squad later matched that record of All-Americans, with six earning that honor. Davis has seen much success in the archery world outside of Morningside Heights. In January 2008, he was elected to the Board of Directors of USA Archery in a nationwide vote. He currently chairs the Nominating and Governance committee and was a member of the Collegiate Task force which helped develop the newly launch Collegiate division under USA archery. For the past 9 years, Davis has been part of USAA’s “International Team Staff” program. He has served as Coach or Team Manager on multiple trips to Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Mexico, Croatia, Italy and Taiwan. This past summer, he was selected as Head Coach for team USA competing at the World University Archery Championship in Mongolia and also a staff Coach for the US team at the World Archery Field Championship in Dublin this September. Davis is also a Coach for the prestigious Jr. Dream Team program which is designed to develop young archers who show elite level potential. Many of his students have won national titles or ranked in the top ten.