Global leaders in bio-analytics for elite sports performance.
PhDs
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Elite Athletes Served
We have assembled a multi-disciplinary team with decades of experience in high performance sport that brings together Sports Science, Data Science, Nutrition, Statistical Modeling and Machine Learning. We operate as a team within your team, giving you immediate access to unrivalled expertise.
Dr Brian Moore is co-founder and CEO of Orreco. Brian has led global research into sports haematology since 2005 when he uncovered patterns in the haematology of elite athletes as part of his doctoral research at Brunel University, London. He has worked directly with multiple World and Olympic medalists, and numerous pro sports teams and athletes competing in MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA Tour, UEFA, America’s Cup Sailing and Formula1. An Applied Physiologist and expert in blood biomarker technologies, Brian has an international reputation for using sports science and data science to provide evidence-based actionable analytics to accelerate recovery, optimize performance and prolong the careers of elite athletes.
Dr Andrew Hodgson is co-founder and Clinical Director of Orreco. Andrew is Consultant Haematologist at Sligo University Hospital and provides clinical support where needed. He qualified from St Mary’s Hospital, Imperial College London, and has been practicing medicine for over 20 years. Andrew lectures at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) and at Galway and Sligo University Hospitals. He is a Member of the Irish National Accreditation Board and has served as the National Specialty Director in Haematologist for the RCPI. He has also worked with the European Haematology Association as part of a EU funded group to improve haematology training across Europe.
Professor Charlie Pedlar is Orreco’s Chief Science Officer and Sports Scientist. He was previously a Research Associate at Harvard Medical School and was awarded BASES Physiologist of the year in 2014. He has been working directly with elite athletes across the world for over 18 years. Charlie holds a PhD from Brunel University, London, and is a Centre Director at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. He is an acknowledged research leader on sleep, sports physiology and athlete recovery strategies with over 80 peer-reviewed publications.
Professor John Newell is a world leader in Biostatistics in sport. Through our NUIG Insight partnership, he leads Orreco’s Data Science division who develop and apply computationally intensive statistical and machine learning methods to model injury occurrence and identify optimal training loads. John is a Professor of Biostatistics in NUI Galway and a Fulbright Scholar. He holds a PhD in Statistics from the University of Glasgow and was the founder and Head of the Biostatistics Unit in the HRB-Clinical Research Facility, NUI Galway. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and co-authored ‘Statistics for Sports and Exercise Science: A Practical Approach’, the first book to be published on Biostatistics for Sports and Exercise Scientists.
Dr Nathan A Lewis is Orreco’s Clinical Performance Nutritionist and Lead Biomarker Scientist. He provides scientific analysis of blood biomarker data, devises biomarker protocols, and delivers personalised nutritional strategies that address injury prevention, wellness and recovery. He has worked with multiple Olympic medalists through four Olympic cycles at the English Institute of Sport and with numerous pro sport teams in the UK and USA including NBA, NHL, MLB, PGA Tour and UEFA. Nathan holds a PhD from the University of Surrey in Exercise Biochemistry and Physiology. He has published several peer-reviewed scientific papers and is a leading authority on redox homeostasis, antioxidants and overtraining syndrome.
Georgie Bruinvels is a Senior Sports Scientist and Research Scientist at Orreco. She manages Orreco’s Redox testing at client sites, analyses blood biomarker data, and leads the science behind our Female Athlete Program and FitrWoman™ and FitrCoach™ applications. Georgie holds a PhD from University College London and has published widely on the female athlete, iron deficiency and the menstrual cycle.
Prior to joining Orreco, she worked for 3 years with UK Anti-Doping. Georgie is also an elite endurance athlete. She has represented the British Athletics Team and won her first international marathon in 2015.
Matt McGrath is the Head of Engineering at Orreco and responsible for leading our Engineering Teams. He has experience designing and developing performant and scalable cloud-based software solutions in both Startups and Multi Nationals. Matt is a specialist in Java, database design and database performance optimisation. He is a Google Cloud Certified Professional Cloud Architect and an avid soccer fan and runner.
Colin Morrissey is Orreco’s Vice President of EMEA and Strategic Partnerships. Colin leads our marketing, media and corporate division and manages our global network of contacts and partners. Colin was a founding partner of Horizon, one of the world’s premier golf management companies, where he managed the business affairs of multiple Major winners and Ryder Cup players.
Colin has worked extensively in the US, Europe, Middle East and Asia. He was a member of the Board of the Children’s Medical Research Foundation USA and helped to raise over $6m for Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Dublin, Ireland and its Cardiac Care Unit for Children.
Kerry is an Associate Professor at Mid Sweden University and was previously the Director of the Swedish Winter Sports Research Centre, where she continues to work with elite athletes, Olympic winter-sports teams and international sports federations. Kerry is passionate about supporting and developing female athletes. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Brighton in the U.K. and has published more than 50 peer-reviewed scientific articles and 3 book chapters. Kerry is a level 3 soccer coach, a level 2 triathlon coach and has won numerous triathlon World and European age-group championship titles.
Dr Ara Suppiah is a Sports Medicine Physician and provides clinical support where needed. Trained in Sports Medicine and Emergency Medicine, he has spent more than 20 years practicing medicine and working with elite athletes around the world. A global leader in the field of High Performance Medicine, Ara was the official team physician for the 2016 USA Ryder Cup Team and is a highly sought after sports physician on the PGA and LPGA Tours. He is the pioneer and founder of Functional Sports Medicine. He is also the Chief Medical Analyst on NBC’s Golf Channel and a regular contributor to Golf Digest.
Nick Sprague is a seasoned executive with unique expertise in strategy, negotiation, business development, government affairs and international law in Sports, Energy and Infrastructure. Nick has worked closely as an advisor to professional teams and athletes across the Americas and Europe. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board of love.futbol—a global non-profit dedicated to partnering with underserved communities to plan, build and manage safe spaces to play for youth.
Nick wrote the original concept of the film The Two Escobars, critically acclaimed by Sports Illustrated as “The finest soccer documentary ever, period”. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and has lived or worked extensively in the US, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies from the University of Miami and a Juris Doctorate degree from George Mason University School of Law.
Patrick Rocke is a Principal Software Engineer at Orreco where he has responsibility to lead the design and development of Orreco’s applications. He brings many years experience in diverse software development roles building robust and scalable cloud-based software with a particular emphasis on customer focused solutions. Patricks main interests are cloud technologies, infrastructure as code and software automation. Away from the tech world, he is a keen sports fan with a particular interest in GAA, soccer and golf, having played all three for most of his life.
Dr Kristin Popp is a Senior Sports Scientist and Bone Physiology Specialist at Orreco. Based in the USA, she works directly with our professional sports teams and athletes, analysing blood biomarker data. Kristy is a Research Associate at Harvard Medical School and has published widely on bone physiology and modifiable risk factors for bone stress injuries in military recruits and endurance athletes. She holds a PhD in Kinesiology from the University of Minnesota and has been coaching endurance athletes for more than 13 years.
Dr Andrew Barr is a High Performance and Movement Specialist at Orreco. He is an established international leader in sports performance and injury risk reduction. He has a specific focus on the assessment and training of movement with over 20 years experience working with pro sport teams and elite athletes around the world. Andy has served as Director of Performance and Rehabilitation at the New York Knicks, Director of Medicine and Performance at New York City FC, and Head Physiotherapist at Manchester City FC. A former professional football player, he holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy and is the founder of Quantum Performance.
Dr Damian Harper is internationally recognised for the impact his research has had on enhancing innovations and approaches to optimising human sports performance. He has a particular interest and expertise in understanding the performance and health implications of high-intensity movement actions performed by athletes in multi-directional sports. Damian’s PhD examined the neuromuscular determinants of horizontal deceleration in team sport athletes. He has published extensively on this topic and consulted with many professional sporting organisations from around the world, including the English Football Association, and clubs from the EPL, NBA and NFL, and leading sports organisations and technology companies.
Damian is currently a Lecturer in Coaching and Human Performance at the University of Central Lancashire and Founder of Human Braking Performance.
Dr Colm O’Riordan is a research leader in computational intelligence and genetic algorithms. He advises Orreco’s Cognitive Computing division in the research and development of information retrieval and machine learning systems that analyse both structured and unstructured data to generate deeper scientific insights on athlete performance, recovery and welfare. Colm holds a PhD in Computer Science from University College Cork. He is a lecturer in the Department of Information Technology, NUI Galway, and has published over 130 peer-reviewed papers.
I'm a Senior Software Engineer at Orreco. I've worked in the area of IoT for more than eight years, and have been involved with developing and building platforms to help end users gain insight from their device data. Prior to working at Orreco I worked in the area of vehicle telematics. I enjoy working on solutions for issues that software teams might face around system scalability and reliability. Other areas of interest involve mobile development and device connectivity. I'm a keen runner and hiker, and also enjoy watersports.
Dr John Kiely is an established international leader of high-performance teams across multiple sports and an Advisor on Orreco's Movement Science Program. John has coached at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, 2015 Rugby World Cup, 2008 Olympic Games, 2004 Paralympic Games and multiple IAAF World Athletics Championships. He has also worked with numerous Olympic and World Championship medalists.
John is a Senior Lecturer in Performance and Innovation at the University of Limerick and holds a PhD from the University of Central Lancashire. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and supervises practice-based PhD students working in the English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, NFL and international soccer and rugby.
Anthony Jackson is a Product Design Engineer at Orreco. He manages the design and development of Orreco’s applications and data-driven software solutions for pro sport teams. Anthony holds a BSc in Computer Science from NUI Galway where he was awarded three consecutive university scholarships and won the Cisco Award for Best Final Year Project in 2016. He is a specialist in machine learning and cognitive computing.
Alan Flaherty is a Software Engineer at Orreco. He recently graduated from NUI Galway with a BSc in Computer Science and IT, working mostly on web technologies towards the end of the degree. Alan is a pragmatic software engineer with a keen interest in leveraging software automation to streamline the development processes.
Isabelle is a frontend developer and designer with Orreco. She is particularly focused on developing and building user interfaces for people to access
complex data instinctively and easily. A graduate of Academia de Código in Portugal, her native language is Portuguese and she is multilingual. In her spare time Isabelle enjoys playing tennis, traveling and eating out.
Marc Cleary is a Sports Scientist at Orreco. He conducts Orreco's Redox testing at client sites and analyses blood biomarker data. Before joining Orreco, he worked with multiple American Football teams and elite athletes in the USA and Ireland in the area of performance development. Marc is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) and a certified phlebotomist. He holds a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science from the University of Limerick and is completing an MSc in Performance Science at Setanta College. He is also an international weightlifter and 2017 Irish National Champion
Dr Forrest Baker is a Research Scientist at Orreco. He manages the components of Orreco’s immunology testing and provides data analysis on biomarker indicators of immune function and wellbeing in elite athletes. Forrest holds a BSc in Kinesiology from Southwestern University and is currently a member of the NASA funded immunology team at the University of Arizona. He completed his PhD in Exercise Immunology from the University of Houston.
Fernanda Cadena is a Product Designer at Orreco. With over 7 years of experience, she has worked across diverse industries (telecom, logistics, finance) leveraging user-centered design. Her combined expertise in systems analysis (BSc) and UX certifications (writing, accessibility, design systems) empowers her to translate user research (interviews, surveys, usability tests) into high-fidelity prototypes that optimize the user experience.
Dany is a dedicated nutritionist and sports scientist based in Mexico, with a lifelong immersion in professional sports. Her focus lies in harnessing the potential of nutrition and lifestyle interventions to enhance the performance of elite athletes in global soccer and beyond. Danys degree is in Clinical Nutrition and she is currently undertaking a Master's degree in Nutrition Science. She provides Orreco consultancy services to Orreco’s client teams throughout the Americas.
Niamh Mallon is a Sports Scientist at Orreco. She conducts Orreco's Redox testing at client sites and also works on the development of our Elite Female Athlete Program and FitrWoman™ and FitrCoach™ applications. Niamh is a certified phlebotomist and holds an MSc in Sport and Exercise Nutrition from Ulster University. She is also an elite Camogie player, operating at the highest level of sport for over eight years.
Jess is a Female Athlete Specialist at Orreco. Based in the US, Dr. Freemas is advancing female athlete research and delivering high impact consultation to a range of athletes and teams across the NWSL, WNBA, NCAA, NBA, MSL, and Team USA. Jess holds a Master's degree in Exercise Physiology and a Ph.D. in Human Performance from Indiana University, and has published work examining the effects of menstrual cycle hormone fluctuations on female physiology and performance.
Toby Helder is a Sports Scientist at Orreco. He conducts Orreco’s Redox testing at client sites and analyses blood biomarker data. He has worked with multiple Olympians, Premier League Clubs and Formula One Driver’s whilst heading the Performance Clinic at St Mary’s University. Toby holds an MSc in Applied Sport and Exercise Physiology and is a certified phlebotomist.
Dr Úna Newell is Orreco's Managing Editor. She leads the end-to-end development of Orreco content across all our platforms, ensuring a world-class client experience. She is also a domain expert in content management systems. Úna holds a PhD in History from University College Dublin and has over ten years publishing experience.
Hannah Thornton is a performance nutritionist at Orreco. She works with our female and male athletes guiding them on their nutrition. Hannah holds a degree in Sports and Exercise Science and Nutrition from the University of Colorado and a Masters In Applied Sports and Exercise Nutrition from ATU. She is also accredited with the ISSN and SENr. Hannah has a particular interest in the practical element of nutrition and helping athletes in all sports understand their individual approach. Alongside working with Orreco, Hannah is an International basketball player, with the Ireland Senior Women's Team and has played at the highest level in Ireland and Europe for over 10+ years
Suzanne Rowland is Orreco’s Project Delivery Director. She leads the delivery of Orreco services to our individual athletes and pro teams across all sports. Suzanne coordinates all of the logistics associated with client testing, data management and service delivery. Previously, she led Orreco’s Administration and Operations team. Before joining Orreco, Suzanne worked in marketing management and has assisted with team trials and administration within the Nike Oregon Track Club Elite training camp for over 10 years.
Thomas van Keulen is a Sport Scientist at Orreco. Having studied Nutrition (BSc) in King’s College London, where he received a research award for his collaborations, Thomas is a Registered Associate Nutritionist. To further his education Thomas is studying towards an Applied Sports Nutrition MSc at St Mary’s University Twickenham alongside his work at Orreco. He holds a Dutch-Portuguese dual nationality and speaks six languages due to his multicultural background.
Dr Kenny McMillan is a Sports Scientist and Sports Data Consultant at Orreco. He guides our Data Science and Cognitive Computing divisions in the development of data-driven software solutions for pro sport teams. Kenny has over 18 years experience working in data management and analysis in pro football. He has served as Head of Football Physiology at Aspire Academy, Qatar, and Head of Sports Science at Newcastle United, Celtic, Aston Villa, and Al Ain Football Clubs. Kenny holds a PhD in Sports Physiology from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, a PgDip in Football Business from the Johan Cryuff Institute, and a FA Fitness Trainers Award. He is an Honorary Lecturer at the University of Glasgow and co-author of the book ‘Fitness in Soccer: The Science and Practical Application’.
Neil performs research and development for Orreco applications. He holds a BSc in Mathematical Science, focusing on computer science throughout the degree. Neil specialises in CPP and Python, along with researching the implementation of SAT solving algorithms. In addition, he is keenly interested in tactics and metagaming of various sports.
Lorna Crawford is a sports scientist at Orreco. She conducts Orreco's Redox testing at client sites and analyses blood biomarker data. She holds a BSc in Sports Performance from the University of Bath and a MSc in Sport and Exercise Nutrition from Northumbria University. She also competes at a high level in field hockey.
Rishabh Mehta is a Software Engineer at Orreco. He manages data-driven software for pro sports teams. Rishabh has a strong understanding in data handling and java. He holds a First Class Honours MSc in Software Design and Development from NUI Galway and is an avid sportsman, with a particularly fondness for cricket and soccer.
Dr. Jaynal Abedin is a Senior Data Scientist & Biostatistician at Orreco. He completed his PhD in Data Science focusing on statistical applications at the Insight Centre for Data Analytics, NUI Galway. He develops computationally intensive statistical algorithm to identify atypical (anomalies or outliers) data points from multivariate data. This new algorithm will help to identify and then perform further investigation to find out why a certain data point is different than others. Prior to his doctoral degree, he worked at the icddr,b (International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh) and lead a team of statisticians to work with different research projects, in collaboration with various universities. Jaynal has had several peer reviewed scientific publications in international journals. He has authored a number of books on R programming and data visualization.
Dr Thiago de Paula Oliveira is a Data Science and Biostatistics Advisor at Orreco. His expertise is in statistical modeling, in particular the study of individual level responses over time. Thiago holds a PhD in Statistics from the University of São Paulo, Brazil. He has over five years experience in all aspects of statistical modeling and has published several peer-reviewed papers. Before joining Orreco, Thiago was Assistant Professor at the University of São Paulo. He is bilingual in English and Portuguese.
Keith O’Connor is a Software Engineer at Orreco. He builds web applications and analytics solutions for pro sports teams and is a specialist in recommender systems and game theory. Keith holds an MSc in Data Analytics from NUI Galway and is an avid sportsman.
Dr Andrew Simpkin is a Data Science and Biostatistics Advisor at Orreco. He builds predictive models for longitudinal athlete performance data to identify patterns and indicators of injury occurrence and optimal training load. Andrew holds a PhD in Statistics from NUI Galway, where he is a lecturer in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics, and has over ten years experience modeling longitudinal data. In 2014, he received a Medical Research Council Career Development Award in Biostatistics. He has published several peer-reviewed papers and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Bristol.
Professor Cathal Seoighe is Orreco’s Scientific Advisor on Genomics. Stokes Professor of Bioinformatics in the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Applied Mathematics at NUI Galway, he is an acknowledged research leader in the development and application of computational methods to analyze gene expression, mRNA splicing and epigenetic data. Cathal holds a PhD in Molecular Evolution/Bioinformatics from Trinity College Dublin and has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers.
Dr Kate Morton is Orreco’s Scientific Advisor on Behavioural Science, Digital Health and our FitrWoman™ application. A chartered psychologist, Katie is a recognized expert in health psychology, digital health, intervention development and evaluation, user testing and quantitative research. She is a member of a global innovation consultancy in Cambridge, UK, where she applies behavioural insights to gain a deeper understanding of how people interact with new technology. Previously, she held research positions at the University of Cambridge and St Mary’s University Twickenham. Katie holds a PhD in Behavioural Medicine from the University of British Columbia, Canada, an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology from Loughborough University, London, and has published over 30 peer-reviewed papers.
Robin Parisotto is Orreco’s Scientific Advisor on Sports Haematology. Robin is a former Australian Institute of Sport scientist, and was the principal researcher of the EPO 2000 Project. He developed the first ever blood tests to be used at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000 to detect the blood booster erythropoietin (EPO). He was awarded the Australian Sports Medal for these efforts. In parallel to this research, Robin investigated a range of haematological parameters which led to the development of sports-specific blood profiles that could be used as peak performance indicators. Other blood parameters were identified which could detect sub-optimal health and/or physiology and, in many cases, the ability to predict (and resolve) under-performance in elite athletes. Robin is a member of the International Cycling Federation (UCI) expert panel for the Athlete Biological Passport program. He is currently the senior scientist in the haemopoietic stem cell transplant laboratory at Canberra Hospital.
Dr Bruce Hamilton is Orreco's Scientific Advisor on Sports Medicine. Bruce completed the Australasian Fellowship in Sports Medicine in 2002, having spent several years working at the Australian Institute of sport in Canberra. Working full time in sports medicine since 1998, he was the chief medical officer for Athletics Australia, and also worked and travelled with the Australian Triathlon Team. Moving to the United Kingdom in 2003, he was UK Athletics Chief Medical Officer from 2004 to 2008. Since 2008, Bruce has worked as a Sports Physician in Aspetar, Qatar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, and was appointed Chief of Sports Medicine in 2010. He has attended four athletics World Championships, two Commonwealth Games, two Triathlon World Championships, and two Olympic Games as a Team Physician. In addition, Bruce has completed post-graduate studies in Sports Law and Tropical Medicine. He is actively involved in and regularly publishes clinical research, with particular interests in muscle and tendon injuries.
Dr Christian Cook is Orreco's Scientific Advisor on Speed and Power Physiology. Christian began his career in clinical research in the 1980s, involved in projects looking at heat loss management and muscle mass maintenance in burn patients. Since 1998, Christian has worked with top-level rugby teams including Waikato rugby, the Chiefs, and the Auckland Blues. In 2000, Christian began a five-year association with America’s Cup yachting primarily working on maximizing gains from gym training, but also on stress management and competitive psychological approaches. From 2003 to 2008, Christian worked with the New Zealand Rugby Union as a specialist consultant, including work with the All Blacks. In 2008, he took up a larger consultancy role to guide training sciences for UK Sport. He has also worked with NZ cricket, Australia Rugby league and Australian Rules football, a number of American sportsmen and women both individually and for several NFL franchises. Christian’s favoured areas of research are development of power and speed, recovery, maximizing training time gains, balance of power, and skill execution during competition including stress management.