Panelists

Dick Rugge

Senior Technical Director, US Golf Association

Dick Rugge was named Senior Technical Director of the USGA in May 2000.  In this role, Rugge oversees all aspects of the golf club and ball testing and technology research conducted at the USGA’s Research and Test Center located in Far Hills, N.J.

Prior to joining the USGA, Rugge spent 11 years in a variety of positions at Taylor Made Golf Company in Carlsbad, Calif., including Vice President of Product Creation, where he led a team in the design, marketing, research, and testing of new golf clubs introduced into the marketplace.  He also served as Director of Research & Advanced Technology at Taylor Made.

Rugge attended New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, where he was graduated in 1969 with a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering. He was hired by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, after graduation and served as a tire development engineer until 1975. He then joined disk drive recording head manufacturer Information Magnetics of San Diego, Calif., where he held a variety of engineering and managerial roles, including Vice President of Quality Assurance, prior to joining Taylor Made in 1989.

Rugge and his wife, Marilyn, live in Clinton Township, NJ.  They have two adult daughters who reside in California.  He enjoys golf, bluegrass banjo and working on a vintage sports car.

Steve Solomon

President & COO, Accrue Sports and Entertainment Ventures

In January 2008, launched Accrues Sports and Entertainment Ventures, a New York based Venture Capital Fund. Accrues mission is to invest in and create valuable companies arising from the continuing innovation in media and technology; consumer demand for sports content; and the premium placed on this content by advertisers, strategic partners and potential acquirers.

Prior to Accrue, in 2001, Steve started his own advisory and consulting business, SJS Sports. Steve is recognized as a leader in the sports and broadcast industries with a deep understanding of the convergence of the digital/broadcast worlds and its effect on sports content and sports properties. Clients of SJS have included Major League Soccer, National Hockey League, Sports Illustrated, Octagon Worldwide, Tickets.com, Stats, Inc., Buffalo Sabres, NY Road Runners, Southeastern Conference, New York Red Bulls and Little League International, among others. He currently sits on the board of directors of Sports Technologies LLC, Sportvision, Inc. and Trakus, Inc., three sports technology companies. Prior to forming SJS Sports,from 1999-2001 Steve was the President of the Sports Division of Univision Communications Inc., the countrys leading Spanish-language television broadcaster, where he was responsible for all operations of the Sports Division and ran the companys cable channel, Galavision. Prior to Univision, from 1991-2999, Steve served as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the National Hockey League where he was responsible for the management of the NHLs broadcasting, technology, marketing and public relations operations. Prior to the NHL, Steve spent 21 years at ABC , including five as its Senior Vice President of ABC Sports, where he was responsible for the business operations of the networks sports division. Steve serves as a member of the National Awards Committee for the Television Academy and is on the Board of Overseers for Athletics for Tufts University. In addition, he served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Hockey Hall of Fame and Museum, the Board of Directors for USA Hockey, and the New York City Sports Commission. Steve received a B.A. from Tufts University and a J.D. from the St. Johns University School of Law.

Dr. Mike Caine

Director, Loughborough University Sports Technology Institute

Director of the Sports Technology Institute at Loughborough University, UK.
Named investigator on 16 grants (over half as PI), with collaborators including the adidas, Nike and Reebok. Authored circa 100 publications. Inaugural Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology, Part P of the Proceedings of the IMechE. Visiting Professor at MIT.

Named inventor on numerous granted patents, several commercialised via licensing deals, generating cumulative royalty revenues in excess of £1m. Research and innovation activities featured in over five hundred substantial broadcast and print media outputs.

Paul Litchfield

VP of Advanced Concepts, Reebok

Paul began working in the athletic footwear industry at Reebok more than 22 years ago and is regarded as one of the most influential product creation experts in the industry.  He has held various roles in product creation and product marketing at Reebok.  He has been responsible for numerous product innovations over the years, the most noteworthy being the Pump.

In 1998 Paul became Vice President of Puma Footwear where he was responsible for product marketing, design and development for Puma’s global product line.   In 2000, Paul returned to Reebok as the Vice President of Reebok Advanced Concepts.  His responsibilities for new technology creation include athletic footwear, performance apparel and sports equipment.

Paul received his B.S. degree in biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire and his M.S. degree in Exercise Science from the University of Massachusetts.  He conducted post graduate research in human performance at the Institute of Offshore and Environmental Medicine in Aberdeen, Scotland. 

He also holds numerous patents in the athletic footwear, apparel and sporting goods industry. 

Paul and his family live in Massachusetts. 

Mike Leigh

Leader of Projects and Technical Development, US Olympic Committee

Mike has a BS in Biology from UCLA and an MS in Computer Science.   He began using video analysis as a coach over thirty years ago and he was one of the early pioneers to integrate the microcomputer with the video camera.  Combining his expertise in coaching, biomechanics, and computer science, Mike has developed many tools for the assessment and enhancement of athletic performance.

Mike has been with the US Olympic Committee for over six years as Leader of their technical staff that focuses on developing hardware and software systems to provide quantitative and qualitative feedback for the coaches and athletes at their Training Centers.  Mike leads a staff during the Olympic Games that focuses on providing the competition video to the coaches and athletes, helping to maximize Team USA’s medal count.

Prior to joining the USOC, Mike was part owner of several companies focused on the technology of sport including Peak Performance Technologies in Colorado and CompuCoach in California.  In these endeavors Mike’s passion has always been in innovating and using new technologies to help athletes realize their full potential.

Moderator

Dr. Kim Blair

Founder & President, Sports Innovation Group LLC and Founder, MIT Sports Innovation

Enabling innovation at the intersection of technology and sports, Kim Blair has extensive experience utilizing advanced technologies to enhance all aspects of the sporting experience. As the President/Founder of Sports Innovation Group LLC, and the Founding Director of the Sports Innovation Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dr. Blair leads the development of new products as well as technologies for sport performance analyses from early formulation of product concepts to final prototype design and testing. Many 
projects are award winning, including MIT departmental awards, conference best paper awards, and international ispo Academic Challenge design awards. Dr. Blair’s work enjoys extensive media coverage, including features in Forbes, The Boston Globe, Outside Magazine, and GQ, and programs by CNN, The NewsHour, The Discovery 
Channel, NPR, and local network affiliates.

Dr. Blair provides a wide variety of consulting services to the sports industry, including leading product development projects, conducting performance testing of existing and prototype products, and creating innovative concepts aimed at enhancing the experience for sports spectators. As a member of the board of advisors for emerging companies, Dr. Blair provides expertise on business and strategic planning, technology assessment and development, strategic alliances, and raising capital. He also serves as an expert witness 
in patent infringement cases.

A recognized expert in innovation and sport technology, Dr. Blair has spoken at the Lemelson Foundation, the Boston Museum of Science, IDEAS Boston 2004, The International Congress on Technological and Social Innovation in Sport (Spain), The University of London, Loughborough University (UK), the SGMA International Business Intelligence, and the MIT Center for Innovation and Product Development.   Dr. Blair has served as a technical advisor for the United States Olympic Committee, on the advisory board for the SGMA Sport + Technology Convergence Conference and a member of the Golf Digest Academic Advisory Panel.

Dr. Blair’s background includes lecturing in the MIT Aeronautics and Astronautics Department, as lead instructor for a capstone experimental projects course, co-developer of a junior level advanced dynamics course, and instructor in a graduate structural dynamics and vibrations course. Previously, Dr. Blair was a senior scientist and management team member at an organization applying aerospace analysis techniques to the fields of biomechanics and computational chemistry. He also served as an aerospace engineer at the NASA Johnson Space Center.

His professional affiliations include serving as Secretary of the International Sports Engineering Association and as a member editorial board for the Journal of Sports Engineering and Technology. He has served on the scientific committees for several editions of The Engineering of Sport Conference and the Asia Pacific Conference on Sports Technology.

An accomplished athlete, Dr. Blair puts sports products to use, having competed in more than 100 endurance events, including the US National Triathlon Championships, World Triathlon Championship Qualifier, and the Hawaii Ironman World Championships. He is the past president of Team Psycho, a New England-based elite triathlon team.

Born and raised in Nebraska, Dr. Blair earned a B.A. in Psychology and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Nebraska. At Purdue University, he earned an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics. In 2005, The University of Nebraska awarded him an Alumni Achievement Award.