Page 15 - Sligo X North West

Working 15
Blood, sweat + gold
Sligo company ORRECO uses pioneering lab tests and big data analysis to give the biggest stars in world sport an extra edge. Founder and sports scientist
Dr Brian Moore is plotting a course for global success.
By Ciaran Byrne
Dr Brian Moore was driving through Rosses Point in Sligo in November 2009 when he saw a sign on a roundabout advertis- ing an Enterprise Ireland event.
“Do you have an idea? We can help!” it said.
Moore had three. Two came to nothing - one is now changing the face of modern world sport.
After more than a decade in search of the secret to elite pefomance in athletes and sports stars, Moore, a sports scientist, had a lightbulb moment.
He had already worked with Olympic hero Sonia O’Sullivan and the British Olympic team but he sensed the time was right to commercialise his ideas.
What if a blood and saliva test could help elite sport stars avoid over-training, fatigue and therefore manage and even avoid injury?
In the muli-billion euro global sports market, Moore knew he had the genesis of a brilliant idea – and the knowledge to develop it.
Further still, he thought, what if we could use the latest computing technology to find signals in the data that would help athlethes and coaches to achieve peak performance?
Moore had the perfect platform; a background in physiology, exposure to world-class athletes and experience of the problems and issues they faced. He also had a PhD under his belt, supervised by world-renowned sports scientist Professor Craig Sharp.
And he had the perfect little black book. Moore’s contacts, after 10 years working with top stars and world leading experts in sports science and medicine, gave him a huge competitive advantage.
After a meeting in the Glasshouse Hotel with Mary O’Boyle and Carole Bren- nan of Enterprise Ireland, Moore got the support he needed from Enterprise Ireand. Together with Sli- go-based consultant haemotologist Dr Andrew Hodgson, he founded the company that is now ORRECO,
a global leader in bio-analytics for world class athletes.
‘OR’ is the Irish word for gold while RECO represents the recovery solutions that elite sports perfomers and their teams crave to give them that vital edge.
ORRECO now looks after the needs of some of the world’s biggest
Sligo has the strategic supports and talent...and the support to develop our business has been critical
sports stars from its administrative base in IT Sligo’s Innovation Centre.
The company now has 11 employees, 10 consultants and offices in London and Galway and Boston.
It also boasts a global lab network in the UK, Australia, South Africa and the US cities of New York, Boston, San Fransisco and Orlando, Florida.
There are research partnerships with professors at Harvard and Memorial Sloan Kettering, the world’s oldest cancer hospi- tal in Manhattan.
ORRECO’s client list is certainly eye-popping.
It includes Formula 1 race driver Max Chilton, Premier League side Newcastle United, major-winning golfers Graeme McDowell and Padraig Harrington, NBA teams, America’s Cup sailing and Nike Oregon Track Club Elite.
All of these clients are supported from Sligo by the ORRECO team and delivery excellence manager Grainne Conefrey,
a Sligo native who previously worked in sports marketing the US.
“I see Sligo as a staging post from where we can scale our operations globally,” says Moore, 38, who operates a hectic sched- ule from the North West. “Sligo has the strategic supports, developing infrastruc- ture and talent, while the support from Enterprise Ireland and IT Sligo to develop our business has been critical,” he adds.
Moore has just closed a funding round and is about to announce details of excit- ing developments for 2015.
“It’s ‘moneyball’ for bio-markers,” says Moore in reference to the Brad Pitt movie in which Pitt played Oakland ‘A’s baseball coach Billy Beane who pioneered the use of data to find hidden value in his players.
“That means we use big data techniques and our expertise to make the very best athletes, even better.”
“One day we hope to bring this service to people who may be training for their first 10k or their next triathlon. We hope that one day our ideas will help all of us to live, work, rest and play better.”
Citius, Altius, Fortius is the Olympic motto quoted on ORRECO’s website. It means ‘faster, higher, stronger’ – a philos- ophy that ORRECO embraced in Sligo and guides their rapid growth from their North West base.
Let the Games Commence!
Dr Brian Moore at the 2012 London Olympics
26 November 2014
Irish Independent