Optima-life
Meet some of the team
Simon Shepard
Simon is the CEO of optima-life. A Chartered Physiotherapist by training, Simon qualified from St Mary's Hospital, London in 1988. Since 1991 he has worked in professional sport, primarily with Middlesex CCC and The MCC and has also supplied medical support and therapy for The London Towers basketball team, The All England Badminton Championships and television shows such as World's Strongest Man, Superstars and Gladiators. In 1992 Simon started Chancery Lane Physiotherapy (now known as Central Health) and has seen the facility grow into a leading clinic in The City of London. To complete Simon's portfolio of health related appointments he has managed the therapy input at The Hospital of St John and St Elizabeth since 2002.He is an accomplished speaker and lectures extensively on physiotherapy, health and performance related subjects.
Away from healthcare, Simon has sat on the executive committee of Middlesex CCC and enjoys coaching rugby and cricket in his home town of St Albans where he also chairs the districts Cricket Development Group.
Simon is delighted that Firstbeat Technologies have asked optima-life to become their exclusive U.K and Eire distributor and is delighted to see the technology already making a difference in sport, wellness and healthcare.
Tim Wright
Tim is a founder director of optima-life and played an instrumental role in developing the partnership with Firstbeat Technologies.
After graduating as a physiotherapist from the University of Sydney, Australia in 1994, Tim pursued a career in the healthcare industry. After consolidating his grounding as a general physiotherapist, he proceeded to focus on Sports Physiotherapy. Tim progressed through many positions with teams such as London Irish RFC, Surrey County Cricket Club, England Cricket U19's, culminating in the position of Head Physiotherapist for Sussex County Cricket Club.
Feeling he had exhausted many aspects of his clinical development in Physiotherapy he embarked on a part clinical, part managerial role by founding his own Private physiotherapy company, PhysioFit Limited. After selling the business in 2002 he was appointed Head of Physical Medicine for Sona Positive Health (now called Nuffield Proactive Heath).
In 2006 he became director of Form Health Limited and in 2007 completed an MBA.
Tim is passionate about preventative healthcare and optimising human performance in the mainstream global population.
Nigel Stockill
Nigel is Performance Director for Optima-life. He is a Sports Scientist with a background in elite sports physiology and biomechanics. After graduating with a First Class Honours Degree in Sport Science in 1990, he combined further study (for a Masters) with lecturing and coach education work. His research work not only earned him a Fellowship of the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust but also a Young Investigator of the Year Award from the International Society of Biomechanics in Sport. A five year stint at Lilleshall Sports Injury and Human Performance Centre followed. During this time Nigel provided physiological support for the National Football, Cricket, Rugby League and Hockey squads as well as leading stars from the world of professional Tennis, Athletics and Windsurfing. It was during his time at Lilleshall that Nigel also became BASES Accredited in both Physiology and Biomechanics.
In 1999 Nigel started a role as the Full Time Physiologist (and more latterly Sports Science Manager) with the England Cricket Team. He held this position until 2007 when he decided to take a break from Touring and took up the role of Performance Director with one of the leading performance and health clinics in London.
Taking on the role of Performance Director for Optima-life in 2009 , Nigel is firmly establishing the company's position in the worlds of elite sport and corporate performance. Relishing an opportunity to combine his knowledge as a scientist with his skills as a coach, in the diverse worlds of sport, health and wellness, Nigel is keen to further explore the numerous potential applications of the optima-life products incorporating Firstbeat technology.
Outside of work Nigel's interests remain mainly with sport and exercise, including a keen interest in racquet sports, an avid interest in golf and a slightly more relaxed approach to mountain biking and other (relatively short) endurance events.
Dr Simon Wallace MFPHM DRCOG MBBS
Simon is Healthcare Director for Optima-life. He started his medical career as a GP and Public Health doctor and has worked at the Health Education Authority, King's Fund and the South East Institute for Public Health. Over recent years his healthcare expertise has migrated into the commercial sector where he has been involved with a range of health-related information and communication innovations.
He was Deputy Chief Executive of Worldcare UK (a global telemedicine provider) and moved on to become Founding Director of Personalmedic, a web-based personal health record for the general public. He has also provided consultancy services for Dr Foster Intelligence, Hearst Publishing (Map of Medicine), 3 (formerly Hutchison 3G), AXA/PPP Healthcare and MSD, as well as undertaking work with the Department of Health, DTI, health authorities and hospital trusts.
His position prior to joining Optima-life was as physician executive for Cerner UK, a global supplier of healthcare information technology solutions where he was involved in sales, design and implementation of their Millennium solution in the UK and Ireland.
During his working career, he has published and lectured widely.
As Healthcare Director for Optima-life, Simon is returning to his passion of improving healthcare for the population by using innovative, exciting technologies. He believes that harnessing technologies like this is essential to motivate people to improve their lifestyle and to address the healthcare time bomb of aging, obesity and chronic disease.
Outside of work Simon is a keen sportsman, enjoying tennis, mountain biking and skiing. He also has an interest in charity work and is presently a trustee for Fitzrovia Youth in Action a community based youth action initiative in London. He has been a Medical Advisor to Schools4Schools developing a healthcare clinic in the Gambia. His biggest coup was persuading Richard Branson to 'lend' him a jumbo jet for the Teenage Cancer Trust to take children suffering with cancer and their families for Christmas dinner at 35,000 feet.
Natalie Alcock
Natalie graduated from the University of Kwa Zulu, Natal, South Africa in 2006 with an undergraduate degree in Sports Science and post graduate honours degree in Biokinetics. She specialises in exercise therapy and her focus is on improving the individual's physical status and quality of life in the dual context of clinical pathology (acute and chronic) and performance enhancement.
Natalie worked in health and wellness in South Africa for many years before moving to the UK and is also a qualified Sports Massage Practitioner and Pilates Instructor.
Natalie is also the lead HealthPod Lifestyle Consultant at the Hospital of St John & St Elizabeth.
She is an adventure sports enthusiast and particularly enjoys wakeboarding, scuba diving and mountain biking.
René Pretorius
René qualified as a Biokineticist in 2001 after completing an undergraduate degree in Human Movement Science and a Post Graduate Honours degree in Biokinetics at the University of Pretoria in South Africa.
Since then she has worked primarily with healthcare professionals in the area of Occupational Health, Wellness and Performance enhancement, delivering outcome focused rehabilitation programmes in both public and private sectors
Her roles have included ergonomic assessments and objective and functional testing. She has also carried out Isokinetic testing, working with a number of clients including being involved in pre-season and mid-season isokinetic strength testing of the England Rugby Union squads in the 2008/9 season. But, much to her delight she tells us that it still didn't help England beat the Springboks!!
René is a qualified Pilates instructor and is also currently developing her skills in life and performance coaching. She is a great lover of the outdoors with camping, mountain biking, scuba diving and gliding among her favourite pastimes. She is also thinking about dusting off her golf clubs and having another go at improving her skills at 'the game that was only meant for gentleman!'
Professor Greg Whyte
Optima-life's Technical Consultant Greg Whyte is Professor of Applied Sport and Exercise Science at Liverpool John Moores University and Chairman of the charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY ). CRY is the first dedicated centre for sports cardiology in the world and is based at the British Olympic Medical Centre.
As one of the UK's leading research scientists Greg has held Director of Research roles at the British Olympic Medical Association, the English Institute of Sport and The Irish Institute of Sport. His main area of research interest is focused around cardiac structure and function in health and disease.
Greg studied for his BSc (Hons) Sports Science at Brunel University. He followed this up with an MSc in Human Performance at the Frostburg State University in the USA and a PhD at St Georges Hospital Medical School and the University of Wolverhampton. He is a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine.
Greg's career is equally distinguished on the field as well as off it. The 7 times British Modern Pentathlete champion has competed in 2 Olympic Games, (Barcelona and Atlanta) 10 World Championships and 6 European Championships. He won a Silver medal at the World Championships in 1984 and a Bronze at the Europeans in 1991.
In recent times Greg has also been widely acclaimed for his work with Comic Relief and Sport Relief where his applied sports science knowledge and passion for pushing the boundaries of performance has helped a host of celebrities. Notable successes include David Walliams swimming the Channel, Adrian Chiles and Alan Shearer cycling from Newcastle to London, Cheryl Cole, Chris Moyles, Gary Barlow et al, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and most recently Eddie Izzard's 1,100 mile marathon run around Britain.
