Debra Gassewitz

President & Chief Executive Officer

Debra Gassewitz is the President and Chief Executive Officer of SIRC Sport Research.

For the past ten years she has grown the SIRC organization into the world’s most highly respected international sport research centre. This passion comes from her belief in the importance of sharing information and her strong interest in using sport to advance education and equally using education to advance sport. She has accomplished this by using technology to share and promote qualified sport information.

A highly sought after international public speaker, she helps sport knowledge workers to disseminate relevant material to their membership while maximizing technology and respecting copyright. Ms Gassewitz has established SIRC as the leading sport research centre in the world, used by coaches, researchers and physicians in over 50 countries. She is also a professor of sport management and an executive member with numerous international sport associations.

Prior to joining SIRC, she was a coach for over 19 years, actively involved in political and corporate research, and directed Corel Corporations global sales team and multi-million dollar advertising campaigns.

David Roberts

Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer

David Roberts is the Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer of SIRC. With the responsibility of overseeing SIRC's operations, David recently led the team responsible for creating the Canadian Sport Database, a collection of over 70,000 references targeted to benefit the Canadian sporting community.

Upon joining SIRC in 1999 as Director of Finance, David established both an in-house finance and human resource department. David was also instrumental in designing and implementing the user interface of SIRC's internal database system as well as the online version of the SIRCThesaurus.

David has been heavily involved in the sports industry, most notably as a key member of the finance department for the Coaching Association of Canada.

David's passion for sport led him to become an international and provincial badminton champion in Men's and Mixed Doubles.

Nancy Rebel

Nancy Rebel is the Director of Library Services at SIRC. In her 12 years within the Indexing Department at SIRC Nancy has been responsible for the management of quality document analysis, description, cataloging and indexing. Nancy is also responsible for the content submissions for the world-renowned SportDiscus database.

Nancy holds an editorial position for SIRCs internationally recognized SIRCThesaurus, aiding in the coordination of in-house and international terminology submissions and organizational structure. Nancy was also a member of the design and content team for SIRC’s first website and virtual resource centre, SPORTQuest and assumed the editorial and content manager role during its initial years.

In a previous tenure with the Secretariat for Fitness in the Third Age, Nancy's responsibilities included the clarification, maintenance and ongoing development of their Clearinghouse Resource Data Bank.

Nancy's commitment to community and sport has led her to volunteer at events such as the World Figure Skating Championships, Canadian Figure Skating Championships and Skate Canada International competitions.