Former Buffalo Bills General Manager Doug Whaley has joined Impellia, which develops software and sensor technology that can be used for injury prevention and performance enhancement, as a senior sports business adviser.
Whaley will advise the company on what technology may be useful to pursue and develop from the team perspective. “Right now, it’s a short-term deal,” Whaley said. “It’s something to keep me busy, keep my mind engaged, keep me around the game, but not in the game.”
Impellia was founded in 2015 by former NFL quarterback Charlie Batch and two longtime friends. The company works with universities in identifying and developing new technologies that can be used in sports performance, injury prevention and rehabilitation.
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| Doug Whaley will be a senior sports business adviser for Impellia. GETTY IMAGES |
Whaley formerly was a pro personnel coordinator with the Pittsburgh Steelers and has known Batch since the team signed the quarterback in 2002. He said Batch reached out to him after he lost his job with the Bills in April after four years as GM there.
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| Doug Whaley will be a senior sports business adviser for Impellia. GETTY IMAGES |
He met with Batch and the two other co-founders, Dave Morin and Richard Walker, and was impressed by what they were doing. “From their standpoint, Charlie brings the ex-player cachet, and I am from the executive side and I can tell them, ‘I think this would be helpful in building a team,’” Whaley said.
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| Doug Whaley will be a senior sports business adviser for Impellia. GETTY IMAGES |
Walker said, “It is a tremendous boost to our company and our positioning in a market that is becoming more and more competitive to have someone who has been a GM for a professional football team.
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| Doug Whaley will be a senior sports business adviser for Impellia. GETTY IMAGES |
“Doug has seen the changes in the role that data and technology plays in all aspects of elite-level sports.”
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| Doug Whaley will be a senior sports business adviser for Impellia. GETTY IMAGES |
Impellia also has hired physiologist Stephen McGregor as senior performance management adviser and Jessica Zendler, former director of the University of Michigan Performance Research Lab, as chief scientific officer.
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| Doug Whaley will be a senior sports business adviser for Impellia. GETTY IMAGES |
Additionally, Impellia has formed a partnership with the Pro Football Athletic Trainers Society, which represents athletic trainers at teams across the NFL. As part of that partnership, Impellia will have a presence at the PFATS annual meeting at the NFL combine in February.
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| Doug Whaley will be a senior sports business adviser for Impellia. GETTY IMAGES |
Whaley does not have an agent and is not sure whether he will be working in the NFL next year. “I am going to take this fall to regroup to see what direction I go in the future,” he said.
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| Doug Whaley will be a senior sports business adviser for Impellia. GETTY IMAGES |
