Our keynote speaker for 2023 Convention is John Herdman: an internationally renowned soccer coach, who has led Canada’s women's and men’s teams to record-breaking victories, and developed his own philosophy around how to organize the game.
Herdman is known for his leadership philosophy which he applied to the struggling Canadian men’s soccer team. When he became head coach in 2018, the team was placed 72nd in FIFA World Rankings. By 2022, the team made history qualifying for the FIFA World Cup for the first time since 1986—where they also scored Canada’s first-ever men’s goal at FIFA—and upped their international ranking to 45th.
Before that he coached the Canadian women’s team while they won historic back-to-back bronze medals at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics—the first Canadian summer Olympics team to do so in over a century. The team also placed sixth at the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Herdman is the first Canadian coach to qualify both a women’s and men’s national team for the World Cup.
His keynote address is on Wednesday morning. Register for 2023 Convention here.