Former Coventry City Performance Director Roberts joins McLaren Racing

Her remit is to focus on high-performance strategy, leadership and organisational performance in order to build “sustainable wellbeing” and medical frameworks. Tom Stallard, who has worked for McLaren for more than 18 years, is Head of Human Performance for the F1 team, as well as being Senior Race Engineer for driver Oscar Piastri.

Roberts, who is delivering the closing keynote on Day One of TGG Live ’26 this month, is a former athlete and coach and now one of the most experienced performance leaders in British sport.

As well as being a  former international swimmer who qualified for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics (only to be unable to compete because of injury), Roberts also played as a midfielder for Swindon Town and Aston Villa.

She worked for the British Handball Association for nearly three years before spending seven years as Chartered Psychologist for the British Olympic Association, including at London 2012.

Roberts then worked for the Premier League for nearly nine years – the last 18 months of which were as Head of Elite Development – and is also currently an Independent Non-Executive Director of Bath Rugby.

In a memorable keynote speech at TGG Live ’24 at St George’s Park, Roberts challenged the “pseudosciences“ that “perpetuate in football”.

The reality of professional football was far messier, more volatile and more riddled with conflict than these “glossy frameworks”, she argued. Instead, Roberts proposed environments that coupled “brutal honesty” with “high empathy.”

This presentation – along with all others from TGG Live ’24 and TGG Live ’25 – are available to view for TGG Members.

This year, the McLaren Director of Human Performance will be delivering the closing keynote on Day One of TGG Live ’26 at Old Trafford. Her session is titled ‘Creating the environments for people and performance to thrive.’

To find out more about TGG Live ’26 – and to buy tickets, which are selling fast – click HERE.