Our Ambassadors

My partner and I run CrossFit XV in Split, where I wear many hats — coach, client success manager, and the person you’ll likely talk to when you’re thinking of joining. With a background in kinesitherapy, exercise science, and a Master’s in philosophy, I bring a unique approach to coaching — asking the right questions and helping members connect with their fitness journey on a deeper level.

I’ve been coaching CrossFit for seven years and am also a PN SSR-certified coach through Precision Nutrition, which allows me to support clients with habit change and lifestyle coaching. As a member of Two-Brain Business, I’m constantly refining how we operate our gym, ensuring we provide the best service to our clients while growing and evolving as a business.

As an ambassador for Coaches Congress in the Balkans, I’m proud to be part of a community that has shaped how we run our gym and how we connect with coaches and gym owners across the region. If you’re in the Balkans and want to talk about coaching, business, or just share experiences, I’m here.

With nearly 15 years in the CrossFit world, Fran has trained over 800 coaches and gym owners across Latin America, Canada, Japan, and Spain — helping them build sustainable, profitable, and purpose-driven businesses.

As co-creator of Courage and CrossFit Coraje, he has developed a unique philosophy that blends business strategy, conscious leadership, and community culture — leading his affiliates to achieve multiple Top 6 worldwide rankings and even a Top 1 global result in CrossFit Open participation.

His mission is to inspire fitness professionals to live lives grounded in growth, health, and wellbeing — and from that foundation, to build businesses that reflect abundance, purpose, and long-term impact.

For nearly 15 years, Karl Gullö has been a co-owner of CrossFit Södermalm in Stockholm. Despite being involved in several other projects within the fitness industry, spending time at the box remains the highlight of his week — meeting members, learning from other coaches, and being part of a community where everyone helps each other improve a little every day.

Coaches Congress has played a major role in Karl’s journey. The first year he attended alone and felt nervous not knowing anyone, but the event’s welcoming atmosphere and inspiring lectures made a lasting impression. Returning every year since, Karl has continued to grow as a coach, owner, leader, and person. Now, as a CC Ambassador, he’s passionate about helping others feel at home, connect with great people, and leave inspired with ideas they can apply right away.

Over the years, Karl has also helped grow IntensivePT from a small garage project into Sweden’s largest PT education provider, hosted more than 250 episodes of the Swedish podcast PT-Podden, and become a partner at Mana, developing tools that simplify life for boutique studios.

I’m a former IT professional who made the leap into full-time coaching six years ago, and I haven’t looked back since. Based in India, I now work with individuals and teams to unlock potential through mindset training, functional fitness, and business strategy.

What drives me is impact. Whether it’s through powerful coaching conversations, helping gym owners build systems, or pushing someone to their next breakthrough, I aim to lead with purpose and inspire others to do the same.

I firmly believe that great coaches build great communities. And that’s why Coaches Congress is such a valuable space. It’s not just about education. It’s about transformation. It challenges your thinking, sharpens your skills, and connects you with a global network of coaches and business owners who are just as passionate about growth as you are.

If you’re serious about taking your coaching or fitness business to the next level, and want to:

• Level up your coaching game
• Improve sales and member retention
• Build and lead a rock-solid team

Coaches Congress is where you need to be. It’s where the future of our industry is shaped, by people who care deeply about coaching and public health.

Owner of CrossFit Verftet in Haugesund, Norway.

Fun facts:

• Enjoys everything that is competitive
• Reads minimum 6 hours every week
• Likes to understand things. The more nerdy it gets the more interesting!

I said yes to being an ambassador for Coaches Congress, as I wanted to be a part of a great team that inspires the people (gym owners/ coaches) who make a massive positive impact on their client’s health everyday in their gyms. 

I want to help increase attendance to Coaches Congress in order to keep gym/ box owners motivated to do the hard, but honest work, on one of the most vexing problems we face today – public health.

I’ve owned BoxLife in Roskilde for 6 years, and I’ve been doing CrossFit for 12 years. I’ve taken the long journey from ‘I have no idea what I’m doing’ to ‘okay… I think it got this!’ I hope to meet a lot of great people, that I can share my mistakes with, and learn more from!

I’m a CC-ambassador because I love to help elevate the CrossFit professionals in Scandinavia. By supporting great events like Coaches Congress, a fantastic gathering of knowledge and skills, and even better, like minded people. Together, we can build epic stuff!

If you are a Danish gym owner or coach – or aspiring to be – I’d be honoured to help you. Please reach out, as I’d love to share my experience from Coaches Congress. Let’s gather a lot of Danes and meet up!

I am a former combat athlete, turned easy-going family man. I run two CrossFit gyms in Lappeenranta, Finland. CrossFit Lappeenranta is ~13 years old and CrossFit Lappeenranta Varikko is in its 10th year. I am also the “president” of Finland’s longest running functional fitness competition – Karjalan Kovin.

I started as a box owner because of my love for training and coaching. It grew and I realized that being an owner is more than just coaching. If I wanted to keep going I needed to learn more about business, leadership, marketing and entrepreneurship.

I spent a lot of time reading books/ blogs, listening to podcasts, etc. Lots of information to choose from, some good and some bad!

What I love about Coaches Congress is that they do the heavy lifting to find speakers with the best information, working practices, and years of experience at failing and succeeding in gym business.

I’m the happy owner of Mars CrossFit in Belgium, CF Level 3 coach, and passionate about sharing my knowledge to people around me and need my help in their everyday life.

Coming from a martial arts background, my core values are Modesty – Ambition – Resilience – Strength, MARS. In my everyday life, I’m excited to work with professional athletes to everyday folks who are striving to become better people in their life.

Becoming a CC ambassador is a natural thing to me – it means that I can help more people grow businesses that help the world becoming a better place. Taking part in this year’s edition was eye-opening. From the atmosphere of the event, to the value of the different speakers in the line-up, everything at CC is done perfectly so that proactive business owners can just thrive with new practices coming back to their gyms.

You want to grow ? It’s the place to be.

Originally from Canada, I’ve been living in Germany since 2005. I discovered CrossFit Passau in 2019 and quickly realised that running a Box and helping others lead a more fit and active lifestyle is my calling. When the opportunity arose to get involved on the business side, it just made sense.

At the box, I coach CrossFit, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Nutrition; Outside of the box, I am a Project Management Trainer and Coach.

Therefore, I jumped at the opportunity to work together with Coaches Congress, as it’s the perfect marriage of my passion with my professional expertise. I am always grateful for the insights and practical experience that are shared by professionals in the speeches, as well as the sharing of ideas and tips between other coaches and business owners. Each visit to Coaches Congress has helped my team and I improve our processes, better serve our members and make running a CrossFit Box that much more enjoyable.

I’m really excited about working with Coaches Congress. Why? Easy- I want to do my part to help more gyms be successful, as a successful gym can help more people lead an active, healthy lifestyle. The more people that lead an active, healthy lifestyle, the more we’ll see a reduction in disease and health issues around the world.

Meet Patrick Claffey, our dynamic addition to the Coaches Congress ambassador team! Patrick came on board helping our London team in early 2024.

Patrick’s journey began in the fitness industry at a young age, and his commitment to fostering growth extends to owning and managing gyms in Manchester, UK.

Patrick has a passion for CrossFit, learning and helping people and businesses develop. See you at the congress!