Vera Pauw

 

Vera Pauw is the manager of the Republic of Ireland Women’s Senior team in football. She was appointed to the role in September 2019 and will be the guiding influence on the team’s bid to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia in 2023.

The failure to make next summer’s Euro Finals in England will be ever keener as that tournament lights up the Women’s game but Pauw has stuck to her guns and put the team up against the best in the world in a series of ‘friendly’ internationals.

Capped 89 times as a player by her native Netherlands, she led the team to the European Championship Semi-Finals in 2009. She has also managed Scotland, Russia, South Africa and Houston Dash throughout her career to date.

Very much to the fore as an ambassador for the sport here she has been front and centre stage for the new deals with Sky, Evoke.ie and Cadbury that have been signed in 2021.

Pauw has a passion for cycling away from football. She is a thoughtful and inspiring speaker as we saw at close quarters when hosting a client event with her at William Fry just before the first lockdown hit at the start of 2020.

 

 

This is the ninth edition of our Sport for Business listing of 50 Women of Influence in Irish Sport.

We are proud to do so this year with a new partner in AIG, an organisation that have pledged their commitment to equality in their partnerships with Gaelic Games, Tennis, Golf and more, for whom “Effort is Equal” and with whom we have ambitious plans to extend the reach of this annual celebration of the Women who are making a difference.

They are drawn as before from the worlds of leadership, partnership, storytelling and performance.

We began this journey in 2013 when challenged that we would never be able to produce a list of twenty Influential Women in Irish Sport. The 20 stretched to 30, then 40 and 50 and it still does not do justice to the talent that is out there.

This year once more, to keep things fresh we will introduce at least 30 per cent of fresh names from last year. That will be the hardest part to have some names replaced but if it was too easy it would be of less value.

The list we will build over the coming weeks is a snapshot of those women who are making a mark on how sport is played, consumed, grown and delivered.

They are part of making the role of women in sport unexceptional by being exceptional in what they do.

Recognition of their contribution is rarely asked for but is fully deserved, and we want your help in identifying those who you feel should be among them.

We will start to publish the first of this year’s list on Sport for Business next week, and share them for all across social media in parallel.

So, who do you think should be on the list for 2021?

 

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