Dr Una May was appointed to the position of CEO of Sport Ireland in January 2022.

Over the past year she has overseen the publication of a new Strategic plan for the organisation, and the Masterplan for the 20-year development of the Sport Ireland Campus.

There have been participation programmes, governance management, the bounce back for sport from Covid and energy spikes, major event hosting, the preparation for a Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games, and 1,000 other projects that come across her desk.

It is a complex role, managing between the demands of sporting organisations and Government, but it is one she has taken to with a calm and efficient manner.

Prior to taking on the top job she was Sport Ireland’s Director of Participation and Ethics.

She led the creation of a world-class, globally recognised Anti-Doping Programme from a greenfield base, and has also grown the grassroots local delivery of sport, through the ongoing development of the National Network of Local Sports Partnerships, growing core investment in this area.

She has been ever-present through ten previous years of the Sport for Business Women of Influence List.

With cost increases biting in sport as it enters an Olympic and Paralympic year there will be days when she will be in the dock in the eyes of those who are dependent on the Government money that Sport Ireland distributes. It will be a year ahead of highs and lows but with hopefully many more of the former.

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This is the 11th edition of our Sport for Business listing of 50 Women of Influence in Irish Sport.

Read more about the list and nominate who you think should be a part of it in 2023.

We are proud to publish the list in partnership with AIG, an organisation that has pledged its commitment to equality in its 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.

This year’s list will be 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 step up again, raising the number of new entrants to at least 40 percent of fresh names from last year.

It 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.