Mary Van Lieshout is Director of Participation, Ethics, Integrity and Research at Sport Ireland. This wide-ranging portfolio sits at the heart of how sport is funded, governed, made safe, and made more accessible for everyone in Ireland.

Her work spans the practical and the systemic: building participation opportunities, strengthening ethical standards, and using research and evidence to remove barriers that keep people out of sport and physical activity.

She brings to the role a distinctive blend of public service, policy expertise and deep experience in social-impact leadership. Earlier in her career, she worked in advocacy and development, including a long tenure with Oxfam Ireland, before moving into public-sector health promotion. She later held senior roles in disability policy and standards, including as Head of Research and Standards Development at the National Disability Authority, building a track record in equality, rights-based policy and inclusive design.

Mary also served as an adviser to President Michael D. Higgins, contributing to initiatives that reflected the Presidency’s emphasis on social inclusion and civic participation, before returning to international development work with GOAL as a monitoring and evaluation adviser.

At Sport Ireland, she is closely associated with efforts to ensure that sport genuinely becomes “for all”, placing emphasis on listening to underrepresented groups, investing in sustainable participation pathways, and fostering collaboration across governing bodies, clubs, and communities.

In a period where sport is being asked to deliver not only performance but also wellbeing, belonging and social impact, she is a key figure helping to set the standards — and the ambition — for what inclusion in Irish sport should look like.

She is the 18th New Name on this year’s list and the 45th to be named so far.

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Previously Listed

Dr Una May, Moira Aston, Mary O’Connor, Michelle Carpenter, Brenda O’Donnell, Sarah Keane, Karen Coventry, Michelle Tanner, Mary McAleese, Rosie Barry, Sinead Hosey, Laura Heffernan, Jacqui Hurley, Aoife Lane, Tracy Bunyan, Lisa Clancy, Aoife Clarke, Thelma O’Driscoll, Catherine Tiernan, Helen O’Rourke, Niamh Tallon, Julie Nicholson, Aisling O’Reilly, Evanne Ní Chuilinn, Avalon Everett, Ashley Morrow, Eimear O’Sullivan, Kelli O’Keeffe, Sarah O’Connor, Jill Downey, Ger McTavish, Aifric Keogh, Rebecca Trevor, Lyn Savage, Suzanne Eade, Joanna Byrne, Bethany Carson, Lynne Cantwell, Christina Kenny, Sinead Cassidy, Nicola Coffey, Orlaith Ryan,  Fiona Chambers

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This is the 13th edition of the Sport for Business listing of 50 Women of Influence in Irish Sport in partnership once more with our friends at AIG.

We began this journey in 2013, when we were challenged to produce a list of 20 Influential Women in Irish Sport. The 20 stretched to 30, then 40 and 50, and it still does not do justice to the talent out there.

Substantial progress has been made during this time. The Government, mindful of the importance and need for gender equity, challenged Irish sporting bodies to achieve a 60/40 gender split on their main boards or leadership entities by the end of 2023

Internationally, the gender split in doctors ranges from 46 per cent female in New Zealand to 48 per cent in the UK, 52 per cent in France, and 54 per cent in the United States. Sport has, for too long, lagged.

The gender gap in participation is targeted to be non-existent by 2027, and the profile of our elite athletes is as high for Katie Taylor, Katie McCabe, Rhasidat Adeleke and Leona Maguire as it is for the best of our men.

We are nearing the point where sport is sport regardless of gender.

The gap remains too big in media, sponsorship, attendance, and funding, but it is only by highlighting the wrongs that we can make them right.

This year’s list will again draw from all the multiple areas that make up sport. From the fields of play to the corridors of power, from the boardroom to the studio, and from every corner of the country.

We will divide the list into the CEO Club, the Influencers, and the Sponsors Lounge. the Administrators and others

This year, once again, we will challenge ourselves to generate at least 40 per cent of new entrants to ensure that fresh recognition is given to those making a mark.

This will mean some who fully deserve to remain stepping aside but that is part of what influence and leadership is about and they are in no way diminished by their not being on the list this year.

The list we will build over the coming weeks is a snapshot of women who are changing the way 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 entirely deserved, and we want your help in identifying those who you feel should be among them.

So, who else do you think should be on the list for 2025?

 

Image Credit: Sport for Business

Further Reading for Sport for Business members:

Read our Sport for Business Coverage of Women in Sport

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