Sarah O’Connor is to leave her role as CEO of the Federation of Irish Sport to take up the position as Head of Sport at one of Dublin’s largest communications groups.
She will take up the reins at Wilson Hartnell following the departure last month of Marie Scully and head a team that manages the PR and sponsorship campaigns of AIB, Liberty Insurance, Electric Ireland, Adidas and many more of the biggest players in sport.
O’Connor has been CEO at the Federation of Irish Sport, the representative body for Ireland’s sports governing bodies, for the past eight years. She has guided it from a start-up to being an established stakeholder within Irish Sport.
During her time with the Federation, she oversaw the development of its membership base, a significant increase in turnover, the development of Governmental and commercial partnerships as well as co-ordinating and directing the “Why Irish Sport Matters” campaign designed to promote the true impact of sport in Ireland.
With an election in the next twelve months and the prominence for many sports that will come in an Olympic year her departure leaves a gap within the administration of Irish sport and it will be interesting to see how that is filled.
The move to Wilson Hartnell though is one that O’Connor would have found hard to turn down. She had worked alongside the firm and it’s Chairman Roddy Guiney on a number of major campaigns and the departure of Scully at a busy time of the summer season meant a quick move to find a replacement was needed.
Part of Ogilvy’s global communications network, the company originally established a specialist sports business in the early 1990s. This business has developed and managed many of the most successful and ground-breaking sports sponsorships of the last 20 years. as well as advising on some of the largest sporting infrastructural projects in the country. It has been a long standing member of the Sport for Business community.
“We envisage Sarah building on the successes of WH in the sponsorship space while simultaneously expanding our offering across all aspects of sport in Ireland,” said Managing Director, Brian Bell.
“Sarah will lead a team that has consistently demonstrated its insight into sport by delivering award-winning campaigns for our clients.”
“She will also form part of WH’s senior management team while liaising with Ogilvy’s worldwide sports business.”
