It is always one of the most popular series we run through the year and our listing of 30 Under 30 Young leaders of Tomorrow for 2021, in association with our friends at PwC, starts on Monday, March 7th.
Our ambition is the creation of a network of people making a real difference within our industry.
Over the past five years, we have highlighted almost 150 individuals as part of the 30 Under 30 initiative and here we have taken a look back on who they are and where they have gone so far in their careers.
We have broken the list up alphabetically and will list 20 individuals a day as we build up to the 2022 list.
Shairoze Akram – Harry Connolly
During the 2022 run, we will also be dropping a new podcast series of interviews with some of those that have gone before.
They are an impressive group of individuals. Here is the fifth and penultimate of the groups of 20…
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David McHale 2020
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David McGill 2018
David was only 28 in 2018 when he was nominated for the list as one of Irish sports youngest CEO’s in that role at Badminton Ireland.
He has worked for Badminton Ireland for 9 years in a variety of roles from media and marketing to event and membership management.
This year he has overseen the publication of the organisation’s latest strategic plan.
The Limerick native earned a Degree in Audio Visual production from Limerick Institute of Technology and an MBA from Dublin Business School.
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Eoin McGirl 2018
Eoin is part of the social media content team at Aer Lingus and was nominated for the work he was involved with across the Irish Rugby Partnership in 2018.
That generated millions of combined views across Aer Lingus’ sports sponsorship portfolio of Rugby with the Irish Team, Special Olympics, the College Football Classic and Dublin GAA as well as the Fenway Classic in Boston.
He took a less than traditional path into social media having studied to be a teacher at DCU and then a Masters Degree in Trinity College in Philosophy and Modern Irish History.
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Niall McGovern 2018
Niall McGovern was nominated in 2018 when he was Player Development Manager with the Gaelic Players Association.
In 2019 he joined the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland as the HR and Programmes executive, and in April of last year he moved to DCU where he is working as a Student Recruitment Officer.
He captained the Dublin U21 Football team in 2013 and completed a degree in Health Promotion from Dundalk IT in 2014.
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Kristina Millar 2021
Kristina Millar joined the Vision Sports Ireland team following its successful merger with the National Council for the Blind in March 2020.
She has a diverse role; by day working as a Clinical Scientist with NCBI working across Children’s Hospital Ireland Temple Street and Crumlin whilst then switching to act as the Women in Sport lead and honorary secretary for the Board at Vision Sports Ireland.
Kristina is passionate about inclusive sport, particularly in the field of disability. She has coached athletes with various abilities and disabilities, some to a national level, back in her native Australia.
A keen athlete, Kristina has competed at Australian Championships in track and field, hockey, and volleyball. She has recently taken up Camogie with great gusto and has just been appointed captain of her team at St Vincent’s for 2021.
She has led and supported Vision Sports blind and vision-impaired members through innovative pandemic initiatives including physical distance and buddy programme guide running as well as hosting a successful series of webinars and podcasts.
For relaxation, she clocks up the running kilometres along the Clontarf seashore and is currently busy co-developing a social enterprise aimed at addressing social inequity across Irish society.
Kristina graduated as a Bachelor of Advanced Science from the University of Adelaide in 2016.
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Chris Mounsey 2019
Chris joined the list in 2019 when he was the Marketing Manager with PRO14 Rugby.
He has since gone on to join Linked In where he works as a Senior Client Solutions Manager.
He previously spent the best part of three years with Paddy Power Betfair working in their social media and advertising teams, as well as on developing brand partnerships with the BBC and Shamrock Rovers among others.
Mounsey studied at UCD where he earned a Degree in Marketing before going on to do a Masters in Marketing Practice at the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School
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Gráinne Murphy 2019
Gráinne was the national coordinator for the ‘Get Ireland Swimming’ Programme at Swim Ireland when she was nominated for our list in 2019.
In July of 2021, she joined the team at Titan Experience as an Account Manager.
Murphy swam for Ireland at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
In 2018 she was accepted onto the European Olympic Committee ‘New Leaders Programme’, one of two Irish candidates and 30 from across Europe, and she is currently completing her Masters in International Sports Management at UCFB.
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Patrick Murphy 2020
Paddy is a sports and litigation lawyer at William Fry where he is a key member of the William Fry Sports Group. he was nominated for the list in 2020.
He works with governing bodies, clubs, competitions and county boards including the IRFU, Six Nations, Tipperary GAA and Horse Racing Ireland, amongst other clients in the sports industry.
Murphy studied History and Irish at the University of Limerick before gaining a first-class Masters in Common Law at UCD. He has played senior hurling for his club Nenagh Éire Óg in Tipperary and for Tipperary in the past.
He helped advise the Tipperary County Board this year on the sponsorship partnership with Fiserv.
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Emily Murray 2019
Emily is a Director and Editor of Video Content at Along Came a Spider and was one of the main driving forces behind the 20X20 initiative.
She joined the agency in 2016 after a few spells working freelance within the industry. Her initial education qualification was from the National University of Ireland Galway where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Film Studies.
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Bríd Ní Dhonnabháin 2019
Bríd Ní Dhonnabháin was nominated in 2019 while she was President of the University of College Cork’s Sports Clubs. She played a key role in the development of the UCC Sports Strategy launched in February of that year.
She has carried on her education gaining a Masters in Reproductive Science and Women’s health from the University of Central London, where she is currently working as a research associate with Hertility Health.
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Conor Nolan 2021
Conor Nolan was responsible for managing athlete sponsorship and acquisition for Sport Endorse, the sports management company making waves in the world of brand ambassadorship when he was nominated in 2021.
In October last year he relocated to London where he is currently working as a Senior Account Executive with United Entertainment Group.
He started his career as an account manager with The Tenth Man agency in Dublin before joining Morgan McKinley and then Sport Endorse in October 2020.
He holds a Professional Diploma in Strategic Digital Marketing from TU Dublin and is undertaking an MSc in Sports Management at UCD.
Outside of the office, Conor was a member of the Kildare Senior Hurling team that won the Christy Ring Cup in 2020, Captain of the Maynooth GAA Senior Hurling team, and has completed the Dublin Marathon twice.
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Aidan O’Brien 2018
Aidan O’Brien is the Strategy Manager at the Football Association of Ireland, a role he took up in August 2021 after being a project manager on the Euro 2020 tournament.
He was nominated for our list in 2018.
Originally from Newport in County Tipperary, O’Brien joined the FAI in 2016 on the sponsorship and events team working closely with SSE Airtricity and a host of other sponsors.
O’Brien qualified from Limerick Institute of Technology in 2016 with a first-class honours degree in Business Studies with Sports Management.
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Gavin O’Broin 2019
Gavin Joined Leinster Rugby in July 2021 as a Sponsorship Account Manager having previously filled the same role at the GAA for three years. He was nominated to the list in 2019.
O’Broin is a graduate of Dublin Institute of Technology with a Masters Degree in Marketing and is a fluent Irish speaker.
He continues to line out as a senior hurler with Ballinteer St Johns.
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Sam O’Byrne 2016
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Nuala O’Donovan 2019
Nuala became one of the first two Sports Inclusion and Integration Officer with Dublin City Sports and Wellbeing Partnership in 2019 when she was nominated for our list.
She had previously worked as a Regional Development Officer with Special Olympics Ireland between 2017 and 2019.
A Graduate in Sport and Exercise Science from the University of Limerick in 2014, she was awarded one of two European Scholarships to undertake a master’s in Adapted Physical Activity in KU Leuven, Belgium.
In 2022 she is part of a small team of enthusiasts who are bringing the World Masters Ultimate Frisbee Championship to Limerick.
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Ross O’Dwyer 2018
Ross is CEO and was co-founder with Richard Barrett of Pundit Arena, the online sports media hub that has sprung to life alongside SportsJoe and Balls as an alternative to the mainstream media in recent years.
He has also now taken on the role of CEO with Locker, a US-facing start up that aims to be a major player in the global sports media landscape.
A graduate of Commerce and International Marketing from UCC, it was an incubator at that venue that helped in the creation of Pundit Arena.
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Chloe O’Flynn 2020
Chloe works as a Regulatory Legal Adviser with the British Horse Racing Authority in London. She was nominated for the list in 2020.
Originally from Mallow, Co Cork she graduated with a degree in Corporate Law at NUI Galway before graduating from University College Cork with an LLB.
She received an Elite Sports Scholarship from both Universities for Rowing. She won a National Title rowing in the Coxless Fours with NUIG in 2012.
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ROB O’LEARY 2021
Rob O’Leary joined AIB as a social media manager in 2017 and became the Digital Content Manager working as part of the sponsorship team and delivering on projects including the multi-award-winning “TheToughest”.
In April 2021 he relocated to London where he is now working as a Senior Communications Manager with CSM Sport and Entertainment.
He spoke at the Sport for Business Irish Sport on Social Media event we hosted at Twitter HQ in Dublin in 2019 and was chosen as the 2021 Marketing Institute of Ireland scholarship recipient for the European Sponsorship Association’s Diploma in Sponsorship and Sports Marketing.
Rob graduated from Waterford Institute of Technology in 2016 with an Honours Degree in Recreation and Sport Management before attending the Smurfit Graduate Business School to get a Masters in Digital Marketing.
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Shane O’Leary 2017
Shane was on our first list in 2017 while working as a strategy and insights manager with Group M Ireland.
He has since developed a strong career in the advertising sector and is now the Media and Performance practice Lead with Rothco | Accenture Interactive.
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Colm O’Mealóid 2017
Colm was also on our initial list in 2017 when he was returning from a position in the legal department of the IOC to become Chief Operating Officer with Sportego.
In September 2020 he joined the Business Development team at Clubforce and has also completed a number of projects across streaming of GAA matches and with the Gaelic Players Association.
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So who do you think is worthy of inclusion this year?
Who do you work with that has shone over the past twelve months or more and is deserving of recognition as they rise through their career?
Criteria
The criteria for submission is that the person should be working within the sports industry, or in a sponsorship or agency capacity that is bringing sport to life, and that they should be born in or after 1992.
You are invited to submit names and a short precis of why an individual deserves to be recognised below.
Our ambition from the start has been to create a network of people making a real difference within our industry.
Who should we be looking to for the next wave of excellence?
This is not the time to be shy, this is an opportunity to put forward those you have come across that have struck you as having real potential, or indeed for you to put yourself forward.
It’s not about where you are now. It’s all about where you could get to with the right breaks.
