Neasa Russell is the Sports Director with Paralympics Ireland and will lead Team Ireland to the Paris Paralympic Games as Chef de Mission.

Russell was appointed to the role in April 2021 having previously been Head of Talent Development with Sport England

Prior to that, the Galway native was the Lead Performance Pathway Scientist at the English Institute of Sport in Bisham Abbey with UK Sport and for five years through the London 2012 cycle, she was the Start Coach with The GB Rowing team.

After qualifying with a degree in Applied Physics and Electronics from Galway, she did a Masters in Computer and Communications Systems at the University of Limerick and spent a first career in that sector before switching to sport with a development and coaching role in Rowing Ireland that led to a move to England after the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

See who else has been named on the list alongside Neasa Russell by clicking on the image below.

 

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See who else has been included so far on the list for 2023

 

 

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.Â