Wilson Hartnell is delighted to announce that Sarah O’Connor is joining the WH team to head up our highly successful sports practice. Sarah will be joining us from the Federation of Irish Sport, where she has been the Chief Executive for the last eight years.
Sarah brings with her a unique perspective on sport in Ireland having spent the last eight years transforming the Federation of Irish Sport, the representative body for Ireland’s sports governing bodies, from a start-up to an established stakeholder within Irish Sport.
During her time with the Federation, Sarah 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.
Sarah, who is also a qualified solicitor, is passionate about the importance of sport and sees it as having an ever increasing role to play in Irish life, contributing in particular to the future health and well-being of the country. Sarah believes that there are great opportunities for companies and brands to become increasingly involved with sport at all levels, especially with participatory sport which is enjoying significant growth.
Wilson Hartnell is Ireland’s leading communications consultancy with over 50 consultants servicing a blue chip list of Irish and international brands and companies. 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. Our dynamic, multi-talented and award-winning Sports team has also advised on some of the largest sporting infrastructural projects in the country.
Commenting on the appointment, Wilson Hartnell Managing Director Brian Bell said: “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. At WH Sarah will lead a team that has consistently demonstrated its insight into sport by delivering award-winning campaigns for our clients. Sarah will also form part of WH’s senior management team while liaising with Ogilvy’s worldwide sports business.”