Awards Committee

Mary O’Connor

Mary O’Connor

Federation of Irish Sport CEO

Mary O Connor is CEO of the Federation of Irish Sport. She is a native of Cork and has worked in sport all her professional life and is an avid sports fan.

In 2016 Mary graduated from University College Cork with a Masters in Voluntary and Community Sector Management. Before joining the Federation of Irish Sport, Mary worked with the Camogie Association as Director of Technical Development and Participation. She excelled in this role and led the association in to an unprecedented era of growth. Under her direction as Acting CEO of the Camogie Association in 2013, she successfully guided the association through change in the form of the new affiliation model for individual members, which saw camogie ensure a more equitable membership structure for all clubs.

Mary has represented her native Cork in both Camogie and Ladies football amassing a total of 12 Senior All Ireland medals over a 16-year dual intercounty career. She has won All Stars in both codes, national leagues and provincial titles and more recently was honoured with an Honorary Doctorate from University College Cork (2012) in recognition of her amazing contribution to sport in Ireland.

Maeve Buckley

Maeve Buckley

Director of Sports Marketing Agency, Line Up (Sports Media Entertainment)

Maeve has had an impact on the sports sponsorship industry over a long period, and has worked with iconic teams and major projects such as Ryder Cup, FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Liverpool FC. She has a deep understanding of the European and Irish sport industry, and works on strategic development with national governing bodies and European/international federations.
Maeve was previously a Board Member of the National Sports Campus, and was voted one of the Most Influential Women in Sport. She holds an MBA from the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid and has a BA (Hons) degree from UCC.

Rob Hartnett

Rob Hartnett

CEO, Sport for Business

Rob Hartnett is the founder and CEO of Sport for Business which was created in 2012 as a professional network of leaders that values intelligent analysis of what is working best in the commercial world of sport.
Hartnett is a regular commentator across mainstream media including RTÉ, Today FM, the Sunday Business Post, Sunday Independent, Newstalk and many more on areas ranging from the changing world of sports broadcast to the importance of leadership and governance.
He is respected as someone who understands the relationship between sport and business and is able to articulate that well through his Daily Sport for Business news Digest and through working with member companies across a wide range of topics.