We are delighted to announce the appointment of Eimear Hurley, our Head of PR, to the Board of Carr Communications. Eimear joins Tony Hughes, MD, Donal Cronin, Director, and Eddie Shaw, Chairman, on the Board – Eimear will be Director of Strategic Communications.
A Limerick native (which she never lets us forget!), Eimear joined Carr Communications as an Account Executive 15 years ago. She was appointed Head of PR in 2017. Since then, under Eimear’s leadership, our PR Division has gone from strength to strength. Our PR team has doubled in size, and our service offering has diversified. In addition to retaining some of our most important clients in a very competitive industry, Eimear has overseen growth of our client base here in Ireland, in the EU, and internationally. The company’s EU business is now a highly specialised unit with multi-partner, multi-disciplinary projects in areas such as sustainability, technology, pandemic preparedness, crisis response and healthcare. This is in addition to our expanding international business where we work on major projects in the healthcare and finance sectors.
The expansion of our PR business has led to many internal promotions, continuing our commitment to developing and nurturing the talent on our team. In addition to our core PR services, the team now brings a range of diverse skills to our work with clients including ESG strategy development, reputation audits, Employee Generated Content (EGC) coaching, podcast production, journalism, website development and content creation.
In her new role, Eimear’s focus will be on the continued growth of our PR business, broadening our service offering and making the company an even better place to work. She is particularly passionate about social impact communications, women in leadership, and creating a thoughtful, inclusive workplace. When she’s not telling everyone in the office about Munster’s resurgence or trying to find the perfect coffee (Hatch and Perch are top of the list), she’s mum to Sam and Evie, who she calls her greatest achievement.
Our Mission
To do great work and deliver outstanding results for people and organisations we love working with and whose values are in line with our own. To make a difference.
Our People
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Tony Hughes
Managing Director -
Sophie Popplewell
Senior Account Executive -
John Dunphy
Senior Consultant -
Claudia Esposito
EU Project Manager -
Rory McGlynn
Creative & Digital Design Consultant -
David Curtin
Media/Public Affairs Consultant -
Oisin McQuerins
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Frank Sweeney
Senior Consultant -
Stephen Walker
Head of Design -
Cristina Rogoz
Finance Manager -
Michelle Moran
Executive Administrator -
Johnny Fallon
Strategy Director -
Alison Hand
Head of Learning and Development Solutions -
Donal Cronin
Director -
Iseult O’Doherty
Head of Business and Management Development -
Linda Henriksson
EU Project Director -
Eddie Shaw
Non-Executive Chairman -
Eimear Hurley
Director of Strategic Communications
Tony Hughes
Managing Director
Tony Hughes oversees the development of the business and supports the delivery of major projects. Tony has particular expertise in the management of complex human resource environments and supporting organisations through periods of significant change. As a consequence, he is fascinated by the potential application and impact of behavioural science-based interventions.
Tony provides consultancy services for many organisations and he has added value to, and led, many European and National projects. He has successfully advised many Chief Executives on how to develop their organisations to improve overall performance and these interventions are increasingly being based on the core principles of behavioural economics.
Favourite movie: The God Father Part 2
Favourite food: Sashimi
Advice he once got that he wishes he hadn’t ignored: Once you stop playing rugby you will regret it forever
Sophie Popplewell
Senior Account Executive
Sophie is a Senior Account Executive and has been with Carr Communications for almost two years. A DCU graduate, she holds Bachelors’ Degree in Communication Studies and a Masters’ in Public Relations & Strategic Communications. Sophie works across the Public Relations and H2020 teams supporting clients in creating and delivering high-impact communications activity. Sophie spends her time outside of work playing rugby or recovering from same.
Favourite movie: Barbie
Favourite food: Pizza
Advice she once got that she wishes he hadn’t ignored: Always keep a backup file… or three.
John Dunphy
Senior Consultant
John is a Senior Communications Consultant delivering training in the areas of Leadership, Resilience, Self-management, Presentation skills, Careers and Personal Development. Also a practising Sport Psychology Consultant, John works with sports teams and individuals at both international and local levels in areas such as Teamwork, Leadership, Communications, Focus, Goal Setting, Anxiety, Mental Toughness and Expertise in Sport.
In his spare time, John is a qualified basketball coach and coaches a number of basketball teams from local underage level, to regional and international feeder teams.
Favourite movie: Inception
Favourite food: Ravioli
Advice he once got that he wished he hadn’t ignored: The importance of incrementally saving
Claudia Esposito
EU Project Manager
Born and raised in Italy, Claudia holds a BA in Cultural and Linguistic Mediation and an MA in Languages and Cultures for International Communication and Cooperation, both from the University of Milan, and has completed an Advanced Training Course in EU Project Management at the Venice International University.
Before landing in Dublin, she worked on refugees’ integration in Italy and Belgium, and on different European projects in Spain and Italy. At Carr, she works across EU-funded research and innovation projects, engaging with partners and key stakeholders and contributing to the development and implementation of communications and dissemination strategies designed to achieve far-reaching impact.
In her free time, she can be found shouting unrequested advice at her favourite football team, travelling, running, hopelessly looking for balance in ashtanga yoga, and adding items to the already infinite list of to-read books she already has.
Favourite movie: Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Favourite food: spaghetti allo scoglio
Advice: stop biting your nails
Rory McGlynn
Creative & Digital Design Consultant
Rory joined the company in early 2016 initially as an Executive Administrators behind the scenes in our Business & Management and Careers Units, before making the switch to the Digital Unit as a consultant. Rory has an excellent knowledge of information systems and quickly adapts to working with new hardware and software packages. In his various roles, Rory has used this ability to good effect, developing bespoke solutions that have subsequently been adopted as standard application for use within the environments concerned.
Rory’s main interests lie in areas of Technology, Health & Fitness and Sport. Following on from years as a competitive swimmer, Rory is now the Head Coach of his own competitive swimming club in Dublin and manages a number teams from regional to international levels. He will tell you his sporting days aren’t over… but he is also no spring chicken.
Favourite Movie: Good Will Hunting
Favourite Food: Mexican Food in general
Advice you once got, that you wish you hadn’t ignored: A jack of all trades is a master of none; but is still more powerful than a master of one!
David Curtin
Media/Public Affairs Consultant
With over 30 years in communications, David has written for many national and local newspapers as well as radio and television. He managed the media campaigns for the Smoking Ban in Ireland and the Euro Changeover. David has provided crisis communications advice and assistance to companies in the pharmaceutical, aviation, transport and food sectors.
Renowned for his availability, his mobile phone is off only when he is on a golf course or flying abroad. He has an aversion to jargon, In all his years in communications, he has never seen a national newspaper use it in their stories.
Favourite movie: Green Book
Favourite food: Thai
Advice he once got that he wished he hadn’t ignored: Invest in your work/life balance
Oisin McQuerins
A native of Lusk in North County Dublin, Oisin recently completed a Masters in Digital Marketing in DCU before going into communications with Rowing Ireland for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Before this, Oisin’s focus was sports journalism, working for media publications such as Pundit Arena and Off the Ball. He also tied his love for media and sport together setting up podcasts about Irish football and his beloved Leeds United. Outside of work Oisin can be found playing the drums and making a show of himself at five-a-side football.
Favourite movie: Dead Poet’s Society
Favourite food : Pizza
Advice he once got that he wishes he hadn’t ignored: Never let a clock tell you what you’ve got time for
Frank Sweeney
Senior Consultant
Frank Sweeney joined with Carr Communications in 2000 to deliver training solutions in both interpersonal communications and management, including Personal Effectiveness, Influencing & Persuasion Skills, Performance Management, Negotiation Skills and various Communications Skills programmes, to numerous Government Departments and Agencies, as well as major organisations in the Private and Voluntary Sectors. For our Career Development area he also provides group and individual coaching to both Interviewees and Interview Boards.
Prior to joining Carr Communications Frank spent almost thirty years working in senior management roles with major national and multinational organisations including Bon Secours Health System, the National Training and Development Institute and VHI.
A Graduate of the Marketing Institute of Ireland with a Post Graduate Diploma in Strategic Market Planning, Frank also has a Masters in Business Administration (MBA), as well as a Certificate in Training and Continuing Education from NUI Maynooth and is accredited to work with the Booth Company 360° Assessment Tools.
Favourite Movie: 12 Angry Men
Favourite Food: Churros and Hot Chocolate sitting in Orange Square, Marbella
Advise he once got that he wished he hadn’t ignored: It’s not what you think you are but what you think, you are.
Stephen Walker
Head of Design
Stephen joined the Digital Media Unit of Carr Communications in 2016 as it geared up to expand its operations in 2017. He holds a BSc (Honours) in product design from Dublin Institute of Technology and a Postgraduate Diploma (Honours) in Digital Media from the IACT, Dublin.
Over the years, Stephen has gained a diverse background of experience, developing a broad range of digital media skills, both 2d and 3d. Prior to joining Carr Communications, Stephen spent five years designing merchandise for some of the world’s most iconic brands including Guinness, Lord’s Cricket, Titanic and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai among others. This has given him a keen insight into successful brand strategies and the design that goes into them. He also has extensive freelance experience across multiple sectors including web design, product design, architectural rendering and visual communication.
In his free time, Stephen is most likely to be found playing sports, cooking and attempting to learn Spanish.
Favourite Movie: The Intouchables
Favourite Food: Fideuà
Advice he was once given that he wishes he hadn’t ignored: Don’t swing backwards on your chair
Cristina Rogoz
Finance Manager
Michelle Moran
Executive Administrator
Michelle has been working on our Learning and Development Solutions Team for over ten years. She provides customer care to both new and long-standing clients. Her primary focus is on our client’s experience from their initial contact through to the conclusion of their tailored training programmes. She fosters well-established, valued, and trusted relationships with all of our clients and enjoys seeing our programmes develop and evolve to meet and exceed expectations.
When she’s not happily liaising with clients, she loves HIIT boxing (feeling like a real ‘bad ass’ the moment she puts her wraps on), and to counterbalance, she has recently, rejoicingly returned to dancing, learning the smooth, cool Blues – take it away Muddy!
Favourite movie: The Lives of Others
Favourite food: The humble potato
Advice she once got that she wishes she hadn’t ignored: Never, ever stop dancing
Johnny Fallon
Strategy Director
A proud Longford man Johnny has worked in PR and Public Affairs for over 20 years. With a focus on strategic and crisis communication he has advised clients in the public and private sector and is much sought after as a trainer for media and presentation skills. He has written a number of books and academic papers on Irish politics and is a regular contributor to TV and radio. He is an avid user of social media for which he has won awards and been listed as a policy influencer.
For some still unexplained reason he thought it was a good idea to write his autobiography aged 30 and claims the dubious credit of being one of the few people outside of premier league footballers to do so. He is married to Annette and has two children who say he talks ‘a lot of boring stuff’.
Favourite movie: Star Wars
Favourite food: Is wine a food?
Advice he once got that he wishes he hadn’t ignored: Grow up
Alison Hand
Head of Learning and Development Solutions
Alison is an organisational development consultant, facilitator and executive coach with experience nationally and internationally. She holds a degree in Social Science, a diploma in Executive Coaching and a diploma in HRM.
She is a keen tennis player and when not on court she can be found wandering around art galleries or rummaging in record stores to feed her very expensive 2nd hand vinyl habit. An experienced broadcaster, she has presented and produced radio programmes for Dublin City FM and Tokyo’s largest FM station J-Wave.
Favourite Movie: Casablanca
Favourite Food: Indian/Moroccan/Korean and anything that goes well with 160 gram vinyl
Advice she once got that she wishes she hadn’t ignored: “Whatever you say, say nothing.”
Donal Cronin
Director
Donal is one of the most recognised communications and training experts in Ireland. He has led the development of our Behavioural Economics based offers providing clients with proven, tested and added-value approaches to communication by applying a scientific understanding of human behaviour.
Over the last 30 years plus Donal has provided strategic communications consultancy and training to the country’s leading organisations including Irish Life, Bank of Ireland, EPA, SEAI and AIB.
Favourite movie: Blade Runner
Favourite food: Caviston’s chocolate cake
Advice he once got that he wishes he hadn’t ignored: Use good hair products
Twitter: @donalcronin
Iseult O’Doherty
Head of Business and Management Development
Iseult heads up the Business and Management Development Department. Iseult taught in Dublin’s inner city for 15 years followed by a career in RTE as a reporter and presenter. She has developed a particular expertise in designing a range of business and management training programmes for the private and public sector.
In her spare time she loves very slow running (aka jogging) with her friends, having friends over to dinner and reading anything she can get her hands on.
Favourite food: Sea Food Paella eaten overlooking beach in Fuerteventura
Favourite film: Shawshank Redemption
Advice she once got that she wishes she hadn’t ignored: Just go for it!
Linda Henriksson
EU Project Director
Linda joined Carr Communications’ European Projects Team in 2016. In her role as Senior Account Executive, she deals with communication and dissemination activities in EU funded research and innovation projects. On a day-to-day basis, Linda works directly with Carr Communications’ partners and engages with key stakeholders in Horizon 2020 projects. She creates and distributes communications materials, works with social media and online communications and monitors relevant media coverage and policy developments. She contributes to the development and implementation of communications and dissemination strategies designed to achieve far-reaching impact.
Prior to joining Carr Communications, Linda worked in and with the European institutions in Brussels. She has several years of experience in EU communications, first in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Translation and subsequently in Europe Direct, the central information service of the EU. In her role as EU Affairs Communications Officer, she communicated with the public and interacted with multiple stakeholders in an international environment, explaining EU laws, policies, programmes and funding opportunities. She has a background in translation and communications, and she has also worked in the literature and publishing sector and in tech.
Linda holds both a BA and an MA with honours in English Translation Studies and European Studies from the University of Turku, Finland. She is passionate about languages and has a proven track record of working in multilingual environments.
She has a particular interest in science communication and the popularisation of science, discourse analysis and media relations.
Commuting to work on her vintage bike in any weather, she proudly embraces the stereotype of the bicycle-riding Nordic in functional but hopelessly unfashionable rain gear.
Eddie Shaw
Non-Executive Chairman
Eddie is, by a distance, the aging ‘elder lemon’ of Carr Communications as he enters his forty-ninth year of business experience and variety. Thirty years gained primarily in the financial services sector where he held a number of senior positions across general insurance, life insurance, re-insurance, capital markets and fund management in Hibernian Group. He met Carr Communications as a client in 2002, joined in 2006 and came to realise the complementarity of risk management with communications in all of its varieties.
Eddie has provided communications, dissemination, training, and development services to a number of public and private sector organisations in Ireland. Since 2009 he has led an enthusiastic and resilient European Projects Team through eleven EU research projects with responsibility for communication, dissemination and exploitation of project results. These projects covered a broad variety of activities such as Air Travel, Air Security and Safety, Crisis Management and Communications, Smart Manufacturing and the Circular Economy, Radiation Protection for Astronauts in Long Distance Space Travel, and Citizen Engagement in Environmental Research. Such is the scale, skills and experience of projects and people in Carr Communications.
Eddie has a BComm and M.B.A. from University College Dublin and is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute.
He is married to Mary Pat, has four well grown young adults and three grandchildren. Surviving this life journey, so far, ranks as their greatest achievement.
Favourite Movie/Book: A Man for All Seasons and Castaway
Favourite Food: Mary Pat’s Lemon Soufflé
Advice he once got that he wishes he hadn’t ignored: You are the prisoner of everything you write (or say), and the master of everything you don’t.
Eimear Hurley
Director of Strategic Communications
Eimear has worked with Carr Communications since 2007 and was appointed the company’s Head of PR in 2017. With almost fifteen years’ experience in PR, Eimear leads a team of consultants in the delivery of high-impact communications strategies to a range of clients in the public and private sector. In her role, Eimear works closely with Senior Management teams to scope, develop and deliver a strategic approach to communications.
She is also on the Board of the Dublin City Volunteer Centre which helps individuals to find meaningful opportunities to volunteer and to build the capacity for not-for-profit organisations to involve volunteers in their work.
A proud Limerick and Munster woman (which she never lets us forget!), she’s married to Simon and Mammy to Sam and Evie. They are her best achievement yet.
Favourite movie: Munster the Brave and the Faithful 2006 Heineken Cup Final, Official Commemorative DVD
Favourite food: Eggs Benedict from Harry’s Café in Dun Laoghaire
Advice she once got that she wishes she hadn’t ignored: Wash tan off after three hours (circa early 2000s. She has embraced her paleness since then.)