Our People

Inspire Ireland’s work is undertaken by a team of passionate, highly committed and capable people who share our our values and are inspired by all young people.

The young people, Board of Directors, staff and supporters come from diverse backgrounds, and bring a wealth of professional and life experience to create, develop and support our programmes.

Inspire Ireland Board of Directors

We are grateful to the committed team who make up Inspire Ireland’s Board of Directors. The Board’s primary role is to ensure that Inspire Ireland’s operations and affairs reflect the needs of our young people, the community and our supporters.

Our Board

Dr. Colin Hunt (Chairman), Macquarie Capital Ireland
Mr. John Foong, (Google Ireland)
Mr. Jack Health, (Chairman and Founder of One Inspire)
Dr. Rachel O’Connell, (Bebo)
Mr. Brendan Tuohy, (Management Consultant)
Aidan Corbet, (NTR)
Maeve Kneafsey (Elucidate)

Inspire Ireland Staff

Getting a start up off the ground requires a certain type of team – driven, enthusiastic, and ready to pick up whatever falls on their plate, with a willingness to look at all angles to find the best solution.

Our team is small, productive, and laughs a lot. Here’s who we are, and what we do.


	Elaine Geraghty CEO Elaine has held a number of senior management positions in some of Ireland’s most dynamic and innovative brands – most from start up phase. Most recently, she held the position of CEO at Newstalk 106-108 from 2005 to 2009 during which time she led the radio station from local Dublin to award winning National brand. She holds an MBA in Marketing and brings a wealth of knowledge to the Inspire Ireland foundation.

	Derek Chambers Director of Programmes & Policy Derek began his career in the role of research sociologist as part of a multi-disciplinary team in Ireland’s National Suicide Research Foundation in 1996 before taking up a research post with the Health Service Executive in 1999. While working for the HSE he was lead author of Ireland’s national suicide prevention strategy, called Reach Out, launched by the Minister for Health and Children in 2005. The publication of the strategy led to the establishment of the HSE National Office for Suicide Prevention which Derek joined as Senior Researcher and Deputy Head. While working for the HSE NOSP Derek was project manager of the multi-award nominated ‘Your Mental Health’ public awareness campaign. Derek left the HSE NOSP in 2009 to become of Director of Programmes and Policy with the Inspire Ireland Foundation. He has an MA (Hons.) in Sociology from UCC.

	Susan Hennessy Director of Operations & Finance Susan joined Inspire Ireland as its first employee in the role of Director of Operations & Finance. Susan has worked with a wide variety of award winning start-ups (from software to race-horses!) over the last 10 years developing internationally approved organisational systems. To gain experience in the non-profit sector she worked in northern Ghana for 18 months as an Organisational Development Advisor in women’s cooperatives, learning about community development from the grass roots up. She has a B.Sc (Hons) in Management and Marketing from Trinity College.

	Vince McCarthy Community Engagement Manager Vince is the Community Engagement Manager at Inspire Ireland. He works on improving Reach Out through engaging with young people and involving them in all aspects of Inspire’s work. He is also focusing on Reach Out’s presence and impact on communities in Ireland. He has a B.Sc in Physics & Maths and an MA in International Relations. He has volunteered in India with an Irish charity called Suas. Vince has also worked with the Department of Foreign Affairs to set up projects in Mozambique in the area of science and technology.

	Fenella Murphy Research and Evaluation Officer Fenella joined the Inspire Ireland team in August 2010. She is a graduate of UCC’S MA Economics programme, during which she specialised in health economics and conducted research into mental health services in Ireland. Fenella previously worked with the Health Research Group in the University of Surrey as a research health economist. With Inspire, she now works on implementing our research and evaluation plan and providing research support to the team.