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Our Senior Management Team

John Church

Chief Executive Officer

John brings a wealth of commercial and marketing experience to the organisation, having spent the previous 13 years in the charity sector more recently as CEO of Age Action and also CEO of Arthritis Ireland.

John has held senior marketing and commercial management roles within the food and drink sector such as The Coca-Cola Company and financial services sector within the Bank of Ireland Group. John is a past director of Charities Institute Ireland.

Patricia Forde

People and Transformation Director

Patricia joined the ISPCC in 2020 having worked for UK and Ireland Healthcare, Pharma and Commercial organisations for the past 20+ years in People Leadership roles. Motivated by a strong sense of purpose in what we do for Children in ISPCC, she is an energetic and values driven business partner.

Patricia holds a Masters in Applied Psychology from UCC and is also an Accredited Insights practioner and an EMCC Accredited Coach and a Dip. in Digital Transformation from UCD.  With a strong track record in Organisational Development, Talent Acquisition, and building a Coaching Culture along with building business partnerships, she has a keen interest in health and wellbeing both in the workplace and beyond.  

Fiona Jennings

Head of Policy and Public Affairs at ISPCC

Fiona is an experienced and motivated Policy and Public Affairs professional with over 17 years’ experience working in the education, disability and child protection sectors. She has a strong track record of networking and building meaningful relationships.

Skilled in Non-profit Organisations, Strategic Planning & Development. Children’s online safety and their digital competence has been both a professional focus and personal interest of Fiona’s for over 10 years. 

Caroline O'Sullivan

Director of Services

Caroline has been Director of Services for ISPCC | Childline for over 23 years. She ensures that all of the services our charity provides are child-centred and focused on achieving positive outcomes for children. Throughout her time, she has led the organisation from strength to strength, managing the Regional Managers, ensuring adherence to best practices, implementing mechanisms of quality control and evaluation, and developing our policies and procedures.

Caroline also promotes, advocates and supports the policy, practice and ethos of the ISPCC, within the orgnaisation, with other professionals, policy makers, organisations and the general public.

Mairéad McGinn

Commercial Director

Mairéad joined as Commercial Director at the ISPCC in April 2022. Prior to this she was the Director of Fundraising and Communications for Depaul Ireland & Northern Ireland.

Mairéad’s career has included building income growth strategies with a multichannel approach focusing on impactful storytelling, data driven decision making all with a view to drive long term sustainable income for organisations that are valued led.

Mairéad has a BA hons in Business Studies as well as diploma in Fundraising management and a Higher Diploma in Leadership.

Mairéad leads with a passion to support organisations that are action focused and enjoys bringing her skills to causes that are close to her heart.

Deirdre McNamara

Head of Marketing and Communications

With over 20 years’ experience in marketing communications in Ireland and the USA – from leading one of Ireland’s leading boutique PR agencies – through to running her own successful independent consultancy, Deirdre is an award-winning marketeer with a wealth of consumer and b2b experience and she’s delighted to be bringing that experience to the ISPCC.

Catriona Fitzgerald

Director of Finance, IT, Risk & Compliance

Catriona joined the ISPCC in 2024 and brings a wealth of experience from the professional services sector, where her most recent role was as Finance Director in a Top 10 firm.    She is passionate about continuous learning and is excited to be part of the ISPCC journey which is focused on achieving positive outcomes for children. She is a CPA accountant and has recently completed an MBA with TU Dublin.