Leslie Buckley – Chairman
Leslie Buckley is one of Ireland’s most successful business consultants having helped manage the start-up of Esat Telecom Group plc and Esat Digifone Limited. Leslie established his own consultancy business in 1990 and has since been retained on key public and private sector projects, including the reconstruction of Waterford Crystal plc, the reconstruction and sale of Irish Steel plc, consulting work with Irish Rail and the restructuring of Aer Lingus, Ireland’s national airline.
Leslie is currently, Vice Chairman of Digicel and a Director and shareholder of a number of other Irish companies. In January 2009, Leslie established Haven, a charitable foundation dedicated to building and up-grading houses in Haiti.
John Callaghan – Non-executive Director
John Callaghan is a Director of a number of Irish Companies including Glanbia Rabobank Ireland, Realflex (Chairman) and Vivas Health Insurance.
John is a formal Director of Bank of Ireland, Esat and First Active (Chairman). A Chartered Accountant by profession, John served as Managing Partner of KPMG from 1983-1991.
In addition to being a fellow of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ireland, he is also a fellow of The Institute of Bankers, and an associate Member of The Institute of Taxation.
Maria Mahon – Non-executive Director
Maria Mahon has over 20 years business experience working in the financial services, media, tourism , internet and software industries. In 2006 she established her own management consultancy practice. From 1999 to 2006, Maria Mahon held the position of Group Chief Executive of Saongroup.
Maria holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from NUI Galway, and a Masters in Business Studies (MBS) from Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business. She has been short listed for Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year (2003), and she was also awarded the prestigious Bank of Ireland Business Alumni award in NUIG in 2006. Maria is a Director of a number of leading companies in Ireland including Saongroup.com and Communicorp. She is a current director and former Chairman of the Marketing Institute of Ireland and has recently been appointed to the NUIG MBA industry advisory board. Maria is also Chairman of Camara Education Ltd, an international not for profit organisation.
Ciaran McCooey, CEO
Ciaran McCooey joined Saongroup in 2000, when he joined as Financial Controller of IrishJobs.ie. He was appointed Finance Director in 2002 and Group Financial Controller for Saongroup in 2005. He was appointed to his current position as Group CEO for Saongroup in February 2008.
Prior to joining Saongroup, Ciaran was a Financial Controller for Marlborough International plc, a Dublin based recruitment company. He also previously worked as the Financial Controller of DPI Southwest Distributing, a US based subsidiary of the Irish Dairy Board.
Ciaran qualified as an Accountant with Coopers & Lybrand in Dublin and holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree and Diploma in Professional Accounting from University College Dublin. He is currently a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.
Des O’Grady, CFO
Des O’Grady is the CFO for Saongroup. Prior to joining Saongroup, Des was CFO for Servecast, a position he held for 5 years. Servecast is a supplier of new media webcasting solutions and was acquired by Level 3 Communications Inc in July 2007. Des was a key part of the management team involved in the transaction.
Prior to joining Servecast, Des has held positions in major accounting firms including KPMG Dusseldorf and BDO Simpson Xavier, Dublin. Des holds a BA in Economics and German from University College Dublin and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.
Brendan Maher, New Products Director
Brendan began his career with Mentec, a software and consulting company where he worked as a software developer and systems engineer for four years.
He then moved to Saongroup in 1999 where he has worked as Head of IT for 7 years before being promoted to his current role of New Products Director since 2006.
Jane Lorigan, CEO Europe
Jane Lorigan was appointed CEO Europe in 2011 following her position as Managing Director of Saongroup Ireland since 2007. Jane joined the company as Group Marketing Director in January 2005.
Before joining Saongroup, Jane was Marketing Director for Taylor Nelson Sofres plc in London and International Marketing Manager for TNT Express Worldwide in Amsterdam.
Jane has a degree in Social Science from UCD and a Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.
