Meet The Team

Dee is a Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience working in both the commercial and the not-for-profit sectors.
After qualifying as an accountant, she started her career in Bank of Ireland Finance as Management Accountant and then quickly moved back to commerce employed as a Financial Accountant for Ballsbridge Motors where she was promoted to Assistant General Manager. After 6 years she decided to do some voluntary work overseas with the aid agency GOAL and took a post as field Accountant in Darfur in Sudan but continued in the agency moving to Pakistan in 2005 after the earthquake, progressing to roving Financial Coordinator in 2006 and finally becoming Head of Logistics and Compliance for GOAL global in 2009.
In 2011 Dee set up DMM Consulting to provide accounting and business advice to start-up businesses, growing organisations and charities. During this time, she was one of the founding members of Cycle Against Suicide and helped create the inaugural cycle around Ireland raising awareness of mental health. Dee then moved to work full time in The Children’s Medical and Research Foundation (CMRF), the fundraising charity for Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital as Finance Director in 2016 where she led the finance and compliance teams as well as being company secretary. She was part of the leadership team on the merger between CMRF and Temple Street Foundation in 2019 and once completed Dee moved to The National Council for the Blind (NCBI) where she took up the position of CFO, heading up the finance function and managing all finances for the charity.
Dee is a fellow of Chartered Accountants Ireland, a voluntary board Director of Edmund Rice Development, an overseas development charity, and the proud winner of the Good Governance Awards in 2018.

Rory has almost twenty years’ experience in high level communications consultancy, working in Ireland, the UK, Belgium and New Zealand. His main work has been in the area of behaviour-change communications, with a focus on public affairs, political engagement, social change, online extremism and disinformation. Rory holds a BA in Journalism and Media Communications, and an MSc in Cyberpsychology.

Having spent a number of years working as a journalist at both a local and national level, Cathy then worked at senior management levels in organisations specialising in PR, communications, stakeholder engagement and public affairs.
Her more recent position prior to EM Ireland was Head of Communications and Public Affairs with Down Syndrome Ireland. Having worked with one of Ireland’s largest youth organisations Foróige and with the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, she also has expertise in youth engagement and communications.
With a Masters in Journalism and Public Relations from the National University of Ireland, Galway and a PRII member, Cathy is passionate about helping people tell their story and empowering them to have their voices heard.

Prior to working at EM Ireland, Ciarán worked in banking and finance and as a Schuman Stagiaire in DG Finance in the European Parliament. Ciarán graduated from the Quinn School of Business, UCD with an Hons. Bachelor of Commerce International.

She gained experience in the events industry at Keynote PCO, MCI Dublin and the Shelbourne Hotel. She previously worked with the Irish Girl Guides and continues to volunteer with them.

She has a Bachelors degree in Event Management from the Dublin Institute of Technology and a Masters in International Management from Trinity College Dublin.

Matt’s role at EM Ireland is to support the NGO’s ongoing research aims and goals, aiding the team with projects and on-going campaigns.

Before joining, Matt taught Contemporary European Politics and Policy at the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics (HAPP) at the Queen’s University of Belfast (QUB). Matt has also worked within Public Affairs, focusing on stakeholder engagement and political analysis.

A graduate of the Mitchell Institute at QUB Matt has published several articles and is the co-editor of the ‘The Irish Defence Forces and Contemporary Security’. He is currently working on his first monograph with Palgrave on the EU’s Digital Single Market.

Muireann has a Bachelor’s degree in history and Politics and a Masters in Politics from UCD. She also spent a year as Editor of the UCD campus Student paper The College Tribune.

Emma has a BA in French and International Studies and a MSc in International Public Policy from Queen’s University Belfast. She was a part of the Washington Ireland Program and an Intern at the World Bank. She is a Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum and was a member of the UK Youth Parliament.

He has over eight years’ experience in EU policy tracking and research. His academic focus has been on policy process, in particular with the Common Fisheries Policy. More recently he has published work on how Brexit will impact Ireland’s sea fisheries as part of the IIEA’s Emerging Voices Group. Prior to joining EM Ireland, Ciarán was the Economic Research Officer at the Irish Maritime Development Office which involved producing research on Brexit’s impact on Ireland’s use of the landbridge.

He has a number of years of lecturing experience having lectured on the EU and integration studies at University College Dublin. He holds a Master’s in European integration from the University of Limerick.