About
From January 1st 2024 to July 31st 2024, Dr Marian O’Sullivan filled the post of interim Director of Governance (Deputy Corporate Secretary) at University College Cork (UCC). Her role was to enable the University Community to meet its ever-growing governance requirements, including supporting the work of the newly appointed Governing Authority (GA), the Audit and Risk Committee, and other sub-Committees. Marian also worked with the General Manager/CEO and Boards of four of UCC’s subsidiary companies. Her role included minuting all Board/GA meetings, follow-up actions, agreeing agendas, preparing Board packs, overseeing governance statements of internal control, financial reports, risk registers, and internal audit reports.
In 2023, Marian worked with the Chandler Institute of Governance (CIG) in Singapore as an expert providing advice on key projects (https://www.chandlerinstitute.org/teams/dr-marian-osullivan). She worked with the CIG team and the Malawi Government on the setting up of a National School of Government (NSG). Marian also provided advisory services to Atlantic Technological University (Strategic Plan and Technological Sector Advancement Fund Application).
From October 2015 to September 2022, Marian held the post of Director General at the Institute of Public Administration (IPA), Dublin. The mission of the IPA is to advance the understanding, standard and practice of public administration and public policy, supporting the Irish public service to deliver on the complex challenges it faced. She led a staff of 90 with over 150 associate trainers and lecturers. She was a member of the IPA Board and led a senior leadership team of 6 direct reports.
Marian provided vision and strategic leadership to ensure that the IPA consolidated its position as a provider of choice for training, higher education and development services to the wider public service. Marian was responsible for the formulation, oversight and execution of the annual budget, with an income generation of €13.3 million in 2021. During covid, she led the successful delivery of all IPA services online. Marian has strong leadership, excellent communication and interpersonal skills, good organisation and management skills, an inclusive decision-making style with a strong strategic, risk management, financial and governance focus. She has a clear and motivational communication style and her achievements demonstrate a strong commercial and governance focus.
Prior to joining the IPA, Marian held several senior management posts in Higher Educations Institutions and State Agencies in Ireland. They include the positions of Academic Registrar; and Head of Development and Research at the Institute of Art, Design and Technology (IADT). Before joining IADT, Marian held a number of quality assurance, research, and lecturing roles in the National Council for Educational Awards (NCEA – now QQI), Teagasc (Food Research), University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and University College Cork (UCC).
Marian was a member of the IPA Board (7 years), Board of the Association of Chief Executives of State Agencies (ACESA -4 years), Board of Management of Sallynoggin College of Further Education (5 years), OECD National Schools of Government Steering Committee (4 years), and Chair of the Strategic Advisory Forum to the National Patient Advocacy Service (3 years). She has been recently appointed to the Audit and Risk Committee of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS). Through her Board and Governance experience, Marian provides an independent and objective oversight role with a strong focus on leadership, corporate governance, strategy delivery and risk management.
Marian’s qualifications include a BSc, PhD in microbiology (UCC), an MSc in Executive Leadership (University of Ulster), Cert in Personnel Practice (Cork RTC), IoD Cert & Diploma in Company Direction. She has also completed Public Appointments Service (PAS) online training for Chairing PAS Interview Boards.
