Mary O’Kennedy

Mary has 20 years’ experience of fundraising for and consulting to the not-for-profit sector.

In 1998, she started her career in the sector, working for Trocáire in Honduras and subsequently at their Dublin office. In late 1999, Mary moved to work with the DCU Educational Trust, holding specific responsibility for major donor engagement. In 2002, she established OKC, formerly O’Kennedy Consulting, now recognised as one of the leading consultancy firms in the sector.

Mary was the founding chair of Fundraising Ireland, the professional network for fundraisers in Ireland (now reconstituted as Charities Institute Ireland). She is a past chair of EU Consult, the European Association of Consultants to and about the not for profit sector, and was also Ireland’s Ambassador for the International Fundraising Congress (IFC) run by Resource Alliance until 2017.

In 2013, she was presented with the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Fundraising, and she was also shortlisted for an IMAGE Business Women of the Year Award.

In early 2014, Mary, along with business partner Bruce Tait, launched a new specialised Executive Search and Recruitment company for the not-for-profit sector CCI. In 2017 Bruce and Mary acquired Creative Careers, specialising in recruitment for the arts and cultural sector.

Bruce Tait

Bruce Tait has worked in the voluntary sector for over 28 years and is a Fellow of the Institute of Fundraising and a Fellow of the Employment Recruitment Federation in Ireland. Following roles as Director of Fundraising and Chief Executive at several national charities, Bruce become a consultant working with not-for-profit organisations in Canada, the USA, Sweden, the UK and Holland. He set up Bruce Tait Associates in 2007 which provides consultancy and is also Scotland’s largest charity recruitment agency.

Bruce joined with Mary O’Kennedy in 2014 to set up CCI and has worked with the team to deliver top quality Recruitment and Executive Search campaigns for dozens of Irish non-profits. Bruce is a former Chair of the Institute of Fundraising Scotland and has served as a Chair and a Trustee on the Board of numerous charities in the UK and Canada.

Laura Patten joined CCI in 2015 after returning home from South Korea and Spain. She is CCI’s Head of Recruitment and as such she leads the team and oversees all aspects of the services that CCI Executive Search offers, with a primary focus on account management, client engagement, and sourcing, screening, and shortlisting of candidates.
With over 8 years' recruitment experience specifically in the not-for-profit sector, Laura has successfully recruited CEOs, Directors, Heads of Department, and Board members as well as many roles at the Manager and Officer levels.

She has worked with a variety of organisations and causes including large and small charities, social enterprises, educational organisations, and arts and cultural institutions. Previous clients include the Irish Cancer Society, Dublin Rape Crisis Centre, Shine, Age Action, Charities Institute Ireland, Social Entrepreneurs Ireland, the Abbey Theatre and Dogs Trust.

Liz brings a wealth of experience in the not-for-profit sector, having worked for over 25 years with charities and social enterprises that support non-profit organisations including Glasgow Volunteer Centre, the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, the Wise Group and Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector. In over half of this time she held senior management roles.  She also has extensive experience as a board trustee across a range of national and local charities, latterly chairing EDAS, the national membership organisation supporting Scotland’s economic development. She brings a successful track record to CCI, having previously recruited a wide range of roles with CCI’s sister organisation in Scotland, BTA . Since starting with CCI in April 2023, she has led successful campaigns to recruit positions including CEO’s, Directors, Senior Managers and Heads of Service with clients that include the Asthma Society of Ireland; ECO-UNESCO; Dublin City Volunteer Centre; Castle Park School; the Irish Council for Civil Liberties; Operation Smile Ireland; Siamsa Tire; HUGG; One in Four and Anam Cara.

Jane started working with CCI in late 2023 and has led a varied career with two decades of experience spanning the commercial and non-profit sector. Prior to joining the non-profit sector, she spent a decade working in consumer insight across the automotive, design and telecoms industries, and then brought this expertise to a range of public engagement & fundraising leadership roles.

Over the past 12 years, she has worked with several non-profits to drive organisational, CRM and fundraising strategy - in capacities as non-executive director, senior management team member and consultant.

She has strong experience in executive recruitment and has placed leadership roles from CEO level to the wider senior management team. With her unique breadth of fundraising experience, she has a strong understanding of income generation across the sector, from individual giving to corporate fundraising, and chairs Fundraising Director Networks in the UK and Ireland.

Fergal O’Sullivan has almost 25 years of management experience, 7 of which have been working in the nonprofit sector, while he has also spent the last 5 years working on behalf of various nonprofit organisations recruiting at both senior and graduate levels.

He also has over 16 years of nonprofit board experience, as past Chairperson of My Legacy and Board Member of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Dublin Youth Dance Company and most recently HIV Ireland, where he was also Chair of their Governance Committee. He is currently the Chair of the Rathmines & Rathgar Musical Society.

Fergal has worked in several leadership roles within the nonprofit sector, including as CEO of the Coeliac Society of Ireland and Boardmatch, Head of Fundraising with Make-A-Wish and NCBI, and has been involved in the development and delivery of strategic plans for several organisations, in both a senior management role and at Board level.

In his most recent role, Fergal successfully managed the recruitment of over 120 senior leadership positions for nonprofits across Ireland and the core of his role with CCI Executive Search will be to continue this work.