AWN Staff

Anne Connolly - Director

Anne is the Director of the Ageing Well Network – a leadership group comprising the heads  of 50 organisations and key decision makers in the sectors.

Prior to that Anne managed her own independent strategic management consultancy, specialising in the development and implementation of Strategy and Business Plans and general facilitation.

She is currently a member of the Board of An Post and of Fabulous Beast Dance Company and before that she served on a number of boards including ICC bank, APSO and the Federation of Simon Communities, of which she was Chair until 2006.

Contact Anne: Anne@ageingwellentwork.ie

Sylvia McCarthy - Office Manager/PA to Anne Connolly

Biog coming soon

Contact Sylvia: Sylvia@ageingwellnetwork.ie

Sinead Shannon - Research Manager 

Sinead has a background in Communications and her early career involved work in public relations, publishing and editing. Following completion of a M.Sc in Social Research I have worked on research projects for Dublin Simon, TCD (the Trinity Immigration Initiative), the Children’s Research Centre before joining the Ageing Well Network as Research Manager.

Educational Qualifications; B.A. European Studies (University of Limerick 1987), M.A in Mass Communications (University of Leicester 1999) and M.Sc in Applied Social Research (TCD 2007)

Contact Sinead: Sinead@ageingwellnetwork.ie

Gareth Wescott - Information Services Manager

Gareth graduated from DCU in 2008 with an Honours Degree in Media Management. He has previously project managed the creation of supplements for the Sunday Times and worked as a reporter for the Echo. Gareth now oversees the communication and information services for the AWN. His primary role is the creation of the AWN Weekly Alert, building and managing websites for the network and generally doing anything the goes beyond the level of paper technology.

Contact Gareth: Gareth@ageingwellentwork.ie

Hilary Flynn - Project Manager Business of Ageing

Hilary Flynn has over ten years experience within public relations, sales and marketing, sponsorship, event management, recruitment and project management. She has had proven success in the management, initiation and implementation of a wide range of hard working PR campaigns and communications programmes for a diverse portfolio of clients including Siemens Mobile Devices, Pretty Polly, Bombay Sapphire Gin, Absolut Vodka, Concern, Meteor & Meteor Music Awards, Royal Liver, National Sales and Marketing Awards and Coca-Cola.  Hilary also successfully adapted her sales skills in the recruitment industry for four years where she won numerous new business accounts and became an accomplished recruitment consultant placing senior candidates within Financial Services and Legal profession. 

More recently Hilary has worked as Project Manager for The Business of Ageing – Turning Silver into Gold Conference 2010 and 2011 for The Ageing Well Network.  Hilary had overall responsibility for the successful organisation of the event, including finalising the programme and key note speakers, securing suitable venue, providing strong conference material, securing media coverage and optimise income from sources such as exhibitors and sponsors. 

Hilary is currently working on a number of events for The Ageing Well Network including the ongoing development of The Business of Ageing.   Other conferences Hilary is working on are “Lifetime Neighbourhoods, Planning to Age” Conference due to take place in the summer of 2011 and The “1^st International Conference on Age Friendly Cities”, Building the WHO Global Network in association with The Ageing Well Network due to take place in September 2011. Hilary has a BA (Hons) Business Studies and MA Public Relations from D.I.T.

Contact Hilary: Hilary@ageingwellnetwork.ie

View our Age Friendly Counties Staff