Bishopstown, Cork City native James Galvin former Aide de Camp to the President of Ireland in 2012 and more recently Senior Delivery Manager/Vice President at Investment banker BNY Mellon in Dublin, is set to become the new Chief Executive of the Federation of Irish Sport, succeeding Sarah O’Connor who is returning to the private sector as Head of Sport at WHPR.
An official announcement is due ‘shortly’ according to sources on the banks of the Lee and also by the usually well informed website “SportforBusiness” in Dublin.
Educated at Colaiste an Spioraid Naoimh, Bishopstown , Galvin has had a long spell in the Irish Defence Forces and served with NATO in both Kabul, Afghanistan and Monrovia ,Liberia.
He studied later at Dublin City University (DCU) gaining an MBA in International Relations (2004-2006) and later EMBA (2009-11) and among his many skills on LinkedIn he includes both Operational and Crisis Management.
Having to deal directly and/or indirectly with the Government on Budget issues and liaising closely with other sporting bodies one wishes him well and hopes that he can apply some of his vast Military experience in “knocking heads together”
when the need arises.
Situations like the long running Billy Walsh saga at the IABA would surely never have been allowed to fester for so long had the Irish Sports Council and Dept of Sport under Paschal Donohue and Michael Ring been able to call upon
someone like James Galvin to support the efforts of Kieran Mulvey and John Treacy.
The fact that he will have a major role in the new ‘Sport Ireland’/National Campus/Irish Sports Council set up in Abbotstown will also help, even more so when the High Performance Unit (Boxing) links up there with other sports later this year or early next.
It is understand that Galvin will take up the reins at the Federation on 1st October We wish him well in his vital role for Irish sport ahead. Not much time to settle in before such a big year of Sport and vital Budget decisions ahead in 2016.
