Emma Murtagh is Director of Development and Member Services for The Wheel. She is in charge of delivering The Wheel’s funding strategy. This includes identifying new areas for growth and opportunities, overseeing funding applications, and working with our partners and stakeholders. She also supports the teams that deliver our many member services – including our Skills, EU, and Shared Island Programmes – to identify opportunities and maximise their value to our members. Emma is a qualified trainer with a BA in English and Psychological Studies and an MA in Literature and Publishing, both from the University of Galway.   

Mairead O'Connor manages the skills development team at The Wheel, overseeing The Wheel's varied capacity-building activities. These include an extensive training and events calendar, various skills-building projects & initiatives and The Wheel's engagement with the national skills agenda and stakeholders.  
 
She also works with various stakeholders across the sector, national policy-makers and the education and training sector to ensure that nonprofit organisations of all types, and those that work for them, are well served by the state's skills development infrastructure.

Sharon Hughes is the Leadership Academy Manager in the Skills Team of The Wheel. Sharon has been involved in membership organisations for over 20 years. Before working for The Leadership Academy, she was C.E.O. of a nonprofit. Her background is managing member Events and Communications. Sharon is a qualified Coach, is a member of the Teaching Council of Ireland and is currently studying Psychology. She is low-key obsessed with Leadership. If you are interested in learning more about the Leadership Academy or you have a great idea you would like to share, please email her at sharon@wheel.ie or feel free to connect with Sharon on LinkedIn. 

Emily Nelson joined The Wheel as EU Programmes Officer in January 2021 before becoming EU Programmes Manager in 2024. Her role involves supporting civil society sector organisations to build their capacity to secure EU funding through the Access Europe programme, researching EU funding opportunities that are relevant to the sector and The Wheel’s members, coordinating and delivering training and events related to EU funding, and assisting organisations in building relationships with potential EU project partners.   

Johnny Sheehan is The Wheel’s Member Engagement Manager.  He works to ensure all our members are supported to work more effectively at a local, regional and national level. Johnny supports the public policy team to represent our members’, and the wider sector’s, shared interests. He has more than 25 years’ experience working in the development, youth work and environmental sectors and have served as a trustee on a number of charity boards. Johnny has a Law Society certificate in Charity Law, Trusteeship and Governance.

Claire McGowran is The We Act project Manager, working closely with a pan-sectoral steering group on an exciting new campaign to improve public awareness of the value and impact of the charity and community sector in Ireland. She holds a degree in Journalism from DCU and wrote for various newspapers and magazines as a digital editor for 8 years. Claire's interest in campaigns was sparked by her involvement in the campaign to Repeal the Eighth Amendment in 2018. Living in London at the time, she volunteered with the London-Irish Abortion Rights Campaign as an organiser for Home To Vote. She's also worked with UNICEF on a campaign to end child marriage and contributed to the Emigrant Papers as part of the campaign to expand voting rights for Irish emigrants.. 

Maria O'Connell is The Wheel's Business Development Manager, working with the Business Development Team. Her role involves supporting the objectives of the organisation's strategic plan by identifying, researching and accessing funding opportunities which enables The Wheel to deliver supports relevant to the sector. Maria's professional background is in community development, having previously worked as a development officer with the Rural Development (LEADER) Programme, delivering financial supports to community groups and business starts-ups.