Noelle O Connell was appointed CEO of European Movement Ireland in April 2011. European Movement Ireland is Ireland’s longest established Not for Profit membership organisation dedicated to developing the connection between Ireland and Europe founded in 1954. As the organisation’s CEO, Noelle is the public spokesperson for the organisation and she regularly makes appearances on national and international media to give commentary on the ongoing Brexit negotiations, as well as the latest developments across the EU and in Ireland. Noelle is Vice President of European Movement International which encompasses European Movement councils in 34 countries in addition to 38 international associations representing civil society, business, trade unions, NGOs, political groups and academics.
Prior to leading European Movement Ireland, Noelle provided business development training, education, and public affairs consultancy to a wide variety of both private and public sector clients. She also has extensive experience of working in the third level sector and has managed and led on significant national and international funding projects (e.g. Interreg, Skillnets, Erasmus+, Europe for Citizens etc.)
Noelle is a voluntary Director of the board of Alliance Française Irlande, and in 2017 was awarded the French Chévalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite. In 2019, she was appointed an International Leadership Fellow of Society of Leadership Fellows, St. George’s House, Windsor. She is also a member of the Institute of Directors, the CIPD, and is a Fellow of the Irish Institute of Training and Development (IITD). In July 2021, she was appointed by the Irish government to act as Ireland’s National Citizen Representative to the Conference on the Future of Europe. She was selected as one of the Taoiseach’s independent nominees to serve in the National Economic and Social Council.
She holds a BA Hons in European Studies, French and Spanish from University College Cork, Ireland, a DEUF Diploma from Université de Jean Moulin, Lyon III, France and a MSc in International Relations from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, Executive Diplomas in Finance, Strategy and Innovation from the Irish Management Institute (IMI) and speaks Irish, French and Spanish.