Our Team

Our Consultants are recognised for their sectoral knowledge as well as the experience and integrity that they bring to the executive search process.

  • Barry has over twenty years' experience of Human Resource Management, both in Ireland and overseas. Immediately prior to joining MERC Partners, he spent ten years as General Manager of Human Resources with a major food company.
  • Ruth Curran is a Partner with MERC Partners in Ireland. She has successfully recruited senior management across financial services, not-for-profit and globally traded services sectors.
  • Kieran Duff is a Partner with MERC Partners, Ireland`s leading executive search firm, and has successfully completed senior executive search assignments in professional services, ICT, FMCG / retail, corporate finance, international shared services and life sciences / healthcare.
  • John Glenny is a partner with MERC Partners in Ireland specialising in executive search. He has worked with clients in most sectors and has concentrated to an extent on the pharmaceutical, healthcare, medical devices and ICT industries.
  • Bill Hennessy is an Associate Partner with MERC Partners, Ireland`s leading executive search firm. Bill specialises in senior executive assignments across a broad spectrum of industry, concentrating to an extent on technology and manufacturing.
  • Siobhan O'Keeffe leads MERC Partners' in-house research team. She has over 8 years’ experience in executive recruitment and worked with a specialist recruitment group prior to joining MERC Partners' research team 6 years ago. Siobhan has conducted research assignments in most sectors and for most functions, including several senior-level assignments in financial services, consumer goods, professional services and life sciences.
Barry O`Connor, Managing Partner

Barry O'Connor - Managing Partner

A consultant and partner with MERC Partners since 1996, Barry’s earlier career was in human resource management. Educated at University College Dublin and the National College of Ireland, he joined Black & Decker Ireland Limited from a graduate development programme and progressed through to Human Resource Manager. He subsequently worked as Industrial Relations Manager with an Aer Lingus subsidiary, prior to joining Ireland’s largest start-up organisation in the mid 1980s; Shamrock Apparel Limited, as Human Resource Director. Previous to joining MERC Partners, he was General Manager Human Resources & Administration with Almarai Company Limited, an associate of the Masstock International Group. An experienced executive search consultant and management audit specialist, he has handled a multiplicity of resourcing assignments across a broad spectrum of industry and commerce, from chief executives to specialist roles and non-executive directors.   
Barry is a member of the Irish Marketing Society and is an accredited mediator with the British Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. He is also a member of the European Council of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC).