Pádraic Gilligan

Managing Partner, SoolNua & Chief Marketing Officer, Society for Incentive Travel Excellence (SITE)

Pádraic Gilligan is Managing Partner at SoolNua, a marketing agency working with destinations, venues and hotels. Prior to founding SoolNua, Gilligan was Vice President of Ovation, MCI’s global DMC network and Vice President of Industry Relations at MCI.

Gilligan holds BA and MA degrees in Italian and English literature from University College Dublin and a post graduate diploma in Marketing from Boston College. Following a 13 year career in education, he started Delaney Marketing Consultants in 1994 with Patrick Delaney. In 2002 Delaney Marketing acquired Ovation and re-branded as Ovation Group. In June 2007 Ovation was acquired by MCI Group and commenced a robust global expansion programme establishing offices at 100 global destinations under the Ovation Global DMC brand.

In 2004 he was elected to the International Board of the SITE and served as international President of this global organisation in 2008. He currently serves as Chief Marketing Officer at the association. Pádraic is a passionate supporter of Arsenal Football Club, a performing singer-songwriter, loves riding his bicycle and is proud grandfather to 7 grandsons! He blogs at www.padraicino.com