Padraic Gilligan

President
Society of Incentive & Travel Executives

Pádraic Gilligan holds a masters degree in Italian from University College Dublin and a post graduate qualification in Marketing from Boston College. Following a 13 year career in education, teaching at second and third levels, 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 commenced a robust global expansion programme which has seen the establishment of Ovation offices in 11 European and Middle Eastern destinations under the Ovation Global DMC brand.

Gilligan has written and spoken extensively on many aspects of meetings and incentives, regularly contributing to SITE , MPI and other industry bodies. For the past three years he has been focusing on Regulations in the Pharma Industry and ROI and has held seminars on these topic in Ireland, the UK, Belgium, the US, China and South Africa.

In 2004 he was elected to the International Board of the Society of Incentive and Travel Executives (SITE) and in 2008 will serve as President of this global organisation.

Gilligan is married to Rita Smyth and together they have 6 children. He is a passionate supporter of Arsenal Football Club, plays guitar and walks 3 miles every day. His ambition in life is to live long enough to be a burden on his children – a perfect model for ROI!