Our People
We believe that once an organisation and its people are aligned, anything can be achieved. We provide the essential people management skills for developing leading-edge employee strategies and delivering best results.
Every member of the Ascend team is an expert in their field and brings their experience and expertise to every intervention, bringing out the best in clients.
Shay Clancy, Founder/MD
Shay is Managing Director and Founder of Ascend. He specialises in enhancing organisational effectiveness, of companies, driving transformational programs to optimise performance, improve leadership capacity and organisational 'health' outcomes. He achieves this by serving as an advisor to companies, strategizing and designing the right approach for their organisation and the implementation to ensure the objectives and goals are achieved.
Shay is a high-energy, creative thinker and believes in an authentic leadership approach which ensures the alignment of people and business optimisation. He is deeply passionate about helping people achieve their true potential and is totally committed to his clients achieving the results they desire. His unique energy and creativity has been described by many clients as "invigorating". He serves as a Master Coach & Lead Faculty on Global Leadership Development Programmes operating in US, Europe and Asia.
Paul Aherne, Principal/Consultant
Paul is a Human Resources & Performance Consultant who is passionate about supporting organisations & business leaders to reach their highest potential performance. His experience working with companies and individuals in Global organisations, enables them to understand and perform at their full potential, with a specific focus on HR Strategy, Organisation Development & Design, Performance Management, Employee Engagement, Leadership Development, Talent Management & Development.
Allied to his robust academic background in Sports Psychology, Business and Occupational Psychology, he can leverage cutting edge, well-founded techniques and approaches to deliver significant individual and business results.
Felicity Kerrigan, Principal/Executive Coach
As a Principal of Ascend, Felicity’s at the core of all operations including client project management, communications and administration. She is the key point of contact for the distribution of our psychometrics and certifications including the full suite of EQ-i 2.0 (Emotional Intelligence) assessments, the Leadership Circle Profile (LCP), the Leadership Culture Survey (LCS) and Pearman Integrator (Personality). As an executive coach she is passionate about supporting individuals in discovering how to embrace the challenges and impact of change within their executive, leadership roles and organisations.
Having spent a number of years overseas working in the US and the UK in Director of Marketing & Communications roles within the tech sector she is adept at dealing with the complexities and challenges of interfacing with global clients and partners. Felicity also works closely with Ascend's global affiliate base ensuring the smooth roll-out of client/program support, business development and communication requirements.
Lydia Phelan, Head of Finance
As the Head of Finance in Ascend, Lydia Phelan deals with all the financial aspects related to clients, affiliates and service providers. She is also the key financial liaison that works closely with Ascend Principals and supports the management of clients and affiliates involved with core programmes and specific usage of psychometric products. She works closely to effectively manage Ascend’s distributor relationship with MHS.
With a background in financial and account management and her extensive experience with a range of clients based in Ireland and the UK, Lydia's contribution is invaluable to many time-sensitive deliverables required in support of the Ascend core team.
Mary Goulding
Senior Affiliate
Mary has worked over the last 21 years as a strategic business consultant, facilitator, and business & executive coach.
Mary’s depth of business experience comes from many years as a senior executive and CEO of her own technology company and a public company. This coupled with her extensive consulting and coaching experience has given her in-depth understanding of the breadth of business challenges that face CEO's and executives in all aspects of their business, and brings a unique set of skills to this arena.
As an experienced CEO herself, Mary is passionate about helping other CEO’s and senior executives develop their leadership and management skills and maximise their personal and business potential.
Mary specialises in Strategy development and Innovation, Leadership effectiveness, Emotional Intelligence, Management development and High performing teams, Alignment of Culture and Organisation, People Development, Performance Management, Managing and Building relationships, Communication, Influencing skills, Problem-solving, and Self-Leadership.
Julia Harig, Senior Affiliate
Julia is an ICF-certified Executive and Leadership Coach whose passion is supporting ambitious, goal-oriented leaders and future leaders to own their voice and amplify their impact. She combines expertise in business communication development, executive coaching, mindset and behavioural change to deliver self-discovery and learning pathways to clients seeking exceptional performance in their chosen fields.
Julia believes “Facilitation starts with structure and motivation, mapping out fortified or new synergies, and results in empowering workshops that take leadership teams on a trajectory towards success”. Julia specialises in 1-1 coaching, strategic planning for leadership teams, leadership and management development, 360 psychometric feedback, team dynamics and communication styles, executive presence, presentation and public speaking skills
Brenda Dooley, Senior Affiliate
Brenda is an experienced executive coach and HR consultant. She has strong expertise in strategic human resource management drawing on decades of business experience in a major Irish financial services organisation, having held a variety of roles from operational positions up to the C-suite role of HR director. Brenda has clear insights into complex multi-faceted organisations undergoing significant change and the importance of having effective leaders in place to bring their teams through the change process.
With her acknowledged expertise in HRM, Brenda can also assist senior executives as they resolve strategic organisational people issues.
Brenda has worked successfully with senior leaders in the private and public sectors, on a range of individual and team coaching issues including; Strategic Direction, Leadership, Talent Management, Performance Management, Employee Engagement, Stakeholder Management, Communications , Conflict Management, Executive Presence for C-suite leaders, Senior executives, Senior women executives and Executives in transition.
Glyn Billinghurst, Senior Affiliate
Glyn is an experienced executive level professional whose commercial, managerial, and operational capabilities and insight have been shaped over 25 years working with Multinational Organisations. His professional passion lies in delivering positive results and accelerated growth through the development of people, teams, and organisations he works with.
Throughout his career Glyn has demonstrated the ability to build support and alignment behind carefully balanced short and long-term initiatives from internal stakeholders, key customers and third parties. Developing a reputation for transforming businesses by providing clarity and direction, effectively mobilising people and resources and delivering results in high pressure and complex business environments. Glyn is currently completing a Masters in Personal and Management Coaching in UCC.