CEO – Sinéad O’Brien
Sinéad O’Brien has been leading SWAN’s work since 2004, she has a degree in Zoology from University College Cork and is a passionate advocate for the water environment. Sinéad oversees all of SWAN’s work, represents SWAN on a number of public bodies and leads SWAN’s policy work related to River Basin Management Planning and the EU Water Framework Directive.
Advocacy and Communications Manager – Antóin McDermott
Antóin McDermott joined SWAN in 2021. He has a BA in English and Sociology, a MSc in Sustainable Development and a MA in Digital Media Technologies. Prior to joining SWAN, Antóin worked in various communication, digital, and design roles in environmental education, politics, the NGO sector and financial services. Antóin leads SWAN’s communication, media, PR, digital, advocacy, and campaign work.
Marine & Coastal Policy Officer – Emma Armshaw
Emma Armshaw joined SWAN in 2023. She has a BA in Political Science and International Affairs, a MSc in Marine Biology, a MSc in Public Policy & Global Governance and a PGCert in Marine Spatial Planning. Prior to joining SWAN, Emma worked on international democracy strengthening, leading policy and advocacy projects on inclusive and accountable politics around the world
Freshwater Policy Officer – Puneeta Sreenivas
Puneeta Sreenivas joined SWAN in 2025. She has an MSc in Environmental Science and a PhD in Environmental engineering. Prior to joining SWAN, Puneeta was a research scholar, pursuing her doctorate at University College Dublin, where her research focussed on mitigating the impacts of surface runoff on freshwater quality, using new sustainable drainage materials.
COO – Audrey Vallier
Audrey joined SWAN in 2024. She has a BA in Psychology, a PgD in Marketing and Customer Relationship Management, and a MBA. Prior to joining SWAN, Audrey worked in various roles in administration, operations and finance management both in the Corporate and NGO sector, in France, Canada and Ireland. Audrey oversees the day-to-day operations and administration functions of SWAN, and ensures organisational effectiveness with lead responsibilities in Governance, Financial Management, Operations and Organisational Development.
Finance & Office Administrator – Orla Burke
Orla holds a BA in French and Philosophy and an MA in French. She has over 10 years of experience in the organic horticulture sector, including time spent working on various farms and running her own organic business. In addition to her work in sustainable agriculture, Orla has over five years of governance experience in the not-for-profit sector.
Communications Officer – Victoria Ivory
Victoria joined SWAN in 2026. She has an MSc in Risk, Resilience and Sustainability and a BSc in Geography, Politics and International Relations. Victoria completed a thesis looking at mangroves as a nature-based solution to coastal climate change risks focusing on Mozambique as a case study including carrying out on the ground research. Prior to joining SWAN, Victoria worked in the NGO sector as the Campaigns Officer for Concern Worldwide, was a Research Assistant on a nature-based solutions for flood risk management project in UCD and has a background in climate activism.
Senior Finance & Operations Officer – Jackie Candon
Jackie joined SWAN in 2026 on a maternity cover contract. She is a Chartered Accountant. Jackie worked for many years in both practice and industry in the Financial Services sector. She worked in various auditing, finance and risk management roles. Following a career break she worked for several years on a voluntary basis in the Charities sector. Here she focused on Governance, Procedures and Financial Management.