The Mongoose leadership team

The motto of the Mongoose family is to Run and Find Out. We combine this hunger for knowledge and insight to deliver the best sports sponsorship, PR, digital and activation campaigns, using our years of industry experience and make sure we run like no other.

Our team of specialists have senior experience at some of the largest global brands, most renowned events and award winning agencies and are here to help out-think, outwit and outplay your competitors.

Chris O'Donoghue

Mongoose Group CEO

Chris has spent the last 15 years living the mongoose way - running and finding deals within sports and entertainment marketing, PR and comms. 

He has driven key client sponsorships with the likes of Rolex, Heineken, Sony, Aberdeen Standard and Thomson Reuters through a variety of different disciplines including Sailing, Golf, Cycling, Triathlon and Expeditions.  Chris also leads all of the military sports work the Agency is renowned for.   

Chris’ main passion is tennis and while his backhand needs a fair amount of work, he has secured and managed some of the sport’s biggest sponsorship programmes, including being responsible for the sponsorship assets for the WTA globally, the ATP and The ATP Champions Tour.

Since moving from Waterford, Ireland to the UK 15 years ago, Chris’ Irish accent has progressively diluted. His sea legs continue to be terrible but his time to run 5k is improving.

Laura Pollard

Mongoose Group COO

Laura is our business & strategy guru. She has 10 years’ experience, most recently at Vodafone where she headed up their fashion sponsorship programme, building the ground-breaking principal sponsorship of London Fashion Week.   

Prior to this, Laura worked rights holder and agency side, guiding global consumer brands such as MasterCard, Pepsi, Lavazza, Thomas Cook Sports and BG Group through sports, music and fashion sponsorship activation.   

Laura lives and breathes Mongoose strategy, leading our return on investment division and making sure we outwit, out-think and outplay in everything we do.

Laura was once a European Lacrosse Champion, but these days when the sun is shining she is more likely to be seen outside the public houses of Fulham sipping on a G&T with a slice of grapefruit.

Lucy I'Anson

Managing Director, Communications

Lucy is an accomplished senior account handler with over 15 year’s agency, project and client management experience. 

She is competent in developing and managing multi-tiered communication projects on a global, European and local level. Her sponsorship experience includes creating and activating brand partnerships for clients including QBE, Aviva, Gillette, Reebok and Evian. 

Working with rights holders and NGB’s including, RFU, RFL, England Golf, Rugby Europe and England 2015.  Her project, PR and marketing experience covers London 2012, celebrity, music, technology, fashion, sport, FMCG and charity sectors.

The times where Lucy isn’t using her annual leave on the slopes, she tends to be thinking about skiing, dreaming about skiing, or booking the next trip skiing. Since joining Mongoose Lucy has most certainly upped the share price of Malibu.

Will Dineen

Mongoose Group Business Development Director

Over the past 14 years Will has enjoyed success working in Commercial and Business Development roles for a number of iconic Rights Holders within the Sport & Entertainment Industry, including IMG, AEG, SYCO Entertainment & the ATP where he has worked across multiple commercial platforms including venues, live, broadcast, digital, social media, touring and licensing.

 

His expertise focus on working closely with Rights Holders to identify new and existing commercial assets to transform them in to bespoke partnership opportunities to take to market and engage with brands. He has in depth experience of constructing Naming Rights partnerships and various different Category Partnerships. This has enabled Will to develop strong relationships with a variety of fantastic Global & UK Brands over the years.

 

Mongoose is Will’s first delve in to agency life and he is thoroughly enjoying the fast pace and variety of services on offer to clients and brands alike. It has however, taken a bit of time for the team at Mongoose to palate his range of chino colours & shirt combinations…

 

Outside the world of Mongoose, Will tries to keep fit by playing Tennis, Running and Golf when he can (he often talks a better game than he plays!) and watches most live sport when he gets the opportunity.

Amy Rowe

Head of Digital and Social

Amy has worked in digital marketing and PR for more than 12 years. As a former journalist with a background in content, website builds and SEO, she has a keen eye for copy and conversions. She brings her love of a good story to every facet of marketing activation - from email campaigns right through to social media strategy. Clients include Jaguar Land Rover, Bupa, RNIB and John Lewis.

She is also a moderately enthusiastic runner and manages her local sports club’s social media in her spare time. When not obsessing over her rapidly declining stats on Strava, Amy can be found either trying to write short horror stories, campaigning for better use of subtitles or supporting the non-for-profit PR school Socially Mobile.

Amelie Hawkins

Head of PR

Amelie has worked in Sport and Fitness PR for nearly 10 years. Amelie is Mongoose’s resident fitness and lifestyle expert managing our relationships with Optimum Nutrition, Spartan, The North Face and Monster.

Her experience spans from leading on PR and influencer programmes, developing communications strategies as well as on-event press management and global media management. As the resident linguist, Amelie speaks both French and Spanish fluently and manages all our global clients and agency network. She is learning Gaelic to translate Chris’ thick Irish accent.

Amelie is always trying out the latest fitness classes and health foods and chewing someone’s ear off on the benefits of protein consumption. That said on the weekends you are most likely to find her undoing all the good of her daily weekday workouts in the local restaurants of sunny Kent. 

 

Kirstyn Macrandal

Head of Integrated Campaigns

With nearly a decade of PR experience and a background in sport science, Kirstyn specialises in the lifestyle, sports and fitness sector. Over this time Kirstyn has worked with a wide range of big brands including adidas, Lucozade Sport, Technogym and World Triathlon.

 As a senior account director at Mongoose, Kirstyn works closely with her clients to create and deliver innovative campaigns that drive brand awareness and influence. From blogger advocacy programmes to expert roundtable events she has made a tangible impact to client business.

Kirstyn is passionate about her work and not shy to live and breathe the brands she works; from 5k running events and triathlons, to coast to coast adventure races or even casually cycling to Paris of a weekend.

Matt Hocken

Head of Creative

Matt is fascinated by the business of sport, creativity and communication. He has experience working across a number of big-name brands in sports and entertainment including Beats by Dre, Paddy Power, Red Bull, ASICS and Channel 4, as well as a more varied background in film, lifestyle and charity sectors.

 

It’s this eclectic background which informs his creativity and helps Mongoose clients reach a diverse set of audiences, through the channels and approach that is right for them.

 

Alongside work Matt has taken his creativity into other areas, whether writing and performing a play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival or performing stand-up comedy. He doesn’t shy away from a challenge either having completed three marathons and two triathlons. 

Charlotte Birley

Head of Asia Pacific

Having spent 16 years in some of London’s most iconic marketing agencies working with clients like Nintendo, Electronic Arts, and Mondelēz, Charlotte moved to Singapore in 2015 and has spent the past 6 years getting under the skin of the experiential, activation and sponsorship scene in Asia. She leads client accounts for Under Armour, Western Union, Disney, Netflix and other global brands, delivering award-winning brand experiences in several countries across Southeast Asia including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, and Indonesia.

Outside of agency life, Charlotte can mostly be found on a trampolining the Mongoose way, giving it everything as a part-time jumping fitness instructor for Jumping Singapore – a not-for-profit organisation who helps to support the homeless community in Singapore.