About O'Donnell Associates
Meet The Team
Mark O'Donnell
Clair Bryan
Sarah Geoghegan
Brian Cavanagh
Jason MacGilp
Samatha Scholey
Mark O'Donnell - Director & Founder
Mark has been Chief Executive of 3 well known Scottish Charities – Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, Sight Scotland/Sight Scotland Veterans and Age Scotland. He is currently Chair of the UK medical research charity Action Against AMD and a Trustee of Heart Research UK and Day One Trauma Support as well as sitting on Marie Curie’s UK Policy and Research Committee.
Previous Trustee roles include the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations, Scottish Council for Visual Impairment and the Scottish Drugs Forum. He is also career mentor for the Mastercard Foundation Fellowship Scheme at the University of Edinburgh.
A Fellow of the Institute of Consulting, he has been responsible for a wide range of strategic and operational leadership functions in his career including complex regulated services in health, social care and special educational needs, community-based services, commercial and social enterprises, policy and research.
He has extensive experience in media and campaigning work as well as direct leadership experience of service reconfiguration, stakeholder engagement, rebranding exercises and the development of co-created organisational development and people strategies.
He also has valuable experience in Executive-team roles in the NHS in Scotland, as Head of Planning, Performance and Estates at the Scottish Ambulance Service and Interim Director of Planning and Equalities at NHS Health Scotland. He also spent 5 years on secondment to the Scottish Government, taking on Deputy Director roles in Health Improvement and then Healthcare Planning and Quality and a spell as Acting Policy Director in health and social care.
Mark is a member of the Institute of Directors and has an MSc in Social and Public Policy, an MA (Hons) in Politics and a Professional Certificate in Management.
Further strengthened by previous private sector consultancy work, Mark has extensive experience and insight in transformational change programmes, values-driven organisational development, growth and sustainability strategies, service redesign, governance improvement, policy and influencing strategies, and medical and social research programmes.
Clair Bryan – Associate
Clair has over twenty-five years leadership experience in the third sector, initially starting her career in London she moved to Scotland in 2006 where she is now permanently located.
She has experience of working in a range of senior roles in national and local charities. As Director of Services at Sight Scotland Veterans she held responsibility for delivering front line services to over 2000 services users per year. At MS Society Scotland she led the delivery of services, fundraising and local and national campaigning activities via the charity’s branch network and also held the charity’s UK self-management service portfolio. At Marie Curie as Head of Volunteering, she provided strategic direction and operational support to the charity, helping to grow Marie Curie’s volunteer base across the charity (fundraising, retail and services).
Clair has extensive experience of developing strategies to support growth, leading change and operational improvement programmes. She is a passionate advocate of co production and has a strong track record of working in partnership to design, fund and deliver new innovative services alongside communities. She has board level experience, currently as a Trustee of the Royal Society for the Support of Women of Scotland and previously as an Executive Board member of Sight Scotland, and Non-Executive Board member of Veterans Scotland. Clair is also a member of the Association of Chief Officers of Scottish Voluntary Organisations (ACOSVO), is MBA qualified and has a BA (Hons) in Sociology.
Sarah Geoghegan – Associate
Sarah Geoghegan of SGConsultancy has over 25 years experience in Operational Management and Improvement across the private, public and third sectors. She now works primarily with the third sector.
Following University Sarah quickly became the Managing Director of a small tour company, with high operational needs and low margins. This experience of running a business in a competitive market gave her a strong foundation in what is required to successfully manage a business leanly.
This foundation was then built upon during 8 years in a National and then UK-Wide Operations Manager role at Marie Curie. During this Sarah trained in all areas of Charity Compliance, Governance and Audit and began her journey in Lean Six Sigma.
Now a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and a Prince 2 Practitioner Sarah has worked as a freelance Operational Improvement Consultant for 8 years.
Sarah also has a Diploma in Accounting (AAT Level 3), a NEBOSH Diploma, and is a qualified trainer – she also has a robust knowledge of Employment Legislation, Data Protection Legislation and Charity Related Legislation – this means she has a wide and holistic range of skills and qualifications to bring to an organisations operations.
Working with over 15 organisations (on 25 projects) since becoming a freelance consultant Sarah has consulted, supported and implemented a variety of operational projects such as:
- Operational MOTs (A top to bottom operational review of an organisation to identify areas of waste, inefficiency and non-compliance),
- Process and Procedural Streamlining (Data Management, Management Reporting, Financial, HR, Production Lines, Health & Safety)
- Operational Strategy Development (Ensuring that the essential operational component of an organisation is going to be able to support and deliver the Organisations Vision and Strategy)
- System Implementation (e.g booking systems, CRMs, Management Information, EPOS)
- Gaining and Maintaining Operational Certifications (e.g ISO 9001/14001, SMAS Contractor, Safe Contractor, CHAS, Cyber Essentials )
Sarah is also an advisor to the MS Therapy Centre, Tayside Board of Trustees
Brian Cavanagh – Associate
A trusted adviser, consultant and mentor Brian Cavanagh brings unique perspectives and immense value to organisations and individuals: he has a range of specialisms – from board leadership and governance, strategic positioning and influencing, to how to engage more effectively, all of which deliver lasting high-level results for clients.
His experience of leading in the highly pressurised environments of health and local government, combined with his professional experience and coaching approach, brings a distinctive expertise that is valued by leaders and organisations. A trained business coach, working with CEOs and senior managers he understands the challenges they face and know that how they manage, and lead has a major impact on the success of their organisation. They value the confidential space and individual support that executive coaching brings.
The author of the book ‘Governing with Purpose’, Brian is a Board Member of Foscadh Housing in Ireland. Previous roles include Chair of Synaptik, an SME in the healthcare industry, Chair of NHS Lothian and Chair of Social Work at the City of Edinburgh Council.
Jason MacGilp – Associate
Jason was the Group Chief Executive of Cairn Housing Group from 2011 to 2023. Since 2024 he has been an associate at O’Donnell Associates. Cairn is a leading organisation in the Scottish social housing sector, with 200 staff, £25m turnover and 4,500 homes in local communities across Scotland. The group structure included a registered subsidiary and commercial enterprise.
Jason is a values-driven, outcomes-focussed leader, motivated to work collaboratively with colleagues and client organisations to help drive services, support organisational change and governance improvement, in a range of assignments and projects. He brings over 35 years of experience and management skills from a career with housing associations, local authorities, national policy organisations and a training consultancy.
Jason has extensive executive and senior management experience in leadership of senior teams, supporting governing bodies to ensure good standards of governance and regulatory compliance, including the role of company secretary. He has a demonstrable track record of service improvement and driving performance and staff engagement, including accreditations such as Best Companies, Quality Scotland and Customer Service Excellence.
Jason has a wide experience in developing sustainable partnerships and alliances, including multi-organisational collaborations, business growth, and strategic options, including delivery of projects on mergers and acquisitions between registered charities, achieving successful transition and integration programmes. He has experience of leading and supporting teams to support increased staff engagement, including cultural and values work.
Jason brings practical experience on good governance practice and governance improvement including roles as a statutory appointee in third sector organisations. He was also an elected member of the Scotland Board of the Chartered Institute of Housing 2012-2015 and an elected Board Director of the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations 2015-2023.
Jason is currently a Board Director of Changeworks, the environmental charity, whose mission is to work in partnership with housing providers and third sector and public sector to achieve the decarbonisation of Scotland’s housing on the pathway to Net Zero. He is also a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Housing.
Samantha Scholey – Associate
With over 10 years of experience in Operational Management, Samantha is an experienced leader known for her innovative approach and ability to manage and optimize the operational aspects of organisations.
Following University Samantha started her career in the psychology department in the prison sector running high intensity treatment programmes aimed at changing mindset and behaviours. She was quickly promoted to management and moved around England’s prisons managing different healthcare operations for different providers ensuring contract
requirements were met, new services developed, budgets remained within target and teams were supported.
During this time, she also worked with NHS England and other health and prison professionals to be involved in the pioneering change of introducing the smoke free policy framework for prisons.
Her tenure within the prison service equipped her with a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of operations management in dynamic environments which she took forward into NHS surgical management for a brief time before ending up as the Operations Director at Wilberforce Trust, a charity in York providing regulated and community services for people with sensory and other disabilities.
As the Operations Director Samantha oversaw the seamless execution of day-to-day operations while spearheading initiatives to drive long-term growth and financial sustainability. Her biggest achievements in the 6 years at Wilberforce Trust include leading through the COVID19 pandemic, creating new and innovative services to increase reach, impact and profit and operationally leading the design, the build and the transition of services to a purpose-built extra care housing scheme consisting of 30 one-bedroom apartments and other facilities.
Samantha is passionate about people and building environments in which they feel valued, motivated, and respected believing that empowered people give their best and drive meaningful outcomes. She has inspired and led multidisciplinary teams, fostering a collaborative and inclusive work culture providing direction, support, teambuilding, coaching and mentorship to staff and teams for both personal and professional growth.
Samantha is also a breathwork coach, clinical hypnotherapist and yoga teacher and is an avid gym goer as she knows how important the mind, body, soul connection is. She therefore brings both business and professional sector knowledge and experience but also a health, wellbeing and metaphysical skillset.
