Margaret is an expert at using humour and visual language to demystify business, economics and innovation. At your event she’ll ensure lively discussions, respect for the audience’s needs, great time-keeping and memorable messages.
Margaret E. Ward is an entrepreneur and an award-winning financial journalist and broadcaster. She worked at Newstalk radio, The Irish Times, The Sunday Times and Gannett Newspapers (USA).
Margaret’s humorous newspaper column in The Irish Times warned of the impending financial crisis in 2008 and includes her often quoted “D’Oh School of Economics” article suggesting that Homer Simpson was at the controls of the financial regulatory system. Her Newstalk radio programme was known for "telling it like it is" and guiding listeners through the intricacies of the 2010 bailout and its consequences.
Margaret has a reputation for explaining and debating topics in a clear and humorous way at conferences and in the media. She is currently host of the Broadly Speaking leadership podcast in iTunes https://itunes.apple.com/ie/
Influences
Business and leadership fascinated her from a young age. Her first business at age nine, a lemonade stand in New York, morphed into a weekend ski trip business for students at age 14. That initial curiosity led to a 25-year career writing about, or creating, businesses in Ireland and the United States.
Journalism
Margaret is a member of the RTÉ Board and previously presented Newstalk's Breakfast Business during the Irish bailout, worked as an Irish Times’ business columnist and investigative journalist and as Money Editor for The Sunday Times. She won the Law Society of Ireland's Justice Media Award for an 18 month investigative report in The Irish Times.
Branding and marketing business
She founded global brand consultancy Clear Ink in 2006 taking it from a tiny start-up specialising in plain English to a global brand communications agency serving the world’s largest organisations, multinationals and government bodies. Seven years later she decided to start a second company and founded Broadly Speaking, a public speaking and media training company for professionals.
Boards
In 2015 Margaret was nominated for the RTÉ Board by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Communications and Transport and she also serves on the board of European Movement Ireland. She founded Women on Air and served as its Chair for four years.
Training
She is also a writing skills trainer and coach. Her companies Clear Inkclearink.ie and broadly.ie provide written and verbal communication skills training courses.
Recent speaking and chairing appointments include:
Chartered Accountants Ireland
Google
Northern Irish Assembly
3XE Digital Conference
Ibec
ISME
Network Ireland
Irish Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform
European Commission DG Enterprise and Innovation European Parliament
European Commission
US Embassy Dublin
Hay Festival
European Union Committee of the Regions
Irish Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Danish Agency of Science, Technology and Innovation
CO3 Media Summit, Belfast
Kilkenomics
Mindfield at Electric Picnic
IMPACT
WXN/ BNY Mellon
McCann Fitzgerald
Entrepreneurship – Unravelling secrets of entrepreneurial cultures, countries and individuals.
Leadership – Make your mark: how to develop your communication skills for leadership.
Management – Women at work: what do they need to succeed?
Branding – Bring your brand to life: beyond brand values and personality what does your brand sound like to customers? Why does it matter?
"Margaret chaired and led a panel discussion on female under-representation in the media as part of the first Assembly Women’s Week in 2016. She spoke with authority and experience and she challenged panel and audience members constructively and with humour. Her opening presentation was thought-provoking and engaging. Overall, Margaret brought professionalism, experience and a unique personal touch to the event." − Susie Browne, head of communications and outreach, Northern Irish Assembly
"Margaret chaired a session at RTÉs Mojocon Conference on the topic of "Story". Aside from her obvious professionalism with the panel of speakers she was remarkably quick to respond to a technical issue with one of the speaker’s presentations. She deftly encouraged another speaker to launch into an impromptu session with his harmonica and offered to accompany him with her Kazoo. This both broke the monotony of the delay during the setup and also became a talking point for the conference. It takes composure, skill and confidence to be able to react in such an ingenious way under pressure. Margaret clearly demonstrated that she has all of these in abundance. I would welcome her to chair another session for me in a heartbeat." − Glen Mulcahy, head of innovation, RTÉ (Story and storytelling, panel chair)
"Margaret E Ward is a total professional. From a fascinating and brilliantly delivered talk to her willingness to engage with us ahead of the conference in the press, it was an absolute pleasure to work with her from start to finish. Link to Interviews: http://irishtechnews.net/ITN3/businesses-must-clearly-communicate-their-message-margaret-ward-clear-ink/]
"Of all the speakers 3XE Digital worked with this year, she has been among the most highly rated by our audience. I can whole heartedly recommend Margaret as a speaker for any size event, and she proved at the last 3XE event that she could hold an audience of 450 in rapt attention." − Adrian Hopkins, 3XE Digital (Getting to the heart of what matters: quality content, speaker)
"Margaret was fabulous and the feedback about her was very positive. I am very happy with everything from start to finish. Many thanks for your support with this event – it was a very important and personal event to me and I’m incredibly proud of how it all came together." - Susie Brown, Head of Communications, The Northern Ireland Assembly, March 2016
“Margaret did a highly professional job for us of chairing a conference on the current economic crisis. Featuring high-profile economists and a specialist audience with strong views, the role of chair required both people skills and an excellent grasp of the topic. With her solid knowledge of economics and her ability to use clear language, Margaret was able to steer the debate and keep all the loose ends together without losing the audience or the speakers. We were delighted with feedback from participants. " - European Commission Representation Ireland
"I recently had the pleasure of inviting Margaret to participate in a series of briefings to our Independent Group of Senators (Taoiseach's Nominees) in advance of the Budget. I invited Margaret due to her background in financial journalism, her experience as a small business owner and her reputation for telling it like it is. As anticipated, Margaret's presentation was both refreshing and well researched. She has a unique ability to communicate the human dimension of budgetary and financial implications. I value Margaret's expertise and appreciate our ongoing collaboration". - Senator Jillian van Turnhout, Oireachtas
"Margaret brings her unique style of energy, conviction and clarity to bear on a wide range of subjects, having that unique ability to gauge the needs and attitudes of ordinary people and reflect them back in her common sense, plain speaking style. She is an engaging presenter, and a passionate advocate of transparency and clear communications, the need for which has never been greater than now across political, social and corporate life in Ireland."
- Pauline McKiernan, Corporate Sustainability Manager, Communications & Corporate Services, Ulster Bank
"Since 2003 Margaret has been a regular contributor to my programmes. She is hugely articulate, widely read, knowledgeable and a persuasive and entertaining contributor. She brings work experience, financial street wisdom and even the power of motherhood to the proceedings." - Tom McGurk, Broadcaster with RTE and Sunday Business Post Columnist
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"Margaret's a great natural speaker - compelling, informative and she breaks down the subject matter so everyone can understand it."
- Paddy McDonnell, Producer of Newstalk's Breakfast Show
"I would just like to sincerely thank you for doing such a wonderful job as Chairperson this morning. It is a tough job and you made it look so effortless, carefree and natural - I could not have picked a better person for the job! Thanks you so much. For your own knowledge, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive." -
Retail Ireland Conference 2013
"I really can't fully convey how much IMPACT appreciated your participation. We have had extensive feedback. It has, without exception, been full of compliments for the content and the speakers’ presentations. This result is due in no small measure to the quality of your contribution as the facilitator" - Kevin Callinan, Deputy General Secreatary, IMPACT