Mary Sutton
Mary Sutton is Country Director for the Republic of Ireland at The Atlantic Philanthropies. She is based in Dublin.
In this role, Ms. Sutton leverages Atlantic’s activities and investments to maximise the foundation’s impact and contribution to the Republic of Ireland. She oversees grantmaking of Atlantic’s Ageing, Children & Youth and Reconciliation & Human Rights Programmes, and leads the Irish staff in the development of cross-programme and other strategies and grants. Ms. Sutton monitors the political, social and economic climate and its potential impact on the foundation’s grantmaking within the country, and she serves as liaison to government and other key partners.
Prior to joining Atlantic in 2008 as Programme Executive for Ageing in the Republic of Ireland, she was an official of the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs where she served as Principal Development Specialist with the Advisory Board for Irish Aid from 2002 to 2008. The Board oversaw the expanding Official Development Assistance programme, providing strategic direction and working closely with Irish Aid to maximise quality, effectiveness and accountability. For the previous 20 years, Ms. Sutton had worked with Trócaire, one of Ireland’s leading nongovernmental organisations in the field of international development, most recently as its Deputy Director. Earlier in her career, she worked with the Overseas Development Institute in London and the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace in Dublin.
Ms.Sutton has written and presented extensively on issues, including the role of nongovernmental organisations, macro-economic stabilisation policy, and Irish and European Union Official Development Assistance policy. She has served on various boards in governmental and nongovernmental arenas in Ireland and Europe.
She holds a M.A. in Economics from McMaster University in Canada and a B.Soc.Sc. in Economics and Sociology from University College Dublin.
