FUEL announces four new directors as part of experience and entertainment group’s growth business
The newly appointed FUEL team members will assume the senior roles of director of content, director of marketing, experience director and business development director.
FUEL, one of Ireland’s leading experience and entertainment agencies, has announced four senior appointments. With headquarters located on Dublin city’s Camden street, Steven Courtney joins FUEL as director of content, Shell Holden as director of marketing, Molly Bracken as experience director and Rachael Gallivan as business development director.
Director and co-founder of FUEL, Jamie Deasy, commented on the appointments, saying: “We are excited to have Steven and Shell leading our content and marketing departments at FUEL respectively. As multi-award winners and highly respected in their fields, Steven brings over 20 years of experience in content creation, production, and management, while Shell is a leading light of the Irish festival and event scene. With FUEL being a global leader in employee experience solutions, we are thrilled to welcome Molly, who brings a wealth of experience in producing large-scale international events such as Lisbon’s Web Summit. In her director role, Rachael leads on business development and we look forward to the combined expertise of our four new directors further driving our growth strategy and reputation as a global leader in the entertainment and experience industry." These appointments follow last year’s expansion of FUEL’s executive leadership team including Keith McCormack appointed as executive director, Jonny Boyle as director of brand experience and Gráinne Earley as director of employee experience solutions.
Steven Courtney has been appointed as FUEL’s new director of content as the company continues its global expansion. Steven has over twenty years experience in multi-platform content creation, production and management, having overseen a wide variety of large scale, award-winning projects for brands including Three, FBD, PTSB, The National Lottery, SKY and Guinness amongst others. Steven comes to FUEL from Motherland, where he held the position of managing director and led numerous projects to widespread industry acclaim, including accolades like the Shark Awards, ICAD Awards, and a prestigious nomination for the RTS Ireland Television Award. Prior to his tenure at Motherland, Steven led Event Junkies, served as creative director at ShinAwiL and founded Offscript.
Shell Holden steps into her new role as director of marketing, where she will oversee the development and management of FUEL’s new marketing department. With over 17 years of experience, Shell is an award-winning marketer and seasoned festival director, known for her success in creating and managing marketing and public relations campaigns across festivals and events, arts and culture, hospitality and food sectors and many more. Prior to FUEL, Shell was festival director for Ireland’s largest summer festival, City Spectacular, and now leads marketing for FUEL's two major festivals; WellFest, Europe's largest outdoor health and wellness festival, and Kaleidoscope, Ireland's largest dedicated family festival, which FUEL manages in partnership with Festival Republic, Live Nation, and MCD. As co-founder of event company Best in Fest, Shell remains the co-director of the National Menopause Summit. Her accolades include four time winner of Best Entertainment Event Sponsorship and Innovation in Sponsorship at the Irish Sponsorship Awards, as well as a finalist in the Public Relations Campaign Award category at the All-Ireland Marketing Awards 2024.
Molly Bracken joins as experience director of FUEL’s employee experience solutions division. As employee experience partners for companies with over 250,000 employees in 55 cities worldwide, FUEL stands as a global leader in employee experience solutions with their clients including Paypal, Meta and Coca-Cola amongst others. Under the leadership of Gráinne Earley, FUEL is also Ireland’s first and only agency specialising in all three key areas of employee experience including shaping standout reputations for employer brands, crafting culture and creating positive employee experiences that inspire pride, satisfaction and commitment. Before joining FUEL, Molly was a lead event producer for Web Summit’s 75,000 person conference in Lisbon and served as an experience director at Catapult for six years. Molly has produced large-scale international events in regions including North America, EMEA, and APAC.
Rachael Gallivan has been appointed as business development director with responsibility for driving strategic growth of the experience and entertainment group. With over 15 years extensive experience in the media landscape, her role sees her working closely with FUEL’s executive leadership team to deliver company-wide growth, Rachael’s career includes leadership at both strategic and operational levels, including her roles as chief operations officer at IMAGE Media, department head at Maximum Media and senior manager at Accenture Song.
Founded by Brian McDermott and Jamie Deasy in 2013, FUEL’s impressive client list includes global heavyweights like Meta, Sky, World Rugby, KPMG, Indeed, PayPal, Paddy Power, Accenture, Lidl, Universal Music Group and Google, as well as national giants such as AIB and Leinster Rugby.