Ali Donnelly

I am hugely passionate about promoting women's sports - especially rugby! I founded this award winning website back in 2009 and the site is now the recognised home of women's rugby on the web. The site is run by myself and a team of volunteers. It won a prestigious Rugby Writers Award in 2014 for its contribution to raising the profile of women's rugby and I was also named in Rugby World's 100 most influential people in rugby in 2017.

In 2021 I published my first book on the history of… Show more

I am hugely passionate about promoting women's sports - especially rugby! I founded this award winning website back in 2009 and the site is now the recognised home of women's rugby on the web. The site is run by myself and a team of volunteers. It won a prestigious Rugby Writers Award in 2014 for its contribution to raising the profile of women's rugby and I was also named in Rugby World's 100 most influential people in rugby in 2017.

In 2021 I published my first book on the history of women's rugby. Show less

Led the communications, marketing and digital team at Sport England while sitting on the executive leadership team for the organisation.

Helped to run the No 10 Press Office, leading and managing a high performing team and spoke on behalf of the Prime Minister at on the record press briefings to UK and international political press. Provided trusted media advice to the Prime Minister and the wider political team at No 10; deputised for the PM’s Official Spokesman and worked closely with Whitehall counterparts.
Travelled regularly with the PM, and promoted and defended the government's record and agenda.

Worked closely with Ministers, their private offices, policy officials and colleagues to plan and implement media strategies, including organising interviews, visits, and announcements. Led on priority policy areas for the department & worked to communicate these to the media in an accessible and creative way.

Led all communications for one of the most successful rugby clubs in Europe. Managed a small but high performing team overseeing all internal and external communication channels for the Club including those with staff, stakeholders, sponsors and media across all platforms. Led numerous 'big game' campaigns; overhauled our digital channels and redeveloped how we communicated with supporters. Handled high profile communications around two takeovers.

Covered a variety of high profile issues and had special responsibilities supporting corporation's diversity policies. Moved on promotion to BBC Worldwide - the corporation's commercial arm - and worked as part of a team helping to manage BBC Worldwide's corporate reputation internationally as well as supporting its public affairs programme.

At Ireland's leading daily regional paper, I worked across the news and sports desks. I won the Smurfit Business School's Regional Business Journalist of the Year award in 2007 for a series of articles about Ireland's airport debt. I also initiated and founded the newspaper's Women in Sport monthly awards, which celebrated their 10th year in 2017.

In my early time in London, I worked in a wide variety of roles including as a journalist for Marketing magazine & at Sky Sports News.