John Dennehy

John Dennehy is the Secretary General of the Institute. Before joining the Institute, he served as Secretary General of Ireland’s Ministry of Education and Skills from 1999 to 2007. He initially qualified as a primary teacher and then went on to study for a BA in Education and an MSc in educational management. He also completed the Leadership for the 21st Century program at the John F Kennedy School of Government in Harvard. Before his appointment as Secretary General, Mr Dennehy held many key senior positions within the ministry. He served as Assistant Secretary General with special responsibility for European and International Affairs, Assistant Chief Inspector of schools, prior to which he was a teacher and a school principal. Mr Dennehy led Ireland’s Education Presidency of the European Union in 2004. From 1999 to 2006, Mr Dennehy was Chairman of the Education Committee of the OECD in Paris. He served as Director of International Development Ireland’s (IDI) Educational Services Division from 2007 until 2012. During this period, he worked as an education and public policy advisor with Ministers and Ministries in many countries across the Middle East. From 2012 until 2016, he worked with the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) as Senior Advisor to the Director General and Head of the Office of Planning and Strategic Affairs (OPSA). He was Secretary General of the Bussola Institute from 2018 to 2022.