Art O’Leary is Chief Executive of An Coimisiún Toghcháin, the Irish Electoral Commission, an independent State management and oversight organization for electoral and wider democracy matters.
From 2014 – 2021, Art was Secretary General to the President of Ireland, acting as Chief of Staff and Chief Adviser to President Michael D. Higgins.
In 2012 Art designed and managed Ireland’s first initiative in deliberative democracy – the Constitutional Convention – which resulted in a number of changes to the Constitution. Since then he has either managed or been a senior adviser on the 5 Citizens’ Assemblies which followed in the last 10 years.
Art also worked in the Irish Parliament, the Houses of the Oireachtas, for over 20 years, primarily as a member of the senior management team as Director of Parliamentary Committees, Information & Communications, Human Resources.
He is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Politics and Government at University College Cork.