In this series, we find out what makes female leaders tick. This month, we meet Cara O’Leary from LinkedIn Ireland …
On meeting Cara O’Leary, Country Manager at LinkedIn Ireland and Senior Director at LinkedIn Talent Solutions Europe, I’m immediately struck by her warmth. There’s no sense of performance as she speaks with confidence about the business she leads, the changing world it operates in and what drives her, at work and at home.
The third of four children, Cara’s originally from Cork, although much of her childhood was spent between Dublin and Limerick. Based in Dublin for over 25 years, she now lives in Mount Merrion with her husband Conor and their four sons, who fill their home with “noise, laughter and a lot of joy”.
Growing up, education was formative – she studied Business and French at the University of Limerick, a time that sparked a lasting interest in travel.
From early on, her focus was never on titles, but on doing interesting work. She spent the first 16 years in recruitment, working across Irish firms and US multinationals in fast-paced environments. A pivotal moment came in 2016 when she received an InMail on LinkedIn inviting her to interview for a role. Despite already holding a senior leadership position, she decided to join the fold, saying, “It felt like a bold pivot, but the vision of the company and the calibre of the people convinced me that it was the right move”.
Nearly a decade on, that decision has shaped a significant leadership journey. Today, Cara leads LinkedIn’s Dublin site, which is also the company’s EMEA and LATAM headquarters, bringing together teams across engineering, product, sales, marketing and customer solutions. The work supports members, customers and partners across multiple regions, while initiatives such as the LinkedIn Dublin Community Space aim to connect underserved communities with opportunity.
Mentorship has played an important role in her career to date: she talks about leaders who challenged her thinking and encouraged her to take risks, but she is equally strong on the role of sponsorship which she believes is “the power of having people advocate for you in rooms you are not in”.
Her decision to join LinkedIn was shaped by its culture and purpose, its emphasis on diversity and inclusion, and supporting women in leadership. Above all, it was the mission – creating economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce – that resonated most. “It’s the network that works for you” is how she describes it.
Cara and her team are focused on how LinkedIn can continue to support a rapidly changing world of work. The scale of that change is significant. LinkedIn data suggests that the skills required for jobs will change by around 65 per cent by 2030, while there has been a sharp increase in non-technical professionals taking AI-related courses on LinkedIn Learning.
One of the most notable shifts is the move from job-based to skills-based thinking. She asserts careers are becoming less linear, with individuals building far more fluid paths, while organisations are placing greater emphasis on potential over traditional credentials, opening opportunities for a more diverse talent pool.
Artificial intelligence is accelerating that shift, with a dramatic rise in members adding AI skills such as Copilot and ChatGPT to their profiles. For Cara, it’s already embedded in how she works. “Copilot is literally my copilot,” she says, adding, “AI will ultimately remove tedious, repetitive tasks, enabling people to spend more time doing the work they enjoy”. Essentially, AI is augmenting human capability, not replacing it.
Ireland is a particularly interesting example – leading in hybrid work across EMEA, while also facing challenges such as youth unemployment and emerging skills gaps in sectors like ICT, healthcare and green energy. The aim is to help organisations make informed decisions, while enabling individuals to identify where opportunity lies.
Outside of work, life is equally full and Cara’s family plays a central role. Many evenings and weekends, she’s at her happiest coaching the under 12s team or shouting on her boys from the sidelines at Kilmacud Crokes, one of Dublin and Ireland’s largest GAA clubs.
If there’s one thing that she’d like to do more of, it’s to spend time with friends. “The odd night we get out, you’d have a pain in your face laughing so hard!”, she says. “I know we’ll come back together when the kids get older … everybody’s busy and I don’t feel any guilt about that”.
Her life’s philosophy is to “have no regrets” and one of the most important lessons she’s learned so far is that, “You don’t have to choose between different parts of your life to succeed, but you can’t have everything at the same time”.
Balance is the holy grail that eludes many leaders, but not Cara.
