Leaders driven by real purpose
Fergal is an Entrepreneurial Specialist at University College Dublin (UCD) Innovation Academy where he facilitates design thinking innovation programmes for undergrads/postgrads and public & private sector organisations including ESB and EXL. He is also innovation programme lead on Enterprise Ireland’s Go Global 4 Growth, a Government-sponsored management development programme for high potential SMEs and is Programme Manager, public sector innovation at the Institute of Public Administration (IPA).
Fergal has supported numerous teams to develop innovation initiatives that accelerate innovation culture. He has developed Calls for Ideas and Innovation Competitions at many corporates including PayPal, MetLife, Roche, Bayer, PwC, Deloitte, BDO, Matheson, William Fry, World Rugby, Vodafone, Colgate-Palmolive, numerous SMEs including McKeon Group, Ethos Engineering, Activ8, Altuent, Click&Go, TLI Group and public sector organisations including National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), An Garda Siochana – the Irish Police Force, and several local authorities including Fingal, South Dublin, Kildare and Laois.
Jack is passionate about helping organisations tackle real-world challenges through collaborative, creative problem-solving. He has designed and facilitated hackathons and design thinking sprints for organisations including PwC, LGMA and UCD, guiding teams to turn ideas into actionable solutions while fostering a culture of experimentation. He’s also taken part in countless hackathons himself, always chasing ideas that can make a real difference.
With experience growing startups, building customer success functions, and leading international sales roles, Jack combines practical know-how with a focus on creating hands-on, impactful experiences.
At Anytime Innovation, he’s driven by a commitment to delivering experiences that spark creativity, encourage collaboration, and turn ideas into tangible results
Fiona Rowley brings nearly 30 years of professional experience, including 20 years in Operational Management, and Client Service with JP Morgan Bank plc. In 2016, she founded Empowerpeople, a leadership development company specialising in coaching, mentoring, training, and facilitation, with a strong emphasis on creative leadership, innovation, and entrepreneurship.
Her work is grounded in participative and imaginative approaches that support leaders in navigating change, fostering innovation, and unlocking their full potential. Fiona has coached and facilitated across a wide range of sectors, working with senior leaders, emerging talent, and cross-functional teams. Her approach is people-centred, aiming to create space for reflection, growth, and meaningful transformation. She facilitates on the Entrepreneurship & Innovation modules at University College Dublin, where she shares her passion for creative thinking and leadership development with students and professionals alike.
Jack has spent years in diverse startups across Web3, FinTech, recruitment, and education — places where problem definition matters more than having the right answer immediately. Having seen what prototyping and iteration actually look like when resources are tight and uncertainty is high, he’s developed an appreciation for low-fidelity, working solutions. Testing assumptions that turn out to be wrong, figuring out what to keep and what to scrap — this is where he’s honed his instinct for what’s worth pursuing and what’s just noise.
At Anytime Innovation, Jack explores what it means to build discovery into the way organisations work. Not innovation as a department or a workshop, but as a practice — something teams can return to when they’re genuinely stuck or facing something new. He’s interested in creating space for experimentation, for asking uncomfortable questions with no predetermined answers, and for asking ‘Why not?’
Our Mission
To facilitate real-world, innovation experiences that boost staff motivation and accelerate a culture of habitual innovation that create sustainable value for employers.
Our Vision
A world where employees are truly engaged, inspired and ready to tackle increasingly complex organisational & global challenges.
Our story
Anytime Innovation was born from a desire to accelerate innovation culture across the private sector, the public sector and the higher education university community.
The father-son duo, Fergal and Jack, combined their unique perspectives — Fergal’s expertise as a committed innovation consultant and entrepreneurship educator, and Jack’s passion and rich understanding of the power of tech platforms to significantly enhance learning experiences.
Separately, they had witnessed the transformative energy that emerges when learners discover their creative capacity to define and solve problems.
The idea for Anytime Innovation (and sister website Anytime Creativity) took shape when Fergal joined Jack on the inspiring island of Koh Tao, Thailand, for a week following Jack’s backpacking adventure. There, they brainstormed how to design a space where organisations and educators could easily bring problem-solving to life in their workplaces and classrooms.
From that trip emerged Anytime Innovation — a Call for Ideas and Innovation Competition platform where organisations can empower staff to collaboratively identify problems, create impactful solutions, test ideas, and co-create the future of organisations.
