The death has occurred of Behaviour & Attitudes (B&A) co-founder Phelim O’Leary. He was regarded as one of Ireland’s leading qualitative researchers since the 1980s and worked for major advertisers and organisations at home and overseas, initially with Irish Marketing Surveys (IMS) and later at B&A. In 1985, he along with Des Byrne and Graham Wilkinson, resigned as IMS directors and launched B&A, which proved a major success.
B&A also handled election campaigns and miscellaneous projects for political parties down the years; Byrne for Fianna Fáil and O’Leary for Fine Gael. At B&A, Byrne, Wilkinson and O’Leary developed a succession plan whereby over a period of time they recruited senior researchers and gradually handed over the reins to directors Ian McShane, Larry Ryan, Elaine Sloan, Neil Douglas and the agency’s current managing director, Luke Reaper.
After he had formally retired, he remained on a consultant and non-executive director at B&A, contributing to agency projects. He was a long-standing member of the Marketing Society. A native of Cork, he studied psychology and economics at UCC. He was the author of many papers on qualitative research and spoke at the Esomar worldwide research forum. In a previous life, he was a rock critic and manager of Irish folk band, Scullion.
Curious
As his B&A colleague Luke Reaper recalls, research was his love and he was truly a researchers’ researcher, who was culturally curious about people and life. “From his early days in IMS, he understood the power of excellent qualitative work,” Reaper said. “He championed and drove qualitative studies in Ireland, becoming a leading light in the industry when he joined B&A. At the time, qualitative was new and mysterious as AI is now.
“But there was nothing artificial about Phelim’s intelligence. He was known for his wit, charm and wordsmithing and he was a learned sage to everyone he met. We have been inundated with so many lovely emails, texts and calls this week, and people have described him as; a titan, legend, trailblazer and a pioneer. All are true. Phelim lived life to the full and constantly pushed the boundaries, which is a lesson to us all.
But most of all he was a true gentleman. And we at B&A – and I personally – will miss him very much. In true Phelim style, he would want the show to go on, and so it will. Keep pushing those boundaries.” Undoubtedly, he will be missed most of all by his wife Judy and his children Hannah, Sam and Georgia.
May he rest in peace.
Above: Phelim O’Leary (left) pictured with his B&A colleagues Des Byrne and Ian McShane at the agency’s 30th anniversary party in Smock Alley Theatre
