Mary-Jane Walsh is an award-winning marketing and communications strategist who has successfully sparked public excitement about public transportation in her home country of Ireland. Now she has brought her expertise to California to communicate with a whole new audience.
“My expertise lies in bridging creativity and structure: taking data, regulation, and policy, and turning them into campaigns that inspire civic pride, community engagement, and measurable action,” says Walsh.
Building Trust and Growth Through Storytelling
Walsh creates campaigns that connect to the public on an emotional level by using storytelling to share the importance of the transportation industry in everyday life. Central to her success is Walsh’s belief that “marketing can literally build communities” by communicating messages, such as safety and reliability, to the public, which builds trust and therefore encourages participation.
Walsh started her career in Ireland at Mossteck Fire & Security. It was a smaller engineering company that wanted to improve its brand identity, proposal writing, and strategic communications so it could grow. Her role was to create “persuasive narratives” based on technical information. The result of her work was that Mossteck won major contracts in multiple industries, proving that engaging storytelling has an impact.
“Early in my career, I had to demonstrate that strategic marketing could be just as vital to business growth as engineering or project delivery. Working within this space required persistence and tangible proof that creative strategy could directly influence contract wins, brand trust, and client relationships,” says Walsh.
Public Perception and Cultural Nuance
National agencies noticed her success at Mossteck. Later, she would lead Transport for Ireland’s major campaigns for the National Transport Authority.
“Managing national campaigns for Transport for Ireland during a period of major social and behavioral change brought a different kind of challenge, one rooted in public perception and cultural nuance. These projects required translating policy and infrastructure changes into relatable, human stories that resonated equally in large cities and small rural communities,” Walsh explains.
This challenge included not just political sensitivity, but also bilingual communication and cross-agency collaboration. Walsh used her expertise in storytelling to “build trust” among leaders in the government and industries while also reaching workers and their families. The campaigns were so successful in elevating Ireland’s public transport reputation that a record number of people became patrons of the system.
Expanding Her Impact
After her stellar success, Walsh decided to move to the United States and settled in San Francisco, California, with the intention of expanding her impact. Currently, she works for the Fontenoy Engineering firm as the lead of marketing and communications. In that role, she is building creative marketing strategies based on data, with the intention of connecting communities, industries, and cultures.
An important lesson that Walsh has learned from her major achievements is that “good marketing is about empathy.” As a leader in public-sector and infrastructure marketing, she takes technical systems and translates them into stories that the public can relate to. Walsh’s strong belief in the power of storytelling and how it can bridge people and industries is her inspiration for the work she does.
“My story is about proving that marketing is not just about visibility, it’s about connection. From safety systems and national transport to construction and engineering, my work has consistently focused on helping people see the value of what moves, builds, and protects them,” Walsh says.