About Bernard

Bernard Jackman is a former Irish international rugby player whose story of success and failure make him an engaging and entertaining speaker who can talk with authority, ease and humour about what both individual and team success looks like and how to take responsibility for, and create, your own team culture.

Bernard was born and grew up in Tullow, Co. Carlow. He attended Newbridge College in Kildare before going on to study International Marketing and Japanese at Dublin City University.

Bernard was part of the first crop of professional rugby players ever in Ireland when Warren Gatland offered him a contract in 1997. He went on to play for Connacht, the Sale Sharks and Leinster and, internationally, for Ireland, before retiring in 2010. He was part of squads that won a Magner's League, European Challenge and Champions cups and a Guinness 6 Nations title.

In 2011, he published his autobiography, Blue Blood, before making the move into coaching at club level when he joined FC Grenoble in France initially on a consultancy basis. He went full-time in the 2012-2013 season and was appointed head coach at Grenoble in June 2016 in the Top 14 which is widely accepted as being the most competitive domestic rugby competition in the world He then moved to the Welsh franchise the Dragons in the United Rugby Championship before moving into the corporate world in 2018 where he worked in sales with two multinationals in LSEG and Gartner. In 2022 Bernard went full time into his current career where he works as a consultant with Leaders and teams from some of the biggest and best-known companies in the world on how they can create a High Performance Culture and achieve consistent and sustainable success. He has also established a career in the media as a rugby pundit with a weekly column in the Sunday Independent, Podcasts with RTE and the 42 along with being a regular contributor on RTE’s TV and Radio rugby coverage.

In October 2023 Bernard took on the role as Head of High Performance at Horse Sport Ireland where he will support their Teams and Athletes who will represent Ireland at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics in the summer of 2024.

Bernard maintains that when it comes to building a high-performance culture, people engagement is key and we can learn from other high performing teams around the world. When you have buy-in from people at all levels, success is inevitable because everyone is willing to go the extra mile. Bernard uses his experience of elite performers in the sporting and corporate world to help teams create that common purpose and drive to succeed.