Neil O. Sands – Abusing Uniform, Fake PR, & Lies Exposed! (Update 2024)
Neil O. Sands, the CXO of Forbes Australia, disrespected the Irish Army uniform and abused it to help market his non-profit organization ICA. His actions were condemned by the nation and it ruined his friendship with the MMA fighter Conor McGregor.
Who is Neil O. Sands?
Neil O. Sands is currently the Chief Experience officer at Forbes Australia. According to his LinkedIn profile, he is a “Speaker, Founder, Optimist. Onward.”. Sounds pretty motivational, doesn’t it? He boasts an impressive resume as he has worked with Salesforce, Forbes, Disney, Facebook, and even Jeff Bezos’ Amazon.
Unironically, Neil has quoted himself in his LinkedIn “About” section.
(Source: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilsands/details/experience/?profileUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_profile%3AACoAAAMcskgB_CW7vGetccZsv36ELab-ab-8Os8)
Neil has a Mathematics -History – Statistics bachelor’s degree from Maynooth University. He also took a course in Business Strategy from the University of Toronto and received an MBA from University College Dulin.
From 1999-2006, Neil worked in different areas including government, education, and some small companies. After that, he became a Strategy Manager at RBC Royal Bank. He held this job for over 3 years before leaving it to become a Management Consultant at Accenture for 9 months.
Soon, Neil became the Syncapse Senior Director of Social Strategy at JPMorgan Chase & Co. then he worked as a Director at Framehawk Inc.
His big break came when he became the Chief Experience Officer at Ignite (Salesforce.com) for 3 years. Then at Trov Inc., he became the Global Head of Partnerships.
Now let’s come to the controversial and failed venture of Neil O. Sands, Ireland’s Call Initiative. It would be an understatement to call ICA a trainwreck. But if you read Neil’s perspective, you might think it was a success. He co-founded ICA and it operated for a mere 4 months. To know more about this, read the section below.
He co-founded Lost Irish Whiskey in 2020, which is still operational today. He also helped in forming Measc and Fox Design Thinking Ltd.
In April 2022, Neil somehow convinced Forbes Australia that he was the right pick as their Chief Experience Officer.
Disgracing & Abusive The Army Uniform For “Clout”
As we discussed earlier, Neil Sands co-founded Ireland’s Call Initiative, which was a 100% non-profit organization set up with the aim of organizing Irish healthcare workers and helping them go through the coronavirus pandemic. However, it was closed down months after it was announced. Even though it had received support from the megastar Conor McGregor himself.
Why did this happen? How can anyone mess up this badly?
Ireland’s Call Initiative generated a ton of hype in March when it was announced, and media houses from all over the country covered it, most of them being sponsored by Neil Sands’ marketing funds, discreetly.
Neil O. Sands was under investigation by none other than the army. Why? Because he wore his uniform to do unauthorized tasks, such as doing a photoshoot with Conor McGregor and posting it on Twitter.
The Defence Forces launched an investigation into Neil Sands. Sands is a Defence Forces reservist, by the way, so he had the army uniform with him. However, just because you have the uniform doesn’t mean you can abuse it for social media clout and marketing.
He helped Conor McGregor transport PPE kits which were shipped and purchased from China on April 9.
Conor had donated 1.4m Euros to buy PPE and worked with a fundraising group called Heroes Aid to help him out.
(Source: https://twitter.com/thenotoriousmma/status/1249448477215592452?lang=bg)
The solo photo was also retweeted by “The Notorious” Conor McGregor, however, the original author deleted it.
As you can see in the screenshot below, Neil O. Sands has taken down the Tweet, in order to hide his misdeeds.
(Source: https://twitter.com/neilosands/status/1248997975013109761)
Conclusion
Neil O. Sands not only abused his Defence Forces uniform for social media clicks but also actively tried to bury this news. There have been massive attempts at taking down news posts and articles which relate Neil Sands with the ICA or the army. I strongly suggest that you share this report on social media platforms and help in keeping the truth alive.
