Meet the Team

Karen Cox

Karen is the Director and owner of Language Link.  She has been involved in Language and Business training and consulting for more than 18 years. She graduated with honours in English Literature and Philosophy; has teaching and training qualifications in addition to business training certifications. Karen is a trained leader and delivers courses in Business skills including Business Writing and Grammar, Business Communication Skills, Academic English, International Business Communication and ESP, to name a few. Karen was formerly a Head Trainer, Tutor and Course Director in both government and private institutions. In the corporate area, through Language Link, Karen has designed and delivered Language and Business training courses to companies and universities based across Europe, Asia and South America. Karen is responsible for the management of Language Link and dedicated to the provision and delivery of high-quality language training and services.

Dr. Ian Dillon

Ian achieved his Ph.D in 2011 and is a specialist in the field of political communication. Ian also has experience working in the University of Limerick Medical Dept, where he lectured / tutored in Medical Ethics. In 2012, Ian joined Language Link and he is now our Senior Training Consultant. He has designed and delivered online and face-to-face training courses in Business English, Academic English, ESP and Medical English. Ian is committed to developing a nuanced, pedagogical approach that caters to the professional and personal needs of individual trainees and has delivered training to a large number of companies and organisations globally.

Michelle Hourihan

Michelle Hourihan graduated from Leeds University with a degree in History and Medieval German Literature in 2001.  After graduating, she started her career in teaching English and relocated to Japan to train as a Business English instructor.  She later returned to the UK to study her Postgraduate Certificate in Education. 

In 2006 Michelle moved to Ireland and worked as the Academic Director of a language school in Dublin for several years.  She completed her Postgraduate Diploma in teaching English from The University of Cambridge in 2010 specialising in language acquisition and curriculum design. In 2011 she spent a year in Colombia teaching English at the British council, designing courses, and qualifying as a Cambridge IELTS examiner.  

Michelle has been working at Language Link as a Business English trainer since 2012 and has a wealth of experience teaching at all levels and specialising in delivering tailor-made training for professionals. Michelle is passionate about embracing innovation and technology to improve distance language learning and in 2020 completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Software Development.  She now uses her technical knowledge to drive the use of new technology at Language Link and to provide specialised training to professionals working in the IT sector.  

Samantha Smith

Samantha achieved her Master’s degree in 2014 and has a specialisation in cultural dialogue. Samantha spent 2 years working at The Hunt Museum where she developed educational programmes and produced an international education conference. In 2014, Samantha joined Language Link and is now our Business Training Administrator. She has designed and delivered online and face-to-face courses in Business English, Cultural etiquette and customs, Marketing English, Social English and Academic English. Samantha strives to create a personalised course for each of her trainees. She focuses on both the personal and professional needs of the individual. Samantha is also an experienced trainer in TOEIC, BULATS and Linguaskill preparation and has delivered a variety of training courses to Language Link clients. 

Susan Elizabeth Thomas

Susan Elizabeth Thomas achieved her Master of Science in 2018 and specialises in cultural awareness for business practices, language acquisition, pronunciation and accent reduction. She has given and designed a number of lectures/corporate seminars promoting awareness and understanding of intercultural business practices and communication. Research as part of her Master’s included surveying intercultural communication tendencies among Irish medical professionals. Additionally, she participated in a UN lecture program based in Mito, Ibaraki Japan presenting on the connection between linguistics and culture. Her educational background also includes professional TESOL courses funded by a grant from the Japanese government. Along with the cultural communication series, she is involved in a number of lectures and seminars, such as pronunciation, corporate decision-making, etc. She is currently working in English, French and with limited proficiency, in Japanese. Her professional experience spans more than ten years and five countries, including inter-professional collaboration with many others.

Steve Samuels

Steve was born in London and graduated with honours in Russian and English. After taking his Postgraduate Certificate in Education, he worked as a teacher in various high schools and led the department of English in a London school and later in West Yorkshire. He taught in the Soviet Union and was, in addition, an examiner for external examinations in the UK. Steve worked in education and language consultancy in Beijing, China from 1999. He designed and delivered Business and communication courses to trainees in a number of multinational companies and universities and became in-house English trainer at The British Council. In 2008, he was invited to join the staff of a large international school where he taught English to speakers of other languages until his return to Europe in 2017. Now working as a Business English Trainer for Language Link, Steve puts his skills and experience to good use and is dedicated to meeting the aims and objectives of all trainees. Steve relocated to France in 2020. 

Dr. John Harnett

John achieved his PhD in 2017 and is a specialist in multimodality and cognitive narratology. John spent four years working as departmental assistant in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick where he lectured / tutored on a wide variety of subjects in the department of English Language and Literature Studies. His research interests include cognitive narratology, multimodality, psychoanalysis, post-colonial theory and adaptation studies. In 2018, John joined Language Link as a Business English trainer. He is committed to delivering the highest standard of training and his diverse research background affords him a wide flexibility of approach in relation to the delivery of engaging exercises for each trainee. John has given talks in a number of universities in Ireland, England, Germany and France and remains in touch with the cutting edge of interdisciplinary academic research and developments in English literature and language studies. In his capacity as a Business language trainer, John has delivered high-quality training to a large number of companies and organisations.

In addition to his background in language studies, John worked for over seven years in the aircraft maintenance sector as a mechanic, avionics technician, and project leader giving him a key insight into industry-specific and engineering-based terminology.