OCCA Founder Kate Mooney
Love what you do and you'll never work a day in your life...
In the beginning
Originally established by Kate Mooney in 2003, OCCA started life as a small, architectural and interior design consultancy with just four designers working on their first big project, the IHG Crowne Plaza hotel in London Docklands.
Leveraging her rich background in hotel design, operations and procurement, Kate’s ambition was to develop a team of multi-disciplinary creatives with a passion for hotel design & innovation. Her vision was to build a contemporary design studio and FF&E Procurement firm specialising in hotels and hospitality, to deliver transformative projects that positively impacted clients and their guests, families and firms.
BACKGROUND The OCCA Way
OCCA embarked on an exciting journey over the following years, building a reputation for using creativity & technology to deliver beautiful projects across a portfolio of global hotel, residential and commercial projects. Daring to disrupt and challenge the status quo, we continually evolve our business and our services in response to our clients’ developments and the rapidly changing world of interior design.
Today, we’re proud to work with amazing clients on amazing projects around the world. We are a passionate and multi-disciplined team and our collaborative work culture is the key to our success. We thrive on working closely with each other, our clients, our suppliers, and the wider design teams – because we know that together, we can achieve more.
Creating a narrative between the interior, property and location, we believe in storytelling through design to create timeless & meaningful experiences.
The Faces Behind It All Team OCCA
Meet our wonderful team of talented designers, creatives, buyers & procurement experts, ready to bring their skills and experience to your projects...
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Kate Mooney
Kate Mooney
Founder & Principal
With a degree in architecture and over thirty years’ experience in interior design, Kate has a rich background in hotel & luxury residential projects, operations & procurement.
She has a track record of leveraging technology & innovation to solve project challenges and loves nothing more than delivering transformative projects that make a positive difference to her clients’ lives and organisations.
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Karen Moon
Karen Moon
Director of Procurement
Karen has over 20 years’ experience in buying and merchandising functions and a degree in Business Economics. With her sound financial disciplines & commercial expertise, Karen is responsible for financial budgeting, controls and real time reporting across the Occa portfolio, ensuring client’s benefit from her strict “no surprises” policy.
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Robert Paton
Robert Paton
Studio Director
A qualified interior designer with significant architectural experience, Rob has over 20 years’ experience in the industry. With a particular interest in conservation, contemporary interiors & lighting design, Rob’s gained a breadth of experience resulting in the completion of many high-quality projects over a wide range of sectors.
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Jim Mooney
Jim Mooney
Commercial Director
With over 25 years of experience growing businesses in technology, software, and e-commerce, Jim is OCCA’s Commercial | Business Development Director.
Jim’s remit is to uncover potential new projects and our clients’ challenges, then share with them our world-class Interior Design, FF&E Procurement and Branding Teams.
Jim enjoys discovering the vision that clients have for their properties and then engaging the Team OCCA experts to craft the design and deliver the products that bring that vision to life successfully.
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Lauren Welsh
Lauren Welsh
Head of FF&E
Degree educated with almost 16 years’ rich experience in FF&E Buying across retail & ecommerce and hotels & hospitality, Lauren’s product knowledge, commercial awareness & negotiation skills make her a force to be reckoned with. Through regularly attending international trade shows & pouring over the latest supplier collections, Lauren keeps her finger on the pulse with what’s new in the industry
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Lynn Clark
Lynn Clark
Design Director
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Caitlin Fraser
Caitlin Fraser
Lead Interior Designer
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Jim Dandie
Jim Dandie
Furniture Designer
With over 25 years’ experience as a qualified interior designer, Jim’s love of problem solving, attention to detail and beautiful finishes, results in striking furnishings & designs on our projects. Highly skilled in the area, he specialises in shopfitting and cabinet making, confidently taking initial concept sketches through to finished production items.
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Courtney Keating
Courtney Keating
Lead Interior Designer
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Luke Zammit
Luke Zammit
Interior Designer
Luke is a qualified Spatial Designer with experience in commercial, hospitality, retail and luxury residential projects. He is ambitious and creative, with a passion for interior and architectural design.
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Sarah-Jayne MacNaughton
Sarah-Jayne MacNaughton
Interior Designer
Sarah-Jayne holds a degree in Interior Design and has over three years’ experience in the Industry. Her passion lies in weaving narratives into designs and connecting this with material choices and FF&E selections to curate spaces that seamlessly blend functionality and beauty.
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Gaby Puente
Gaby Puente
Interior Architect
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Khloe Croal
Khloe Croal
Procurement Admin
With a background in interior design wholesaling as a buying assistant, Khloe has extensive product knowledge and strong negotiating skills. By attending trade shows regularly, she stays up to date with the latest trends in the industry. Khloe has years of experience managing invoices and logistics and is passionate about ensuring smooth administrative processes throughout all projects.
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Dermot Rooney
Dermot Rooney
INterior Designer
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Jessica Hall
Jessica Hall
FF&E Buyer
With a BSc in Fashion & Textiles Business and an aptitude for numbers, Jessica brings her creative thinking and commercial acumen to the the Buying Team. Continually reviewing and improving processes, she ensures OCCA’s order buying and logistics services run like clockwork, while working with our global supply chain to ship products worldwide.
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Erin Mooney
Erin Mooney
Brand | Office Manager
With a degree in International Branding & Business Management, Erin brings almost 10 years of experience across Buying, Merchandising, Branding and Marketing roles to OCCA. She is passionate about creative branding, business communications and the transformative effect PR and social media marketing have in driving business growth.