Page 69 - IFAFA ebook v4

25.

Oliver O’Connor

I’m Ambassador Barbara Jones’s husband. We met in the

Department when we joined the same year as Third Secretaries. We

were posted separately – that was the way it was – so I took a career

break in San Francisco on Barbara’s posting. I was fortunate to do

an MBA at Stanford there. Ambassador to Washington and later

Secretary General, Paddy McKernan, my first A/Sec, kindly

provided a reference for me for Stanford. I was very grateful. His

generosity and support for younger ones (‘you should read more

books’) was one of the positive aspects of DFA culture I had

experienced. At the end of Barbara’s posting, I left, so I became an

ex-Third Secretary – but happily stayed, and remained, a current

spouse.

Life in, and associated with, DFA can be haphazard and

unpredictable. A supportive and collegiate culture is all the more

important I would think. Hence IFAFA, a key support that I’d like

to contribute to.

As is common with DFA families, each of our three children were

born in different countries: Ireland, the USA and Luxembourg. My

career has brought me from the civil service, to financial services,

to policy/politics as a Special Adviser for Tánaiste Mary Harney, to

heath economics consulting, and now chief executive of a

pharmaceutical trade association. Was there a logic? Was it

predictable? Certainly not, and there were challenging gaps along

the way. But the combination of experience, education and

networks has somehow worked out. For most of it, being a DFA

partner has been a large element.

Finally: we all have things that travel with us around the world.

One of my favourites is my Fender acoustic guitar in the photo. I

bought it with some savings from my early – highly taxed – third

secretary pay checks and duty officer rosters. A legacy that still

sounds good.

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