Mark O'Connell - Chief Executive Officer

Mark O'Connell founded OCO Global Ltd. in 2001 as a specialist consultancy in the area of international investment and trade. Mark continues to lead the global business development of OCO Global, and he shares responsibility for the day-to-day operations with Henry Loewendahl. Mark is also responsible for the operations of Mintel International Group in Ireland.

Mark has worked in a variety of international marketing positions spanning both consultancy and senior management. In the five years prior to establishing OCO Global Mark was manager of the export marketing team in PricewaterhouseCoopers. He was previously manager of industrial products in Enterprise Ireland and business development director of Alrumaih Corporation.

Mark brings sharp commercial focus and market driven perspective to the organisations he has advised in the private and public sectors.

Mark has a First Class degree in European Business Studies at the University of Ulster and Sciences Economiques at Universite de Caen, and a masters in Marketing Management from Lancaster University School of Management.

Mark has been a regular featured speaker at the annual conferences of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies, the International Economic Development Council, the World Free Zone Convention, and UK Trade and Investment.

Ian Rooks - Chairman

Ian has over 30 years proven executive and international experience in corporate location and inward investment.

He established his reputation in the Welsh Development Agency, where in the role of Executive Director, he achieved a record performance.

Since then Ian has been working as an advisor to PwC Corporate Location and Inward Investment Practice and to OCO Global.

Ian was appointed as OCO’s Chairman in February 2008.

Sieb Hoogstra - Director, Investor Targeting Services and Corporate Location

Sieb Hoogstra joined OCO Global in 2005 to lead our Corporate Location services worldwide and business development in Northern Europe.

Prior to joining OCO Global, Sieb was responsible for European Corporate Location Services and Head of Corporate Real Estate Services Benelux for Atisreal (BNP Paribas), and in the previous 5 years he was a manager of global location studies in PricewaterhouseCoopers. Before that Sieb worked for almost 8 years in international Corporate Real Estate with DTZ.

Sieb has also been instrumental in building OCO’s Investor Targeting Division which was established in 2004.

Sieb has a BA degree in Social Geography from the University of Amsterdam and a Masters in Town and Country Planning from the same university. He also followed a Post Graduate in Real Estate Management from the University of Antwerp.

Sieb is a Board Member of the Benelux Chapter of Corenet Global, world's largest professional organisation for Corporate Real Estate Executives.

He has on many occasions been a conference speaker on subjects regarding Corporate Real Estate, Regional Development and Location Issues.

Julia Mikerova - Director, Consulting Services

Julia Mikerova is Director of Consulting Services at OCO Global. Julia has Masters degree in European Public Policy from a joint programme of South Bank University, London and Université Léonado de Vinci, Paris. Julia worked in PricewaterhouseCoopers-PLI in Brussels and in the Association of European Business in Russia prior to joining OCO in 2003.

Julia has worked extensively in the area of inward investment in Western and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa. Strategy work overseas has included inward investment strategy and implementation, corporate location, market entry, FDI analysis.

Julia worked on projects to advise investment promotion organisations on their strategies and to assist companies with corporate location decisions. Some of Julia’s clients include UK Trade and Investment, Invest Northern Ireland, Moscow Investment and Export Promotion Agency, Stockholm Business Region, Jordan Investment Board, McAfee, Henkel, International Paper, World Bank, UNCTAD. Julia was a training consultant for cluster development workshops organized by World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (WAIPA). Russian national, Julia speaks English and French.

Laurent Sansoucy - Vice President, France & Southern Europe

Laurent Sansoucy joined OCO Global in 2006 to lead operations in Paris, France, and to develop the French-, Spanish- and Italian-speaking markets.

Prior to joining OCO Global, Laurent worked in a variety of foreign investment international strategy and sales & marketing positions spanning both consultancy (Arthur Andersen) and senior IPA/RDA management: for 5 years Director of Marketing & Lead Generation at the Western France Investment Promotion Agency, Ouest-Atlantique, and for 9 years Director of Italy for the Invest in France Agency - AFII/DATAR.

Laurent is highly respected as one of the leading experts in Europe on foreign direct investment and he has on many occasions been a conference speaker on subjects regarding FDI, Regional Economic Development, Territorial Marketing and Corporate Location issues.

Laurent has a Masters ("Ingénieur") from ENSA Rennes / INA Paris-Grignon.

Julie Sloan - Director, Mintel Ireland

Julie Sloan is Manager of Mintel Ireland and a Director within OCO Global. Julie has a BA Joint Hons degree in French and German and a Masters in International Food Marketing and Business Management.

Prior to joining Mintel, Julie worked for 6 years in sales and marketing roles in European food companies based in Dublin and London such as Vandemoortele Bakery Products, Grupo Siro.

Julie has worked in Mintel Intelligence for 4 years as a senior editor, responsible for over 120 research projects from briefing to publication across FMCG, retail, finance, industrial and leisure sectors. Julie currently oversees a team of research analysts and consultants in Mintel Ireland.

Judith Walker - Director, Marketing & Operations

Judith Walker is Marketing and Operations Director with OCO Global and has over 15 years Marketing experience. Prior to joining OCO, Judith was an International Marketing Manager at Invest Northern Ireland and has 6 years experience working in the economic development field.

As well as leading on the corporate marketing activities of OCO, Judith also works with IPA clients in an advisory capacity on their marketing strategy and planning as well as development of sales propositions. Prior to this, Judith worked within the ICT sector as a Marketing Manager for Nortel Networks and ICL / Fujitsu.

Judith holds an Honours degree in Business Studies and a Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing from the Chartered Institute of Marketing.

Robert Pasley - Director, Software Development

Robert Pasley, who joined OCO Global in 2001, heads the software development team based in Cork, Republic of Ireland. He was responsible for the design and development of the original version of OCO Monitor in Visual Basic / MS Access and has since lead a team of highly experienced developers through successive online versions as well as leading the design and development of OCO’s other flagship application, OCO Assess.

Robert has also been responsible for the development of numerous bespoke applications for clients, including an advanced online application for evaluating the overseas investment potential of companies and the development of a specific CRM system for investor targeting. His skills as a Visual Basic developer have been applied in the development of the new automated reports engine for OCO Monitor, which produces fully formatted reports that include analysis and commentary from OCO Monitor data in a matter of minutes.

Susan He - Senior Manager, Asia Pacific

Susan He joined OCO Global in 2008 to lead the operations in China and to develop other Asian markets. Susan has an MBA degree from York University’s Schulich School of Business in Canada. Prior to joining OCO Global, Susan worked in Canada for Bank of Montreal and then moved to Asia where she worked in business consulting.

Susan has extensive experience in consulting and has worked across a variety of industries such as automotive, chemicals, electronics, financial services, ICT, medical devices in China and other Asian countries. Her work has covered areas such as market attractiveness assessment, market entry strategies, growth strategies and marketing strategies. She has successfully assisted many international companies in entering the Chinese market and Chinese companies developing their international expansion. Susan speaks English and Chinese.

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