Our Team

Bio
Dr. Joachim Arnold is the Chief Executive Officer of OCO Group, based in Frankfurt, Germany. He has more than 20 years of experience in economic development, trade & investment working at the intersection of government and business.

Throughout his career, Dr. Arnold has partnered with and advised many of the world’s foremost economic development agencies and international corporations. He has designed, developed, and implemented strategies and transformative programmes to promote global trade, attract foreign investment and drive innovation in ecosystems.

As Director Europe for US-State economic development organisation JobsOhio, Dr. Arnold facilitated and oversaw more than 50 European investment projects into the state, strengthening transatlantic economic ties. He is a certified international consultant with UNCTAD and holds board positions at the Battery Industry Association Upcell Alliance and C Studios, the place marketing sister agency of US based DCI.

Prior to joining OCO, Dr. Arnold worked with Invest Morocco in the international business development team, where he was responsible for attracting large-scale greenfield manufacturing investments, directly contributing to the creation of more than 20,000 new jobs. He started his career at Hessen Trade & Invest in Germany, conducting research on the American, Japanese, and Korean diasporas in the Frankfurt region.

Dr. Arnold holds a Master’s degree in Geography, Business Administration and Marketing, and earned his PhD at the Department of Economic Geography and Regional Development at the University of Bayreuth, Bavaria, working with Motorola and Hewlett-Packard on their corporate location behaviour and drivers of spatial evolution.

Bio
Philip is CFO at OCO Global based in Belfast HQ with over 20 years’ experience as CFO of global professional services businesses. Philip has led finance teams from corporate start up to global PLC businesses, raising funding throughout the growth journey and building scalable, sustainable finance teams operating as internal business partner supporting leaders across the business.

Bio
Naomi Byrne is a Director at Belfast HQ and has senior responsibilities at OCO in the Corporate Services team. Naomi has been with OCO for over 15 years and has gained extensive experience in the investment and trade fields globally. Her prior career was in local economic development and property portfolio management.

Bio
Andrew is Managing Director, Economics at OCO Global. He is a commercially focused economist, company and board director with extensive experience across economic development advisory, strategic leadership and applied economic analysis.

Andrew has over 25 years’ experience providing economic advice and commentary across government, economic development agencies and the private sector. He is a former Chief Economist at Grant Thornton and has held senior advisory roles supporting policy development and economic strategy, including work with universities and public sector institutions. Earlier in his career, he worked as a government economist, advising senior officials and Ministers on economic performance and policy.

He has developed a strong track record in delivering practical, implementable economic strategies, including city and regional growth strategies, tourism development frameworks, investment propositions and evaluation studies. His work combines quantitative and qualitative research with a clear focus on real-world delivery, supporting clients to translate analysis into investment and tangible outcomes.

Bio
Nick Watson is OCO’s UK & Ireland Director. He is an experienced economist specialising in strategy development, international trade and investment, and impact assessment.

He has led large-scale, multi-year trade and investment programmes for governments and economic development organisations across every continent.

Nick began his career in financial markets and has also been involved in the establishment of several SMEs. He holds a first-class degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, as well as a Master’s in the Economic Theory of Public Choice.

Bio
Aoife Gannon is Associate Director, Ireland at OCO Global, where she leads the Dublin team and works with government agencies, economic development organisations and businesses on international trade, investment and growth initiatives. Passionate about helping businesses achieve sustainable growth, Aoife has extensive experience supporting companies to expand internationally, enter new markets and build commercial partnerships. Her background spans international trade, economic development, innovation and strategic programme delivery, gained through leadership roles at OCO Global, Accenture and high-growth Irish start-ups. Combining global consulting experience with hands-on commercial leadership, she brings a practical and commercially focused perspective to supporting organisations across Irish and international markets.

Bio
Alex is an experienced economic development practitioner with a decade of experience supporting both locations and businesses fulfil their growth ambitions. His interests lie in driving positive change through strategy and transformation work where he has worked with government agencies to meet the new challenges of an evolving world. Alex previously worked as an investment advisor in UK’s Investment Promotion Agency bringing in investment from a range of international markets as well as in the private sector with EY and PA Consulting.

Bio
Stephanie is an experienced Economic Development Consultant with particular expertise in investment policy and strategy development. Stephanie leads OCO’s work with the UK regions and is passionate about strategic place development and the power of economic development initiatives to drive prosperity. Prior to joining OCO, Stephanie worked as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Department for Business and Trade and in Location Strategy Advisory for a Global Commercial Real Estate company where she developed commercial strategies for clients across the globe to assist them with location-based decision making. Stephanie holds a First Class Combined Hons (Geography and Business) from Newcastle University.

Bio
Ian is OCO’s Americas Director based in our New York office. He works on client representation, economic consultancy and lead generation projects focused upon the North America market.
Since joining OCO, Ian has managed a range of projects, including FDI consultancy projects in Trinidad and Tobago, Saudi Arabia, the UK, Ireland, Canada and a range US economic development agencies focused on structuring national and global business attraction strategies and lead generation campaigns.

Bio
Mario is Associate Director for Mexico & Latin America at OCO Global. Prior to this role, he served as Head of Investment Attraction for Germany and Central Europe, where he led client engagement and oversaw projects with organizations from around the world, particularly across Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean, as well as with European and MENA-based multinational clients.

Mario joined OCO Global’s Frankfurt office in February 2021 as a Senior Consultant, following four years with ProMéxico in Germany. In that role, he was responsible for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) to Mexico and supporting Mexican companies in their international expansion efforts. He was also a member of the team that managed Mexico’s participation as Partner Country at Hannover Messe 2018, where he coordinated and delivered several governor-led trade and investment missions before, during, and after the event.

At OCO Global, Mario has led the firm’s largest U.S. client account since 2024, supporting the State of Missouri’s international investment attraction and trade development activities. In this capacity, he oversees OCO’s delivery across 15 international locations and manages a global team of more than 25 professionals.

Born in Mexico City, Mario has lived in Germany for more than 20 years and is a proud German-Mexican dual citizen. Throughout his 15+ year career in international trade, investment promotion, and economic development, he has been a strong advocate for transatlantic partnerships and closer economic cooperation between Europe and Latin America.

Bio
Jens Manke is Director Germany & Central Europe at OCO Global, where he leads market strategy and oversees client engagement across the German-speaking and wider Central European markets, bringing over 15 years of experience in economic development, foreign direct investment (FDI), and international trade. His expertise spans investment promotion, capacity building, scale-up and expansion initiatives, location analysis, and industrial transformation strategies, supporting public and private sector clients in enhancing competitiveness. Jens started his career at NRW.Global Business, one of Europe’s leading investment promotion agencies, where he specialized in international investment attraction, investor services, and strategic FDI advisory.

Bio
Vincent joined OCO in May 2022 and has over 20 years of experience in foreign direct investment and international trade. He has worked on several occasions with LDCs – including: Ivory Coast, Togo, Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Bio
Laurent is Director at OCO Global, based in Paris. Laurent has been at OCO for over 20 years.

Prior to joining OCO at the end of 2005, Laurent worked in a variety of foreign investment international strategy and sales & marketing positions spanning both consultancy (Arthur Andersen) and senior economic development organisations’ management (Invest in France Agency, Ouest-Atlantique).

Bio
Mohammad is Managing Director, Middle East at OCO Global, where he leads the firm’s regional growth and delivery across the Gulf. Based in Dubai, Mohammad works with government, economic development, investment promotion, export promotion, and special economic zone clients to design and implement strategies that attract investment, accelerate trade, and support long-term economic transformation.

With over 20 years of experience, he possesses a strong track-record of vision-setting and transformation execution; where he has advised numerous high-profile public and private sector clients on their transformation from strategy through to execution and realisation. The impact of his work can be seen today where the outcomes of his projects have delivered exceptional client service and project success.

Prior to joining OCO Global, Mohammad was a Partner at EY supporting government and corporate clients on strategy, transformation, commercial growth, and investment-led development. He has worked across priority sectors including industrial development, advanced manufacturing, technology, logistics, consumer products, retail, tourism, financial services, and economic zones.

He brings a commercially focused, data-driven and collaborative approach to our clients; combining strategic insight with hands-on implementation support to help clients identify opportunities, engage investors, and convert ambition into tangible results.

Bio
Sheryl Foo is OCO’s Head of Economic Strategy & Investments, Middle East, where she advises government and institutional clients on economic development, investment prioritisation, and private-sector activation across the GCC and Asia. She specialises in translating national strategies into investor-grade platforms, FDI propositions, and executable delivery models across sectors, with particular expertise in industrial development, sovereign investment strategy, and public-private ecosystem building. Sheryl’s previous experience spans private equity and the Singapore Economic Development Board’s Strategy Office, bringing private-equity training, public-sector strategy experience, and cross-border investment execution discipline.

Bio
Yi Zhang is Director China at OCO Global, where he leads the team at the Shanghai office and is responsible for operations in China and Hong Kong. He has 15 years of professional experience in the field of international investment and trade promotion, specializing in business operations in China and Europe, and assisting Chinese and European companies with market entry and investment expansion in both regions.

Yi Zhang has represented various Chinese local governments in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, where he was responsible for the operation of overseas representative offices and FDI promotion. In China, he has also served as Director of Investment Promotion Bureau for a local government and has extensive experience working as an optical communications engineer at China Mobile and leading the representative office of a German federal state in China. Yi Zhang began his career in 2007 as a software engineer in Munich, Germany. He holds a master's degree in electronic engineering from the Technical University of Berlin and is fluent in German and English.