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Jock O'Connell is widely regarded as one of California's foremost
authorities on world trade, global economic trends, and the internationalization of the Golden State's economy. In addition
to his private consulting practice, he holds the position of International Trade and Economics Advisor at the University of
California Center in Sacramento, where he lectures and organizes workshops and seminars designed to keep California's policymakers
informed of the latest developments in world trade and their effect on California's economy.
A former staff advisor to the California Commission for
Economic Development and a current member of the California Economic Strategy Panel's Technical Advisory Group, Mr. O'Connnell
is the Principal Consultant of The ClarkStreet Group, a private firm specializing in the analysis of economic, technological,
and political trends affecting international commerce. He is also professionally affiliated with Beacon Economics, a research
and consulting firm with offices in Los Angeles and in the San Francisco Bay Area.
He
is also a member of the Transportation Research Board's Committee on Intergovernmental Relations in Aviation. As a division
of the National Research Council, the Transportation Research Board advises Congress, executive-branch federal agencies, the
states, and other organizations on key transportation issues.
Mr. O'Connell grew up on the coast of Maine and received his B.A.
in political science from the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts before pursuing a doctoral degree in international
relations at the University of California at Davis. He has also studied at the Institute of European Studies (University of
Vienna) in Austria and at the London School of Economics, where he was a Fulbright Scholar.
He is the author of numerous articles on economic, political and
trade issues that have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury-News,
Sacramento Bee, the California Journal, and Salon.Com.
Mr. O'Connell has
been a lecturer at the University of California at Davis, the California State University, Sacramento, and the University
of California Center in Sacramento.
Mr. O'Connell has most recently been engaged in projects relating
to the logistics of foreign trade, the condition of California's international trade infrastructure, and, more specifically,
the rapidly changing air cargo industry.
Career History: Private Sector 1989-Present
In January 1989, Mr. O'Connell established his own independent consultancy. Initially, the firm worked primarily with small
and medium-sized foreign companies pursuing business opportunities in California and other states. The specific tasks involved
were: market assessments, development of market entry strategies, identification of potential joint venture partners, site
location analyzes, as well as negotiations with state and local authorities. For several years, the firm also published a
monthly newsletter, "The O'Connell Memorandum," which monitored developments at the state capitol in Sacramento that were
relevant to foreign business concerns.
In more recent years, Mr. O'Connell's work has come to focus largely
on logistical issues facing companies seeking to do business internationally. Current clients include the Sacramento Area
Council of Governments (for whom he is analyzing regional air cargo operations) and the California Department of Food and
Agriculture. He was the principal co-author of "The Role of Air Cargo in California's Agricultural Export Trade," a May 2005
report which described both the state's airborne farm exports and the air cargo industry in California. A current project
for CDFA examines of how air freight services can be optimally used to exploit growing markets for perishable, high value-added
food products in China.
Career History: Public Sector 1974-1989
Mr. O'Connell's experience in dealing with government agencies
began when he joined the California Legislative Analyst's Office in 1974-75 to document irregularities in community college
financing. In 1977-78, he was a member of and eventually Acting Director of the Regulatory Review Task Force in the Department
of Consumer Affairs. The task force conducted a critical assessment of state regulatory boards and bureaus.
In 1980, he joined the staff of then Assemblyman Mike Gage (D-Napa)
as chief legislative aide. In November of that year, he accompanied Mr. Gage on a trip to China which featured a number of
meetings at the direct behest of then Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. to facilitate commercial and cultural links between California
and China.
In 1981-82, Mr.
O'Connell was a senior staff member at the state Office of Economic Opportunity, where he authored OEO's 1982 study, "Poverty
in California."
For several years
beginning in the early 1980's, Mr. O'Connell was directly involved in developing the State of California's programs to promote
exports and attract foreign direct investment. From 1983 through January 1989, he was the international business advisor to
the Lieutenant Governor, Leo McCarthy, and to the California Commission for Economic Development. During that same period,
he was also retained as a consultant on two major projects for the California State World Trade Commission. He also was asked
to assist the Chair of the Assembly International Trade Committee in the preparation of trade legislation.
In addition to counseling
many of the state's political leaders on global economic trends and how they were affecting California, Mr. O'Connell authored
"An International Trade Policy for California" in 1986 for the California Commission for Economic Development and co-authored
"California's Export Statistics," a 1988 study for the California State World Trade Commission.
Mr. O'Connell also
advised the U.S. Department of State and government officials from several of California's principal trading partners on issues
relating to the state's controversial unitary method of taxing multinational corporations. On behalf of the Commission for
Economic Development, he undertook briefing missions to the Far East and to Great Britain in 1985 to inform foreign government
officials and business leaders on progress toward unitary tax reform. In a 1985 article, The Times of London identified
Mr. O'Connell as "one of the state's leading experts on the politics of the unitary tax."
Public Activities
While often quoted
in the media on economic or trade issues, Mr. O'Connell has himself written and lectured extensively on economic affairs,
politics, international trade and foreign investment. He has also spoken before numerous business groups and other organizations
both in the U.S. and abroad over past 30 years. Among the more prominent audiences he has addressed have been: the Institute
for USA and Canada Studies in Moscow; Japan's Keidanren in Tokyo; the Confederation of British Industry in London; the Foreign
Trade Association of Southern California in Los Angeles; and the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco.
Personal Information
The son of a labor union leader, Mr. O'Connell was born on December
8, 1947 in Portland, Maine. He grew up in that city and attended public schools before graduating from Cheverus, a Jesuit
preparatory school in Portland. He is an avid sea-kayaker and an occasional book reviewer. He moved to California in 1970.

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| September 2007 - West of Ireland |
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