Can you tell us a little bit about your career and how you ended up at Walkers?
When I graduated from University College Dublin in 2001 with a business and law degree I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do. A friend in university had started working in a finance role within a fund administrator and he told me that if I joined and stayed for three months that he would get a €500 referral bonus. I joined. He got the referral bonus (which he didn’t share with me incidentally) and subsequently left to become a primary school teacher. Ironically, I have remained in the funds industry ever since. My legal career began a couple of years later with one of the leading domestic firms in Dublin, where I was earmarked for their investment funds group when I finished my traineeship. In 2011, I moved to London and joined the global asset management firm, PIMCO. I stayed in London with PIMCO for almost seven years before returning to Ireland in 2018 when I joined Walkers. During my time in London I completed an MBA at London Business School and briefly considered the idea of moving out of a legal role but ultimately stuck with a career in the legal profession. I feel that I have made the right choice and enjoy working in the funds industry in Ireland. Last year, I was elected to the Council of Irish Funds (the asset management and investment funds industry association here) and recently have been appointed to the role of vice chair of the association and consequently will assume the role of chair next year.
