Occupation: Head of Consulting at OCO Global and a Belfast City councillor
Age:35
E-Mail address: andrew.webb@ocoglobal.com
Place of Birth: Belfast
Where you live: East Belfast
First Job: Other than the odd paper round and part time shop work my first job after university was for the NI Economic Research Centre
What it taught me: I feel lucky to have worked there as I can’t think of a better grounding for a career in economics. It was a real hot bed of economic and policy discussion. I learned a lot of economic theory but more importantly learned many business lessons like the importance of working as a team, managing budgets, working to deadlines and the importance of how to tailor an economics story for different audiences
Family/Status: Married
Name of spouse and children: Married to Claire and two children, Luke (6) and Rebecca (4)
Best advice anyone ever gave you: Standing in City Hall shortly after getting elected, a councillor colleague told me ‘family first, job second, what ever you do for fun, third.’ It’s hard advice to follow but I keep trying
Best advice you could give someone starting out: In this economy, I would advise anyone not to give up hope and to seek out opportunities to increase your chances of employment through for example, charity work or voluntary internships. We recently recruited and were amazed at the number of applications and the high quality of applicants
Andrew is an economic consultant with close to 15 years’ experience. He gained his degree and masters at the University of Ulster. His experience spans both the private and public sectors, having been a government economist in the Department of Finance and Personnel and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, advising ministers and senior officials on economic performance before moving into the economic consultancy arena in 2004.
Throughout his career as an economist, Andrew has delivered many significant assignments, including developing economic development strategies for many of our local councils. Last year, Andrew was appointed as OCO Global’s Head of Consulting. OCO Global is a specialist advisory economic development firm that has worked with hundreds of clients globally to provide competitive advantage and clear guidance on the complexities of economic development.
Andrew was elected to Belfast City Council in May 2011 as an Alliance Party councillor for Victoria in East Belfast. Within council he serves on both the Licensing and Development Committees.
