Paul O’Connell oversees and manages WaterEquity’s day-to-day activities. He brings over 25 years of experience in the research and practice of international finance and asset management to the organization.
Prior to WaterEquity, he spent more than 20 years as President and Managing Partner of FDO Partners, LLC, a quantitative asset manager providing currency and equity advisory services to sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, and other institutional investors. His research interests include exchange rate behavior, international capital flows, and labor migration, and he has published extensively on these topics. He has served as a member of the Editorial Board of the Emerging Markets Review, and the Review Board for the Research Foundation of the CFA Institute.
Paul has been engaged with various development causes for almost two decades. In 2006 he served as an advisor to the Global Fund. From 2009–2015, he served as board member and subsequently Chair of the Board of the GAVI Campaign, the US arm of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. From 2016–2022 he served on the Board of Water.org, the non-profit organization which founded WaterEquity. He has spoken at TED about how capital markets can fund and accelerate sustainable development in emerging and frontier markets.
Paul received a B.A. from Trinity College, Dublin in 1992, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1997.