When Nicholas McDonagh left Ireland in 1996, he didn't expect to spend the next 18 years working abroad. The Dublin native moved to London after graduating from Trinity College with a degree in business and economics and landed a position in the graduate trainee programme at Deutsche Bank.
It was the first of a series of job opportunities that were to propel him across the globe.
"I've always been driven to try new things. But if you said to me when I first left Dublin that I would spend years in Australia and Dubai, I would have never believed it," he said.
He worked in the acquisitions and strategic planning group at Deutsche Bank. It was a small group in London with a global remit, and McDonagh often travelled to the United States, Asia and Europe.
The London lifestyle was fantastic but, in 2001, an opportunity arose that he could not pass up. He took a job with the private equity division of Deutsche Bank in Sydney. It was good timing. The Australian economy took off after the 2000 Olympic Games.
“It was a great time to be investing because the markets all rose,” said McDonagh.
The plan was to be in Australia for a year, but one quickly turned into eight. He became an Australian citizen and thought he might stay there for the rest of his life.
In 2006, he and a partner bought part of the private equity business from Deutsche Bank in Australia and ran it as a new business.
McDonagh sold his stake in the business in June 2008, the peak of the bubble before the economic downturn. He is modest enough to credit that decision to luck, not planning.
Ready for a change, he wanted to go to an emerging market for awhile. McDonagh considered moving to China, India or the Middle East before opting to take a job with a private equity firm in Dubai.
Then, after working in private equity and investment banking for 15 years, McDonagh changed careers entirely in 2011. He now heads the Middle East division of global communications and advisory firm RLM Finsbury, providing advice and troubleshooting for some of the region’s most successful companies.
“I wanted to do something new but wanted my background and experience to bring something into it.”
The new job was “a bit of a sea change” in the way he thinks. In his previous work, he was the client and took his time analysing companies and deciding whether to invest in them. Now he has clients who dictate what he needs to do. He switched from being the client to serving the client. He also transitioned from being part of a team to managing one.
“We’re hiring a lot of people at the moment. As the team grows in size, it’s a challenge to manage more and more people, train them, delegate and keep an eye on what’s going on. It’s like any business where you have to manage people: it’s harder than it looks. It’s a different skill set that I’ve had to learn. When you’re the boss, you can’t always be Mr Popular.”
His team is a diverse mixture of nationalities, but “if you have smart people, they’re the same everywhere in the world. It doesn’t make a difference where they’re from.”
The job has taken him all over the Middle East. One thing he really likes about the region is the people. Arab culture, particularly Persian Gulf Arab culture, is about hospitality and welcoming people.
“I have a lot of time and respect for the people here. Once you get to know them, they have a great sense of humour, a dry wit. Arabs and Irish people actually have a lot of similarities.”
McDonagh likes living in the region.
“It’s an emerging market that’s growing extremely fast. It’s a dynamic and interesting place to live, and it has a rich cultural heritage… You have to take cultural considerations and sensitivities into account when living here. That’s part and parcel of working in the Middle East.”
But he would not rule out eventually returning to Ireland.
“You can plan everything in life, but invariably stuff happens and opportunities arise. You have to take a risk. You never know what’s around the corner. Anything can happen.”
