Dominique O'Connell
Meet our team
Dominique O’Connell, Economic Development Officer, Charlottetown, P.E.I.
There is no typical workday for Dominique O’Connell. One day the Economic Development Officer may be hauling on rubber boots for a meeting in a seafood processing facility an hour away. The next day she may be exploring the latest virtual reality technology with a new P.E.I. start-up.
“It’s important to talk to my clients. It’s more important to hear what they have to say,” says Dominique. “It is amazing how much you learn when you take the time to listen.”
“Clients are so proud of their accomplishments – as they should be,” she adds.
A University of Prince Edward Island graduate who earned her chartered professional accounting designation in 2001, Dominique worked with a local accounting firm for 12 years – working on anything but taxes. “I didn’t enjoy doing taxes,” she says with a laugh.
Before moving to ACOA five years ago, Dominique was with the private sector as a site controller in the hospitality sector. Now her job involves working closely with commercial enterprises in various industries, primarily start-up companies in the information and communications technology sector.
“It’s important to understand a company’s plans for growth and the roadblocks to achieving that growth,” says Dominique. “We’ve taken companies that have had a local customer base and supported them as they became global enterprises.”
Such success is important to Dominique as an economic development officer – and someone who was born and raised on Prince Edward Island. “I still live within five minutes of my parents’ house.”
Dominique notes that her job makes it easy to see the direct impact ACOA has on the economic development of Atlantic Canada. “We are assisting companies to grow, to hire more employees, to compensate their employees well, and to empower the employees to support local businesses throughout the region. That prosperity benefits everyone.”
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