John O’Donnell
Chief operasjonssjef
Role at Achilles
As Chief Operations Officer, John is in charge of ensuring that all the company’s agreements with clients clearly and accurately define the services we provide.As a result of this work, the Achilles team as a whole knows with certainty what has to be done to meet client expectations.
Lessons from the past
A solicitor by profession, John’s career has seen him operate at a senior level in major international organisations including Reed Elsevier (now RELX Group) and Accenture, where he was Chief Commercial Officer of the HR Services division.John believes his key skills lie in developing, maintaining and leading key networks and groups of people with different agendas and contributions to make. As he says,
«By bringing together and unifying people with contrasting interests and abilities, we can deliver transactions that have lasting value for all parties.»
Away from work
As well as being the Hon. Treasurer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, John is a keen historian. Bringing both interests together, he has recently read Laura Spinney’s masterwork, Pale Rider: the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918 and how it changed the world. When not exercising his mind, he’s often busy spinning on an indoor bike or rowing on an ergo machine. And when he’s relaxing, activities like sailing, trekking, cooking and kite-flying with his children all rank high among his greatest pleasures.