On 20 November, Dr. Paul McMahon from Ireland gave an interesting lecture for UIC students and faculty. About 200 people enjoyed the lecture.
Its topic was Recovering from the Asian Tsunami: Reconstruction and Development in Aceh, Indonesia. The lecture examined how the international community and the Indonesian government responded to the devastation caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Aceh. It looked at the roles taken on by the different players, the way the work is coordinated, the progress achieved so far, and the difficulties still to be faced. The talk paid special attention to the challenge of developing the private sector and building a healthy, prosperous economy in Aceh. It made some suggestions about how the world should respond to post-disaster and post-conflict situations in the future. Some UIC staff and UIC students from different majors asked a number of related questions.
Biography of Dr. Paul McMahon:
Dr. Paul McMahon is from Ireland and studied for a degree in history and philosophy at University College, Dublin. He then attended the University of Cambridge as a postgraduate, completing a PhD in international history with a dissertation on the role of British intelligence in twentieth century Anglo-Irish relations. He then made a change of direction and joined the New York office of a top strategic management consultancy firm, McKinsey & Company. While at McKinsey, he worked in the USA, Europe, Middle East, Japan and Southeast Asia, serving clients in the health care, consumer, non-profit and government sectors. For his last project, he spent 8 months in the tsunami-devastated province of Aceh in Indonesia: there he led a McKinsey team helping to set up a new government agency responsible for coordinating all the post-tsunami reconstruction work. Paul has now left McKinsey but intends to return to Indonesia: he is attempting to set up a >$20 million venture capital fund that will provide investment and operational support to businesses in Aceh -- a commercial initiative that should have great development benefits.
