Jock O'Connell is a member of the California Economic Strategy Panel's Technical Advisory Group. He is a recognized authority on the internationalization of California's economy. Much of his recent research involves the condition of the state's international trade infrastructure. He served as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of California Sacramento Center during the Winter 2007 term, co-teaching a course on California's Political Economy. That course served as a forum exploring the state's position in the global economy and addressing the legitimate role of state government in promoting exports, attracting foreign direct investment, and enhancing the competitiveness of California industry. He is the author of numerous op-ed pieces that have appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle, and on Salon.com.
Mr. O'Connell was born in 1947 and grew up on the coast of Maine. He attended Cheverus, a Jesuit preparatory school in Portland, and received his B.A. from the College of the Holy Cross in 1970. He then moved to California to pursue a doctoral degree at the University of California at Davis. He has also studied at the University of Vienna (Institute of European Studies) and at the London School of Economics, where he was a Fulbright Scholar. He currently resides in Sacramento.