Charlie O’Connor Director, Improving Connections Charlie has devoted his consulting career towards the evaluation and development of people and teams in organisations. He has consulted to industry leaders such as IBM, ABN AMRO, Cisco Systems and Ondeo-Nalco across a broad range of disciplines, principally team development, but also leadership, negotiation and conflict handling. Charlie's business career includes appointments as Director of Leading Initiatives Worldwide and, most recently, as a Director of Improving Connections. Charlie’s experience includes the evaluation and development of teams and managers in Australia, Asia and the USA, as well as the development teams across a broad range of industries again both in Australia and overseas. He has worked with global corporations developing processes for teamwork, leadership and negotiation skills. He specialises in designing learning environments – environments that reproduce the conditions or triggers experienced in the workplace – providing teams with opportunities to gain insight about, develop and practice new ideas, systems & processes. Charlie frequently uses experiential and adventurous environments to provide learning and development opportunities for teams and leaders. Charlie hones his development skills working with volunteers in the Rural Fire Service — a fiercely egalitarian organisation — where he is responsible for training in one of the Brigades. He regards this training, which combines the technical aspects of fire fighting and the developmental aspects of enabling teams to work cohesively in frequently difficult and fluid situations, as among the most challenging and rewarding that he has undertaken. Prior to his career in business, Charlie served in the British Army as an infantry officer. Commissioned at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst he saw service in a number of different and unpredictable environments, culminating in his attachment to the UN in Bosnia working with military and government leaders to agree the settlement of the Muslim-Croat peace accord at a local level. Charlie lives on an island, is a volunteer in the Rural Fire Service and moonlights as an offshore sailing instructor whenever he gets the chance.