Dr. O’Connell has more than 30 years experience managing large, complex, multi-billion dollar efforts in both government and industry in the IT, Health, Olympics, Telecommunications, Aerospace, Defence, NATO, and Pension sectors in US, UK and European companies.  He has successfully led over 20 major programmes.

Patrick is currently President, Major Government Programs at CH2M HILL, which he joined July 2011.  His previous position was President, Major Programmes Division, British Telecom (2005-2011), headquartered in London, where he turned around ₤8 billion in contracts in the Defence, Health and Pension sectors.  Prior to that, he was the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Air Command Systems International (1999 – 2005), where he started up a multi-national joint venture headquartered in Paris, contracted to unify NATO's Air Command and Control Systems across 15 nations. Previous positions include President of Hughes Civil Systems, Vice President and General Manager of Raytheon Information Systems, Director of Space Research and Development for the Department of the US Navy, and the Director for the US government’s Low Earth Orbit Systems.

Patrick has taught the management of large scale systems at the graduate level at multiple universities.  He is presently the Chairman of the Advisory Board and Practitioner Director, BT Centre for Major Programme Management, Saïd Business School, Oxford University, where he was instrumental in starting the Centre and the new Master of Science degree in Major Programme Management.

Patrick has worked in the USA, Japan, Italy, Spain, France and the UK and conducted business in over 30 countries.