Dynamic duos: Richard O’Sullivan & Andy Powell
InMobi’s VP and general manager Richard O’Sullivan ANZ and VP and managing director EMEA Andy Powell discuss how a few beers in a bar in Dubai 15 years ago started a friendship that would eventually see the pair heading up different regions at InMobi.
In Dynamic Duos, Mumbrella each month asks two members of the same organisation with a professional and personal affiliation, to share with readers the importance of workplace relationships in an increasingly work-from-home world.
Richard O’Sullivan: Ironically, given I now live in Australia, we met in an Aussie-themed bar called Bidi Bondi in Dubai in 2008 via a mutual friend. We were both British and both in the media business so got chatting over a few beers and several rounds of pool. What we didn’t realise until a way into the conversation was that I’d just left a role at ITP Media Group and Andy had just started there – so that coincidence kicked up the conversation a notch.
Back then, most of the media businesses were based in Dubai Media City and the media expat crowd would always be at Radisson Rooftop each Thursday, so we kept bumping into each other and our friendship was formed. The Friday brunches and boat parties every weekend also helped.
Beers and playing pool led to Squash (which we still like to play today whenever we’re in the same city) and then, eventually, to become colleagues.
