Ireland Network- Chicago President Craig O’Halloran
Life is busy these days for Craig O’Halloran. Professionally, he leads a global team at Gensler, the largest architecture firm in the world. Within the community, he serves as president of Ireland Network-Chicago, and earlier this year, he married his wife Marin at a ceremony in Dublin.
To understand how Craig ascended to these personal and professional heights, one must begin in 2008, as the global financial crisis was working its way across Ireland. That year, Craig, a native of Shankill in County Dublin, graduated from college in Dublin and decided to “ride out the recession” by going back to school to study architectural technology. By the time he earned that degree in 2011, economic conditions in Ireland had not improved, and Craig was fortunate to find a job at a small residential architecture firm in Dublin.
“I was the only person in my graduating class to get a job in Ireland,” Craig recalls, “as everyone else went back to school or emigrated to the UK or Australia.”
His time as a professional in Dublin was short-lived, however, as in 2013 he followed in his classmates’ footsteps in leaving Ireland to take a job in London.
“That was the first time I realized what it meant to be Irish outside Ireland,” Craig shared, and this theme of drawing upon the Irish emigrant community abroad would become a hallmark of his life over the subsequent decade.
2014 was an important year in Craig’s career, as he earned a postgraduate certificate in urban design from the University of Westminster and began working for Gensler, starting a tenure that continues today. While he enjoyed his time in London, he explored opportunities to transfer to another country and inquired about open positions in Singapore and Chicago, ultimately landing in the Windy City in September of 2016.
Craig acknowledges that the first year was difficult; while he had spent significant time in the United States throughout his life, he was not familiar with the Windy City and struggled with the time zone difference when speaking with his family, particularly his sister, in Ireland. Soon enough, he started making friends at work, who would put him in touch with other Irish emigrants in Chicago. Like so many Irish before him, Craig credits one person in particular for making an impact on his transition to life in Chicago: Mike Clune.
“Mike was very close with my office leader at Gensler, and I’ll never forget how he invited me to the Dubs event at Chicago Cut that he puts together each year. That year Mike brought over the Dublin football team shortly after they won the All-Irelands, and he went out of his way to introduce me to them and so many other people. That came at a great time for me. It was the first time I thought I could make it here.”
In addition to meeting Clune and the Dublin football team during his first year in Chicago, Craig was also introduced to another very important person around that time: his now-wife Maren, a colleague at Gensler whom he had met during his first day in the Chicago office.
At Gensler, Craig began working on new buildings and renovations of large corporate campuses, and then pivoted to focus on workplace and office design, which, over the past five years, has seen a transformation over the COVID-19 pandemic and evolution to hybrid working. He has led a 35-person business unit, or “studio,” as they call it in the business, and currently works in a global role leading Gensler’s professional service firm client practice area, so he is the “go-to” person for working with law, accounting, consulting, and other firms in those industries.
Outside of his professional responsibilities, Craig also involved himself with Ireland Network-Chicago, initially by attending the organization’s popular First Friday networking events, then serving as a member of the executive board, and culminating in his appointment as president earlier this year.
“I got involved with IN-C through (former Ireland Network-Chicago president) Ruairi Barnwell,” says Craig. “We are both in the same industry, so he took me under his wing and invited me to the First Fridays and other events from the Consulate.”
As president, Craig sees his role as twofold: first, continuing the legacy of the organization – “Who we are now is built on all of the others who came before me,” he acknowledges - and second, looking for ways to grow the membership and create additional engagement opportunities for members, which could include industry-specific events, business meetings, and expanding partnerships with other Irish organizations in the area.
Reflecting on his journey, Craig again returns to his belief that moving abroad has strengthened his connection to Ireland and its people.
“It took me being away from Ireland to realize how special it is. There is a togetherness, a camaraderie, and a willingness to connect at a deeper level that we all share. At home, we’re not as together as one Irish people, we have our regional differences, our different accents. Here we connect almost immediately. We get all the references, the jokes, and I’m able to let my guard down quickly. The Irish community in Chicago has been so good to me, especially when I arrived. I’ll never forget that.”
