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ALUMNI | Interview


A Googler’s Account

Trinity alumnus Maribé Fallon B.B.S. (1988) tells Shauna O'Halloran of her journey from College to Google’s European Headquarters, and highlights the importance of making the most of those student years.

(Photo of Maribé Fallon)

When Maribé Fallon graduated from Trinity with a Bachelor in Business Studies in 1988, the economic situation in Ireland was bleak.

“It was just after the October stock market crash in 1987,” Fallon explains. “It was a time of unemployment and recession. A lot of people were going on to do either further education or they were going abroad. I decided to do accountancy because I thought it would offer me more opportunities in the future.”

On leaving college, Fallon joined Arthur Andersen to gain her qualifications.

Maribé’s mother is Spanish, and having been brought up bilingually, the young graduate was sent to Spain while studying. “I was seconded out there for what we call 'two busy seasons'. I was able to do my apprenticeship and get a sign-off from a partner in Ireland, despite the fact I was doing part of it in Spain at the time. Then I would come back and take the accountancy exams."

Once Fallon had gained her chartered accountancy qualification, she decided it was time to move on. “I ended up going to Brussels, mainly because many of my friends were there. I went out and had job within a week.” Maribé sought comfort in the familiarity of her old Trinity classmates who had moved to Brussels ahead of her and made settling in to a new culture that bit easier.

“You relied on that as a step into integration in that country,” says Maribé. “It was my Trinity network that helped me to integrate into each of the locations I was living.”

Fallon spent three years based in Brussels, while travelling the world (Mexico, Portugal, South America) in her new role at Swedish company, Oriflame, before moving to Paris, taking up a job as a regional controller for Disney consumer products looking after emerging markets. Maribé reels off another list of locations with a smile as it becomes clear just how important travel and diversity of culture has been in her life and career.

After Disney, Fallon moved to Attachmate where she spent nine years at the European headquarters in the French capital. “My life settled in Paris. I got married, had a couple of kids. It was a good job to have around that kind of structure,” Maribé explains. “I was then ready to move on, so I made a life choice to move back to Dublin."

While she is happy to be on home turf now, Fallon’s career without doubt benefited from the experience she gained working the world over. A factor she claims, would have been much harder without the backing of the Trinity name, especially at a time when so many young people were leaving Ireland looking for employment.

“People felt that Ireland as an island in the ‘80s was a little bit behind some other countries. We really needed to get out there and learn to do things the ‘right’ way – if you wanted to, say, learn management techniques, you had to work for a large company abroad and get that depth of experience. The Trinity name is very useful for that.” (Continued on page 59...)


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