At London’s Duke of York’s Theatre in spring 2022, J.P. Morgan alumnus Rob O’Rahilly sat in on dress rehearsals watching acclaimed American actress Amy Adams deliver her lines as Amanda Wingfield in Tennessee Williams’ celebrated play The Glass Menagerie.
As co-founder of theater production company Second Half Productions, O’Rahilly, who was the firm’s Chief Investment officer for EMEA and Asia as part of his nearly 25 years at J.P. Morgan, led financing for the production, formulated the marketing campaign, chose the design and artwork team, and found a theater to house run the show. He negotiated with Tennessee Williams’ estate to acquire the artistic rights to The Glass Menagerie, building in flexibility for its run-date given expected pandemic-related delays.
O’Rahilly developed a passion for producing theater and live events at University College Dublin where he studied commerce and produced events on the side to help pay for his schooling. The experience germinated a love for live events in him.
“The reception of the audience is really fulfilling,” says O’Rahilly, “to see the smiles on people's faces and to hear that applause and to know you’ve brought that piece of entertainment to people. The creative process is exciting for me. I’m able to add value, but I’m also learning the whole time.”
Now, the production company he co-launched in 2020 has a staff of eight and has acquired the rights to a dozen plays. The company’s production of Best of Enemies, which the New York Times called “London’s most riveting play” during a sold out run earlier this year, is Second Half’s latest play, and it opens next month. O’Rahilly hopes the show will ultimately make it to Broadway.
A passion for productions
After graduating university, O’Rahilly moved to the UK in the mid 1990s to start working at what was then Chemical Bank, dedicating himself to finance. He also rekindled his love for productions while at the firm.
Years later at a fundraiser for London theater the Young Vic, O’Rahilly met the artistic director. The theater, which donates a portion of its tickets to schoolchildren and other groups, needed to raise funds and grow its audience, the director told him. O’Rahilly wanted to help, and he started working pro bono with the theater in his spare time.
“It involved me going through my rolodex and trying to charm people into coming to see cutting edge theater shows,” he says.
He advised the theater for the next several years and built a network in the creative arts industry. Then, he and two friends—a theater director and executive director at the Young Vic, started having conversations about setting up their own theater production company.
At the time, O’Rahilly was co-leading Asset Management’s Multi-Asset Solutions, after serving as Chief Investment Officer for EMEA & Asia for JP Morgan Chase and before that as global head of Credit Portfolio Trading in the Investment Bank.
O’Rahilly helped the firm navigate the 2008 financial crisis and relished solving financial puzzles. He benefitted from mentors along the way and from supervisors’ encouragement to continue learning and challenging himself with new roles.
“Looking back at it, it was a fabulous journey,” he says. “I was on this amazing learning curve and found it really fulfilling. Not many firms offer that type of career journey.”
Working towards excellence
Over the years, O’Rahilly has drawn connections between working in the creative arts and in the financial world. With both theater and J.P. Morgan, “there’s this constant striving for excellence,” he says. In both endeavors, he’s been surrounded by talented, hard-working people who have an incredible attention to detail.
Both industries also share tight deadlines and an independent review of your work, which can be humbling, he adds, and pushes you to do better.
While launching Second Half Productions, analytical skills and the ability to map out all possible scenarios—lessons learned at the firm—came in handy, too. He and his co-founders delved into medical and economic research, and, despite the pandemic and lockdowns, they chose to push ahead with their endeavor. They hired staff and acquired artistic rights at a time when other theater companies were shutting down.
In addition to Best of Enemies, the theater company currently has other exciting projects in the works, O’Rahilly says, which will soon be made public. His own personal favorite play is Betrayal by English playwright Harold Pinter for its emotional twist.
"We're looking for interesting stories, that's the first thing," says O'Rahilly. "Reading a play, I always imagine how we would set it, and then the creative team takes it and creates something I couldn't have even imagined. And that's the real joy of being involved in production - getting an insider view into the creative process."
