Pearce has been a trailblazer in international business having worked and lived across Russia, Asia and the Middle East for most of the last 30 years.  He earned an early reputation of a Russia specialist since the fall of the Soviet Union having lived in Moscow, Samara, Ekaterinburg, Vologda, Kursk and Tula from 1993 to 1995 and again in Moscow from 2003 to 2005.  This time gave Pearce a rare insight to the bureaucratic workings of the Russian government as he worked on the State Asset Privatization Program during the tumultuous years of the poet Soviet era initially and later as the youngest Market Head in the history of Nestle.  The initial years in Russia were formative for Pearce and led him to giving up a legal career in Ireland to follow the expatriate path – a path he has to date not left.