James C. O’Brien
Aligning Business Goals with Public Benefits
Mr. O’Brien assists health and consumer industry clients in developing strong public-private partnerships with foreign governments. Albright Stonebridge Group identifies opportunities where clients’ private sector investments can contribute to valuable public objectives while maximizing financial return on these investments.
James C. O’Brien is a Principal of Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategy firm, and a member of the Management Committee of Albright Capital Management, an affiliated investment advisory firm focused on emerging markets. Mr. O’Brien works with clients on portfolios across a broad public-private spectrum, including consumer goods, health, entertainment, the environment, and finance.
He has successfully helped clients locate strategic partners with access to markets, secure contracts, expand market share, and resolve regulatory and legal disputes. Mr. O’Brien has a special focus on operations in transitional states around the world, including Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Previously, Mr. O’Brien served in the Clinton Administration’s State Department as special presidential envoy for the Balkans, with responsibility for U.S. diplomatic, economic, and security policy in the region. He also served as Senior Adviser to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, as well as Principal Deputy Director of Policy Planning, charged with post-conflict planning and ensuring that the Department’s priorities and its $23 billion budget were aligned.
Mr. O’Brien was attorney-adviser at the Department of State starting in 1989, and served as adviser to then-United Nations Ambassador Albright from 1994 to 1997. He developed, negotiated, and helped implement U.S foreign policy, including scientific, environmental, nonproliferation, and military decisions.
He participated in numerous high-profile international negotiations, including during the Dayton Agreement, which ended the Bosnian conflict; guiding U.S. support for the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia; and finalizing agreements to control weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union.
Additionally, he negotiated agreements protecting intellectual property rights for scientific cooperation with China; promoted environmentally sound international trade regulations for hazardous and recyclable materials; and worked to make public-private partnerships and corporate social responsibility a central element in American foreign policy.
He earned a B.A. from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota, a Master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and a J.D. from Yale Law School.