Shannon O'Brien

Chair Shannon O’Brien is the former State Treasurer and Receiver of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, serving in the role from 1999-2002. She also served as a State Representative and State Senator, where she authored landmark legislation to combat child abuse, worked on economic development issues, as well as reducing the cost of health insurance. As State Treasurer, she led efforts to improve fiscal controls, accountability, and management, created a statewide financial literacy program, and led improvements at the Lottery resulting in an increase of $100 million in local aid to cities and towns. Chair O’Brien was the 2002 Democratic nominee for Governor of Massachusetts. She has also worked as a litigation attorney at Morrison Mahoney and Miller, an Emmy-nominated television journalist at Boston’s WB 56, and CEO of the Girl Scouts of Greater Boston. She served on the board of a publicly traded investment bank in New York as well as a de novo community bank in Newton. From 2008-2010, she served as chair of the NY Pension Reform Commission to enhance transparency and accountability within one of the nation’s largest public funds. Shannon was previously the founder and principal of the O’Brien Advisory Group, providing strategic advice, government affairs, and business development services for cutting edge technology companies primarily in clean energy, health care, telecommunications, voting access, and financial services. She also brings experience working with startup cannabis entrepreneurs. Chair O’Brien is a graduate of Yale University and Boston University School of Law.