Dr. Mark O Brien

Biography

Mark O'Brien is the Programme Director of the Oxford Healthcare Leadership Programme and an Associate Fellow at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. He leads a significant educational collaboration between the School and the Dubai Health - University of Oxford Leadership Academy. Mark has a lifelong passion for enhancing the quality of leadership development and building high-performance cultures characterized by psychological safety. His professional journey began in the mid-1980s as a rural family physician in Australia, where he established strong connections in postgraduate medical education and co-founded the Cognitive Institute, an organization focused on healthcare risk management in Australasia, serving as its Medical Director. His experience includes holding the position of International Programme Director for Medical Education and leading the Risk Prevention division at the Medical Protection Society until March 2021. He has clinical qualifications and is a Non-Executive Director, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and an Associate Fellow and Certified Healthcare Manager with the Australasian College of Health Service Management. Additionally, he serves as an Adjunct Professor at the Faculty of Business, Economics, and Law at the University of Queensland and is a Non-Executive Director at St John God Healthcare, a major private hospital group in Australia. He also chairs the Quality Board for the Italo-Australian Welfare Association.

Research Interests