Meet Our Leadership Team

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MARY O'BRIEN, PH.D. (A.B.D.), MBA, Leading O’Brien Group as President and CEO, Mary is passionate about partnering with leaders and teams to sharpen their competitive edge by streamlining collaboration and fostering clear, results-driven decision-making. With a career spanning 37 years and as an expert in the study of organizational change and culture, Mary supports the design and delivery of change management models unique to organizational strategy. This evidence-based approach accelerates transformational shift and anchors sustainable structures for ongoing change readiness and cultural health. With a lens toward leadership, Mary works directly with executives and leaders to help them advance their professional and personal leadership mastery. Because of this focus, Mary is able to help organizations optimize multiple aspects of organizational health including customer and workforce experience and retention, wellness and burnout prevention (including physician wellness and burnout), performance management and accountability, strategic planning, leading through growth, mergers, and acquisition, and maximizing profitability through continuous process innovation.

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JAMES H. KILLIAN, PH.D. is Managing Partner with the O'Brien Group. Dr. Killian is a strategic growth and revenue leader with over 25 years of high-impact global leadership roles at Qualtrics, SAP, IBM and Hogan Assessment Systems. James has also led several startups and turnaround assignments to record growth, and helped achieve 1 IPO and 5 business acquisitions at multiples. In these roles, he has advised the world’s best known brands such as Amazon, Apple, Disney, Expedia Group, L-Brands, Meta, Netflix, Nike, Starbucks and Visa to diagnose and improve employee experience (EX), customer experience (CX), talent management and leadership development programs that lead to measurable, impactful and long-lasting business outcomes.

Dr. Killian is also a professor in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, and the author of over 50 published articles, conference presentations and book chapters and is authoring his first full manuscript, Obsessed: Cultivating the Customer-Driven Leader. James is passionate about serving as a force multiplier to help leaders and businesses reach potential they never thought was possible. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a serious fitness fanatic, foodie and outdoor enthusiast.

JAMES H. KILLIAN, PH.D. is Managing Partner with the O'Brien Group. Dr. Killian is a strategic growth and revenue leader with over 25 years of high-impact global leadership roles at Qualtrics, SAP, IBM and Hogan Assessment Systems. James has also led several startups and turnaround assignments to record growth, and helped achieve 1 IPO and 5 business acquisitions at multiples. In these roles, he has advised the world’s best known brands such as Amazon, Apple, Disney, Expedia Group, L-Brands, Meta, Netflix, Nike, Starbucks and Visa to diagnose and improve employee experience (EX), customer experience (CX), talent management and leadership development programs that lead to measurable, impactful and long-lasting business outcomes.

Dr. Killian is also a professor in the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, and the author of over 50 published articles, conference presentations and book chapters and is authoring his first full manuscript,

Obsessed: Cultivating the Customer-Driven Leader. James is passionate about serving as a force multiplier to help leaders and businesses reach potential they never thought was possible. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a serious fitness fanatic, foodie and outdoor enthusiast.

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Dr. Michael O’Brien, Ed.D. is one of the country’s foremost executive leadership educators. As the founding executive of O’Brien Group in 1992, Michael has been a pioneering force in helping senior executives and their teams lead better and achieve more in the face of some of the most dramatic changes the healthcare industry has ever seen. A successful executive educator and CEO, Michael is also a dedicated leader, teacher, and author. He has addressed association and executive meetings throughout the U.S., including AHA’s Center for Healthcare Governance, ACHE, The Governance Institute, ASHRA, and many other leadership, executive and board retreats. Through his writings, workshops and his coaching with senior teams, Michael has helped executives, and their teams break through to new ways of thinking that evidence shows result in improvements in operations, financial results, and clinical performance. Now in semi-retirement, Michael continues his legacy of excellence as Executive Advisor to O’Brien Group.