O’Brien elected to lead Medical Center Board of Trustees

Investment executive Brien M. O’Brien has been elected as the new chair of the University of Chicago Medical Center's Board of Trustees.

O’Brien, who is chairman and chief executive officer of Port Capital LLC, has been on the Medical Center’s board since 2005. He succeeds attorney Emily Nicklin, a partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP, who will continue to serve on the hospital board.

A longtime executive who has spent nearly four decades building and leading investment management firms, O’Brien is the founder of Port Capital. Before that, he served as chairman and CEO of Advisory Research Inc., a leading value investment management firm. Advisory Research, which O’Brien co-founded, was purchased by Piper Jaffray Inc. Following the acquisition, O’Brien served on the executive management committee of Piper Jaffray, where he was responsible for the firm’s global asset management activities.

Additionally, O’Brien serves as a trustee associate at Boston College, from which he graduated with honors with a bachelor’s degree in finance and theology. He is a director of the National Parks Foundation and the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, an accredited land trust in Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

As chair of the Medical Center Board, O’Brien also will join the University of Chicago’s Board of Trustees.