Richard O'Brien - Partner

Richard is the co-founding partner of Outsights and the author of the best-selling book Global Financial Integration: the End of Geography. He a leading futurist and international financial economist with more than 35 years’ of experience of helping organisations anticipate and manage the future.

Richard pioneered the art of country risk analysis with Rothschilds and as chief economist and executive director of American Express Bank, also advising the World Bank, the EBRD and the Group of 30.

At Outsights, which he set up in 1995, he has worked with governments, multinationals and charities in developing future strategies and to deepen their knowledge base, leading the development of the UK Government’s pioneering Sigma Scan. He is the editor and co-editor of more than a dozen books, and has written for many publications including Global Networks, the Harvard Business Review, and The Economist and has been a frequent radio and TV commentator.

Richard serves on the Davos Global Agenda Council on Strategic Foresight and many advisory boards. He chairs the jury for global competitions for the BBC, The Economist, Shell, Newsweek and has served on the jury for the McKinsey/HBR Prize.

He is a PPE graduate from Oxford University, a former international distance runner and leads the tenor section of Eclectic Voices.

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