Stephen O’Brien 

Public Career

The Rt. Hon. Sir Stephen O’Brien KBE served as the United Nation’s Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator from 2015-2017. During this time, he organised and led the World Humanitarian Summit (Istanbul 2016), attended by over 150 Heads of State / Government, over 9,000 delegates and established the new global Agenda for Humanity.

Between 1999 and 2015, he was a Member of Parliament in the UK, becoming International Development Minister in the Coalition Government in 2010 and subsequently the Prime Minister’s Envoy & Special Representative for Africa focused on the Sahel region.

Before entering Parliament, Sir Stephen started his career as a professional lawyer, following his graduation in law from Cambridge University, as an international commercial arbitration and disputes resolution solicitor with Freshfields Brückhaus Deringer. He then moved into business and took on senior executive and leadership positions in the UK’s FTSE100 international industrial construction materials group, Redland PLC.

Activity after Public Life

After returning from the UN, Sir Stephen has been the Chairman of Motability Operations Group PLC, providing independent transport for over 800,000 people in the UK living with disabilities, since 2019. He has also served as the Vice-Chairman of Savannah Energy plc, offering traditional and renewable energy solutions in a number of countries across on the African continent, since 2017. Additionally, he is the Chair of the Global Leaders’ Council for Hala Systems, Inc.

From 2019 to 2024, he was a Non-Executive Director of the UK’s Department for Business & Trade (formerly Dept. for International Trade). Since 2018, he has been a Mentor Advisor for the Unreasonable Group, which supports entrepreneurial enterprises seeking to grow and manage for-profit businesses while contributing to meeting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. In 2020, Sir Stephen became a member of the Advisory Council of the Coalition for Global Prosperity. He remains a frequent contributor on media outlets internationally on humanitarian, development and international affairs.

Sir Stephen has been engaged in the control, research, fund-raising and advocacy against malaria for over 45 years. His roles have included acting as Vice Chair, and subsequently Hon. Vice-President, of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, establishing and chairing the All Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, and serving as a Director and Chairman of the Innovative Vector Control Consortium. He co-founded and Chaired the worldwide charity, Malaria Consortium and is WHO Global Advocate for Malaria Control. In 2014, he was awarded the ‘Malaria No More’ Advocacy Action Award at the White House, Washington DC, USA.

In 2019, he was Visiting Resident Fellow and is Senior Visitor at Emmanuel College, Cambridge University; he is a Fellow of the Corporate Governance Institute and has served as Trustee and advisor to numerous charities in Africa, and on global health, music and the performing arts.

Sir Stephen was made a Privy Counsellor in 2013 and Knighted in 2017.

He was born in Tanzania and some of his early life and education was in Kenya before coming to the UK.

Memberships and Associations

• Chair, Motability Operations Group PLC 
• Vice-Chair, Savannah Energy PLC
• Non-Executive Director, Board of The Friends of The Global Fund Europe (Aids, TB & Malaria)
• Solicitor (non-practising); Fellow of the Institute of Corporate Governance (FCG)
• Chair, Global Leaders’ Council, Hala Systems, Inc.
• Advisory Council, Coalition for Global Prosperity; Patron, Malaria No More
• Trustee, City of London Sinfonia (2001-2015)
• Non-Executive Board Member, Department for Business and Trade, UK (2019-2024)