Mark O'Brien

He is also the Programme Director of a large education collaboration at the School, the Dubai Health - University of Oxford Leadership Academy.

Mark has had experience in healthcare since the mid-1980s starting as a rural family physician in Australia. He forged strong links in post-graduate medical education before co-founding the Cognitive Institute, an Australasian healthcare risk management organisation where he served as Medical Director. He also held the position of International Programme Director of Medical Education and most recently Hospital Lead in the Risk Prevention division for the Medical Protection Society until March 2021.

As well as his clinical qualifications he is a professional Non-Executive Director, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and an Associate Fellow and Certified Healthcare Manager with the Australasian College of Health Service Management. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Queensland and serves as a Non-Executive Director of St John of God Healthcare, a large private hospital group in Australia

His clinical background contributes a strong psychological and relationship understanding to his leadership development work. As such, his teaching resonates with audiences from a wide variety of professions such as law, accounting, finance, people management and professional non-executive directors.

Mark has had a lifelong passion for improving the quality of leadership development and building high performance cultures of psychological safety.  

He is a graduate of our Oxford Advanced Management and Leadership Programme.