Sir Stephen Rothwell O'Brien, (born 1 April 1957) is a British politician and diplomat who was the United Nations

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator The Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator is a high-level position in the United Nations that heads the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The current holder is Martin Griffiths of th ...

. O'Brien assumed office on 29 May 2015, succeeding

Valerie Amos Valerie Ann Amos, Baroness Amos, (born 13 March 1954) is a British Labour Party politician and diplomat who served as the eighth UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. Before her appointment to ...

. He was formerly a Member of the United Kingdom Parliament (MP), representing Eddisbury. He was first elected in a

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

in July 1999, after

Alastair Goodlad Alastair Robertson Goodlad, Baron Goodlad (born 4 July 1943) is a British politician who served as Chief Whip of the House of Commons from 1995 to 1997 and British High Commissioner to Australia from 2000 to 2005. A member of the Conservative ...

was made British High Commissioner in Australia by

Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He previously served as Leader of th ...

and thus had to leave Parliament. A member of the Conservative Party, within the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition he was appointed as the Parliamentary Undersecretary of State in the Department for International Development. In September 2013 he became the Prime Minister's Envoy to the Sahel, encompassing nine countries across North and West Africa.

Early life

He was born in

Mtwara Mtwara ( Portuguese: ''Montewara'') is the capital city of Mtwara Region in southeastern Tanzania. In the 1940s, it was planned and constructed as the export facility for the disastrous Tanganyika groundnut scheme, but was somewhat neglected whe ...

Tanganyika Territory Tanganyika was a colonial territory in East Africa which was administered by the United Kingdom in various guises from 1916 to 1961. It was initially administered under a military occupation regime. From 20 July 1922, it was formalised into a L ...

, and educated at Loretto School in

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

, at the Handbridge School (Chester), the Heronwater School (

Abergele Abergele (; ; ) is a market town and community, situated on the north coast of Wales between the holiday resorts of Colwyn Bay and Rhyl, in Conwy County Borough and in the historic county of Denbighshire. Its northern suburb of Pensarn lies ...

Sedbergh School Sedbergh School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in the town of Sedbergh in Cumbria, in North West England. It comprises a junior school for children aged 4 to 13 and the main school for 13 to 18 year olds. I ...

and Emmanuel College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he gained an MA in Law in 1979, then obtained an MA from the

College of Law A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, ...

in Chester in 1980. After two years, he qualified as a solicitor in 1983 and practised until 1988 at solicitors

Freshfields Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP (informally Freshfields, or FBD) is an international law firm headquartered in London, and a member of the Magic Circle. The firm has 28 offices in 17 jurisdictions across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Nor ...

(City of London). From 1988 to 1998, he was Group secretary and Director of Strategic and Corporate Affairs at

Redland plc Redland or Redlands may refer to: Places Australia *Redland City, a local government area in South East Queensland **Electoral district of Redlands * SCECGS Redlands, an independent school in Cremorne, New South Wales Canada *Redland, Alber ...

. He was the Executive Director of Redland Clay Tile in Mexico from 1994 to 1998. O'Brien is a former member of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties Fo ...

(SDP).

Parliamentary career

He was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development from May 2010 to September 2012. Prior to the May 2010 elections he was a Shadow Minister for Health. From May to December 2005, he served as the Shadow Minister for Skills. From November 2003 to 2005, he was

Shadow Secretary of State for Industry The Shadow Secretary of State for Business and Industrial Strategy is an office within British politics held by a member of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition. The duty of the office holder is to scrutinise the actions of the government's Secre ...

. Previously, he held the post of Shadow Paymaster General and prior to that Shadow Financial Secretary. Before that, he was appointed an Opposition Whip in September 2001. From September 2000 to September 2001, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the

Chairman of the Conservative Party The chairman of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom is responsible for party administration and overseeing the Conservative Campaign Headquarters, formerly Conservative Central Office. When the Conservatives are in government, the off ...

, the Rt Hon

Michael Ancram Michael Andrew Foster Jude Kerr, 13th Marquess of Lothian, Baron Kerr of Monteviot, (born 7 July 1945), commonly known as Michael Ancram, is a British politician and life peer who served as Deputy Leader of the Conservative Party from 2001 to ...

QC MP. From February to September 2000, he was Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Rt Hon

Francis Maude Francis Anthony Aylmer Maude, Baron Maude of Horsham, (born 4 July 1953) is a British Conservative Party politician and life peer who served as Minister of State for Trade and Investment from 2015 to 2016, having previously served as Minis ...

MP. O'Brien has also served as a member of the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Employment and on the Education sub-Committee. In addition, he has served as Secretary of the Conservative Northern Ireland Committee and Secretary of the Conservative Trade & Industry Committee. In 2001, he was appointed an Associate of the British-Irish Inter-Parliamentary Body. Prior to joining the Government, he was Chairman of the All Party Group on Malaria, also of Tanzania and Vice-Chairman of the All Party Aid Trade & Debt Group. In 2000, he introduced a Private Member's Bill for Honesty in Food Labelling (country of origin and standards of production). From 1999, O'Brien has served on the Conservative Party's National Membership Committee. Between 1995 and 1999, O'Brien was Chairman of the Public and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of BMP (National Council of Building Materials Producers, latterly the Construction Products Association) and sat on BMP's Committee of Management and Strategy sub-committee. He was a trade member of the 1994 mission to Argentina and Brazil with the Rt Hon Sir Richard Needham MP (Minister for Trade). O'Brien was elected a member of the South East Regional Council of the CBI, serving between 1995 and 1998, and sat on the CBI's International Investment Committee and Working Parties on Anti-Corruption (pan-European) and Corporate Governance (UK). On 7 March 2013 O'Brien was appointed to the Privy Council of the United Kingdom.

UN career

O'Brien was appointed Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, the top position at

OCHA The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is a United Nations (UN) body established in December 1991 by the General Assembly to strengthen the international response to complex emergencies and natural disaster ...

, on 9 March 2015. In January 2016, 112 doctors, humanitarian workers, and civil society members in Syria addressed an

open letter An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally. Open letters usually take the form of a letter addressed to an indiv ...

to O'Brien criticizing OCHA for failing to meet urgent humanitarian needs created by the Syrian Civil War, citing a report by UN

Secretary General Secretary is a title often used in organizations to indicate a person having a certain amount of authority, power, or importance in the organization. Secretaries announce important events and communicate to the organization. The term is derived ...

Ban Ki-moon which stated that the combined food, medical aid (insulin), and non-food items to successfully delivered to besieged areas in Syria in 2015 was enough for only 0.7% of the UN's estimated 212,000 people living under siege. O'Brien said in a note to correspondents that his office pledged to engage besieged populations and would continue to work tirelessly to bring lifesaving aid to those in need in Syria. In March 2016, O'Brien assumed management of the upcoming

World Humanitarian Summit The United Nations World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) was held in Istanbul, Turkey, on May 23 and 24, 2016. The summit was an initiative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon and was organized by the United Nations Office for the ...

, an initiative of the Secretary-General. In an op-ed about the summit, O'Brien wrote: "To end need, we must stop thinking about relief and development as a sequence. Instead, we must find new ways to comprehensively reduce vulnerability and risk while in tandem meeting pressing humanitarian needs in line with humanitarian principles." O'Brien was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to the United Nations and humanitarian affairs.

Personal life

He married Gemma Townshend, a nurse, on 30 August 1986 in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, c ...

, Kent. They have two sons (born July 1988 and August 1990) and a daughter (born January 1993). They live near

Tarporley Tarporley is a large village and civil parish in Cheshire, England. The civil parish also contains the village of Rhuddall Heath. Tarporley is bypassed by the A49 and A51 roads. At the 2011 census, the population was 2,614. History Tarporle ...

Gallery

File:Stephen OBrien visits survivors of acid attacks in Bangladesh (6395601343).jpg, Stephen OBrien visits survivors of acid attacks in

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

File:Stephen O'Brien, October 2009 2.jpg, Stephen O'Brien, at the Health Hotel session "Winning the battle for hearts and brains File:UK warns of humanitarian disaster in South Sudan (7115142883).jpg, Stephen O'Brien meets a mother and her baby receiving medical treatment at a health centre in Jamam,

South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the ...

Early life

Parliamentary career

UN career

Personal life

Gallery

References

External links