Center for Innovative
Financial Technology
John O'Brien, Faculty Director (contact)
John O’Brien is the Faculty Director of the Master’s in Financial Engineering (MFE) program at the University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business. John also is adjunct professor of finance at Haas; he created and teaches the MFE course in financial innovation.
Prior to joining Berkeley, John spent four years as a managing director of Credit Suisse Asset Management in New York where, among other responsibilities, he created and managed the risk management function, the client service function, and the e-commerce effort.
Before Credit Suisse, John was co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Leland O’Brien Rubinstein (LOR) Associates, and Chairman of the Capital Market Fund, and the S&P 500 SuperTrust – the first exchange traded fund (ETF). LOR is credited with a series of financial market innovations, including portfolio insurance and the ETF, a process that now is called "financial engineering."
In 1972, John co-founded O’Brien Associates (later renamed Wilshire Associates), and co-developed the O’Brien 5000 common stock index, later renamed the Wilshire 5000 Index.
Over the years, John has received various awards, most recently the 2004 Matthew R. McArthur Award from the Investment Management Consultants Association for lifetime contributions to investment consulting. In 1987 John was named one of Fortune Magazine’s Men of the Year. Earlier John received a Graham & Dodd Scroll Award from the Financial Analysts’ Journal for his article on applications of modern finance to investing.
John holds an S.B. in economics from MIT, and an MS in operations research
from UCLA. He served as a Lieutenant in the United States Air Force.
