Tim O'Brien

co-Founder | Learning & Development Specialist

Tim loves listening to people and learning about how they understand and relate to their challenges. He particularly enjoys designing training programs that help practitioners take more initiative. His teaching, training and consulting practice is built on the belief that all people and organizations can learn and develop with a shift in perspective and the right balance of supports and challenges.

Tim is a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he has won multiple teaching awards for his leadership and adult development courses. He also chairs the popular Leadership for the 21st Century executive program. He serves KONU’s clients by bridging best practices in leadership development to the day-to-day reality they face as practitioners.

Before completing his doctorate in adult development and education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Tim taught high school literature, trained teachers in the Philippines with the Peace Corps, was a lobster fisherman, drove water taxis in Boston Harbor, worked in Washington D.C. City Government and directed sail training programs on traditionally rigged schooners in the Atlantic and Caribbean. Now, those experiences help him navigate the more demanding challenge of getting a toddler out the door in the morning.