Meet Our Advisors: Clint O’Brien

Through the end of the year, we’ll be running a “Meet Our Advisors” feature as a way to introduce readers to the members of our Editorial Advisory Board.

This week, meet Clint O’Brien, vice president of business development at Care2, a social-network Web site that aims to help people make the world a better place by connecting them with individuals, organizations and responsible businesses making an impact. In this role, O’Brien works with more than 350 leading nonprofit organizations that choose Care2 as their preferred outlet for publicizing their causes, as well as recruiting new members, donors and advocacy supporters.

Grew up in: Philadelphia

Education: Graduated from Brown University and then earned an MBA from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Professional background: “(I) worked seven years as a news reporter, including two years (1991-1993) as a Moscow correspondent for Newsweek and The Associated Press, covering the breakup of the USSR and its aftermath. Previously won awards for investigative journalism, covering environmental issues from the Washington, D.C., bureau of a chain of daily newspapers in the Midwest. After getting my MBA in 1995, I worked two-plus years in book publishing in New York, for the Bertelsmann-owned book publisher Bantam Doubleday Dell, which later acquired (and now goes by the name of) Random House.

“(I) worked seven years for the nonprofit Public Broadcasting Service, heading business development first for PBS Interactive, then organization-wide. One of my projects was to select online marketing tools for local PBS member stations — a first encounter with the world of online fundraising. (My) final three years at PBS were as leader of a business called the PBS Adult Learning Service, which licensed e-learning courses to universities and colleges nationwide.

“In 2005, joined Care2 as vice president of nonprofit services and manager of Care2’s Washington, D.C., office. With more than 9 million members, Care2 is the largest online social network for civically active people seeking to make a difference.”