Barry O’Brien is the head of SVB Lift and Strategic Investments, where he is responsible for building the SVB LIFT practice and team and working in close partnership with the Emerging Manager and Early–Stage practices.
Prior to SVB Capital, Barry was a managing director for SVB’s Corporate Relationship Management Group. Barry was responsible for SVB’s relationships with the venture capital (VC) divisions of Fortune 500 companies. He was also instrumental in setting up the SVB Dublin office.
Before SVB, Barry was an officer in the Irish Foreign Service, his final posting being as Deputy Consul General to the United States. Prior to the Foreign Service, he was a strategy consultant with BearingPoint in Dublin and PricewaterhouseCoopers in Sydney.
Barry graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) and UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in business studies, respectively. In addition, Barry holds an executive master’s degree in management and strategy from the University of Notre Dame. Barry is native to Ireland and currently resides in San Francisco.
