At the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Richard. O’Brien oversees the regulatory agency’s international activities.  This includes coordinating with foreign product safety agencies and providing training on U.S. requirements to foreign suppliers and to overseas buyers for U.S. sales. 

Mr. O’Brien is a retired career U.S. Foreign Service Officer with over 30 years of federal service.  Before joining the Foreign Service, he worked in trade promotion at the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration and earlier, at the Agriculture Department’s Foreign Agricultural Service as a Press and Public Information Specialist.  Earlier, he held a variety of positions in the public relations and marketing field, including agency account executive, consultant, as well as staff public relations director for The Salvation Army.

Mr. O’Brien was born Dayton, Ohio, USA.  He holds a Master’s Degree in International Affairs from George Washington University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Mass Communications from Towson State University.  A veteran of both the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, he has lived and worked in the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, South Korea, Germany, and Switzerland.  Mr. O’Brien resides with his family in Bowie, Maryland.