Dan O'Brien is Chief Economist of the Institute of International and European Affairs, one of Ireland’s leading think tanks. He is also Adjunct Senior Research Fellow at University College Dublin’s Geary Institute and a regular media commentator on economic and public policy issues.

For three years from mid-2010 Dan was economics editor of the Irish Times, analysing and commenting on a wide range of Irish, European and global issues. Prior to that he spent a dozen years, based in London and Geneva, as senior economist and editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit, an arm of The Economist Newspaper Group. Dan has also worked for the European Commission and as a consultant for the United Nations and Forfas, an Irish government in-house think tank. 

During his career, in which he has lived and worked in seven European countries, Dan has commented frequently in the domestic and international media, including for broadcasters such as CNN and in newspapers such as the Financial Times.