Stephen O'Brien

Stephen O'Brien was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Development on 13 May 2010. Stephen O'Brien is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Eddisbury, a seat he was elected to in the July 1999 by-election.

Before politics, after practising as a solicitor in the City of London for seven years, Stephen O'Brien was a manufacturing industrialist as International Director and Company Secretary of FTSE 100 company, Redland PLC – building materials producers.

Prior to his appointment at DFID he was a Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care. Previously he served as the Shadow Minister for Skills and Higher Education, Shadow Secretary of State for Industry, Shadow Minister for the Treasury, Opposition Whip and Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chairman of the Conservative Party. He has been a member of the House of Commons Select Committee on Education and Employment.

In addition, he was founder and Chairman of the All Party Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases, also of the Tanzania Group (the country of his birth) and Vice Chairman of the All Party Aid, Trade & Debt Group.

He was Vice-Chairman of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, a Director-Trustee of the Innovative Vector Control Consortium and, as a leading campaigner globally against malaria, he chaired NGO, the Malaria Consortium, between 2006 and taking up his Government post. He is a Trustee of the City of London Sinfonia and is a classical pianist himself.

Stephen is married to Gemma. They have two sons and a daughter.