About O’Brien Communications
Pittsburgh-based O’Brien Communications builds its client service with a distinct focus on five core competencies:
Senior-level Consulting & Coaching
Workforce Communications
Public Relations & Media Relations
Content Development & Professional Writing
Crisis & Issues Management
O’Brien Communications was formed in 2001 to provide clients with national-agency and client-side experience with the enhanced cost-efficiencies that only a scalable independent corporate communications practice can provide. Clients have ranged from Fortune 100 corporations to nonprofits and emerging start-ups.
Consistently since 2017, after a review of 88 firms, Expertise.com has annually ranked O’Brien Communications one of the Best PR Firms in Pittsburgh.
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About Tim O’Brien
Tim O’Brien formed O’Brien Communications, an independent corporate communications practice, in June 2001 after serving as Communications Director and Chief Investor Relations Officer at Tollgrade Communications, a NASDAQ company then. Tollgrade has since been acquired and is no longer publicly traded.
Tim focuses in strategic analysis and planning, crisis and issues management, professional services marketing, executive visibility, media training and coaching, media relations, and content development and writing. He is also an accomplished columnist and podcast creator.
O’Brien Communications, which has been consistently ranked by Expertise.com as one of the “Best PR Firms in Pittsburgh,” has managed corporate projects and communications programs for both publicly and privately held companies, from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies. He has also worked extensively with professional associations and nonprofits.
At Tollgrade, Tim was a member of the company’s Executive Committee, responsible for internal and external communications, serving as primary spokesperson. Before Tollgrade, he spent ten years at Ketchum, where he was a Vice President, a member of the Pittsburgh office’s Management Committee, and a leader in Ketchum’s national Crisis and Workplace Communications practice areas. At Ketchum, he managed corporate, employee and media relations, in addition to crisis communications programs, community relations and marketing communications initiatives.
He started his career in radio and TV as a producer and news writer first at 13Q-AM and then KDKA-TV & Radio.
Tim earned his bachelor’s degree with majors in Journalism and Speech Communications at Duquesne University.
He has served on both the Governance Committee and the Board of Ethics & Professional Standards of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), where was accredited in 1990. He was a regular columnist for PRSA’s publications, a regular contributor to Muck Rack Daily, and he has written for several public affairs and trade publications on trending issues and topics. His Shaping Opinion podcast is on all major podcast platforms.
He has presented at professional and trade functions, including the American Bar Association’s Continuing Legal Education programs. He has also lectured at graduate and undergraduate programs at institutions including: Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne University, the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania State University, Chatham University and at other colleges and universities. He contributed to the PR News Crisis Management Guidebook, the PR News Employee Communications Guidebook, and he was featured in Harvard Business School Press’s The Essentials of Corporate Communications and Public Relations.
In 2017, Tim was recognized for his national leadership as the inaugural recipient of the national PRSA’s Independent Practitioner Alliance “Indie Award.” In 2019, Tim’s Shaping Opinion Podcast was honored by the PRSA Bronze Anvil Awards in the branded podcasts category. Other work has been recognized in several competitions, including the PRSA Renaissance Awards, the Association of Business Communicators and the Dalton Pen Communications Award Program for Excellence in Annual Reports, the NFPW Communications Awards, the International Academy of the Visual Arts’ Communicator Awards, and the Pennsylvania Press Club.
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