Mike Brennan

Mike Brennan recently returned to the OTF Group lead the Rwanda Competitiveness Project.  As a Program Director at SEVEN, he managed the Pioneers of Prosperity program, and other strategic initiatives in the Fund's portfolio. He is an author, a film producer and an internationally-respected speaker.

During his previous tenure at OTF, Mike led country level and cluster based projects in Afghanistan, Rwanda, Jamaica, Serbia, Macedonia, Bolivia, Ireland, and Bermuda. He was the primary author of the Council on Competitiveness' Clusters of Innovation report for Pittsburgh, which examined regional economic growth and was part of a five-city study, led by Professor Michael Porter of Harvard University. He has co-authored
"Economic Development in Post Conflict Society," with Michael Fairbanks, published by the University of Minnesota, as part of the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs State and Local Policy Conference; and is a contributing author for the book from the Templeton Press "In The River They Swim: Essays from Around The World On Enterprise Solutions to Poverty."

Mr. Brennan developed broad business expertise advising senior executives at Fortune 100 companies and leveraged that experience to advising senior government and local business leaders in post conflict societies. He led projects as a Vice President at The Lab, a New York consulting firm, and advised Fortune 100 companies, such as The Prudential Financial Company, Alliance Capital and JPMorganChase. He ran a business center in Bulgaria in the early 1990s as a member of the U.S. Peace Corps. His work in strategic planning in the marketing group at the New York Regional Bell Operating Company, NYNEX, won the Golden Appy Industry Award. He was also a featured and keynote lecturer at dozens of venues, such as a Rotary Conference for Technology Transfer PhDs at MIT; The Annual Small and Medium Enterprise Conference in Belgrade; and The European Students' Conference on Industrial Engineering.

He has taught market research at the university level, was a volunteer high school teacher in Kenya, and he developed and taught leadership courses to senior government officials and business leaders in Rwanda. He has an M.B.A. from The University of Rochester's William Simon School. He was a nationally ranked marathoner as a teenager and remains a runner today.