Making "Cents" of Lakewood Finances

Tuesday, February 26th

7:00 PM

Forum One

Participant Bio

Kevin O'Brien

Executive Director, The Center for Public Management and the Great Lakes Environmental Finance Center, The Maxine-Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State University

Kevin O’Brien is the Executive Director of the Center for Public Management and the Great Lakes Environmental Finance Center, two research and technical assistance centers of the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University. Kevin has worked in the fields of public finance, public management, and economic development for more than 25 years. With the Levin College for the past 19 years, he has undertaken a wide variety of government and school finance, management improvement, fiscal and economic impact, privatization, infrastructure finance planning and economic development strategy assignments with local, state and federal government and not-for-profit clients. In 1993, he was appointed by the Ohio General Assembly to direct the Ohio Task Force on Regional Competitiveness and Cooperation, a state legislative commission designed to explore models to encourage regional economic competitiveness in the global economy. Prior to joining Cleveland State, Kevin served in the Municipal Finance Department of Moody’s Investors Service on Wall Street in New York, and as a finance and development aide to the Mayor of New York City. He began his career working as a lobbyist on energy and environmental issues with consumer advocate Ralph Nader. Kevin is a member of the U.S. EPA Environmental Finance Advisory Board (EFAB), an Editorial Board member of Brownfield News, and the Ohio North Coast Chapter of the U.S. Lacrosse Association. He has served as a member of the Board of Greater Cleveland Community Shares, the Greater Cleveland Citizens League, and the National Brownfield Association. He holds Masters of Science degrees in Development Finance, and in Planning and Public Policy from Columbia University.