Benjamin O'Brien

Dr Benjamin O’Brien has a BE in Mechatronics and PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Auckland. He won a Rutherford Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellowship in 2010 and the 2013 Prime Ministers MacDiarmid Emerging Scientist Prize. Ben has over a decade of experience in startup leadership. He was the CEO of StretchSense from co-founding in 2012 until 2023, and today sits on the board. Having lived the entire research-to-commercialisation journey himself, Ben is passionate about supporting the next generation of kiwi founders solve big problems, create fantastic jobs, and fix the economy. He is writing a book for entrepreneurs and has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.