Derek O'Brien

Derek O’Brien is an Indian politician, television personality, and quiz master. He is a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha from West Bengal and a member of the All India Trinamool Congress. He is the chief national spokesperson and leader of the Trinamool Congress Parliamentary party in the Rajya Sabha.  Before his Parliamentary career, he became well-known as the quizmaster for the Bournvita Quiz Contest and other shows.

O’Brien traces his paternal origins to an Irish soldier who came to India in the early 1860s.  Born on 13 March 1961, O'Brien went to St. Xavier's Collegiate School in Kolkata and, for a short period, St. Columba's School in Delhi, and then spent two years at Scottish Church College, Kolkata. 

 

In 1988, O’Brien hosted his first all-India quizzes as a professional quizmaster- the Bata North Star Quiz and the Maggi Quiz for Schools. In 1991, he set up his own knowledge, education, and publishing company, Big Ideas – since renamed Derek O’Brien and Associates.

Derek O’Brien has conducted quizzes in the UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and the United States.

O’Brien has spoken at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia universities in the United States, several Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), the National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, and many other well-known educational institutions.

O’Brien joined the Trinamool Congress in 2004 when the party was still in opposition in West Bengal.  O’Brien soon became a spokesperson for the Trinamool Congress.

In 2011, the Trinamool Congress won in the West Bengal assembly election, and O’Brien was sent to the Rajya Sabha. (Collected from the public domain)

 

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