John O'Brien is currently on secondment from the Department for Communities and Local Government to the Local Government Association where he is the director responsible for supporting the work of the Independent Commission, chaired by Lord Best.

Between October 2003 and October 2006 John was Director of Local Government Performance and Practice at DCLG and, formerly, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, where he had responsibility for the overall national performance framework for local government, sponsorship of the Audit Commission, national improvement and capacity building programmes and government engagement and intervention with poorly performing councils. He also played a significant role in the development of the 2006 Local Government White Paper.

Before that John was a Director at the Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government with overall responsibility for services that included peer review, the Local Government Improvement Programme and leadership development for councillors. He was Deputy to the Executive Director and served as Acting Executive Director between April 2002 and January 2003.

John previously spent eleven years with KPMGs Government Consulting Group, working on a range of policy and organisational issues in local and central government as well overseas. John began his career in local government at Basildon District Council and the City of Westminster.