Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation, University of Cambridge

Chief Executive, Cambridge Enterprise

Dr Diarmuid O’Brien is the Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Innovation and is also acting as the Chief Executive of Cambridge Enterprise. Cambridge Enterprise supports the University's innovators, experts and entrepreneurs. It helps them to make their ideas more commercially successful.

Prior to joining Cambridge Enterprise is 2021, Diarmuid was Chief Innovation & Enterprise Officer at Trinity College Dublin, where he had overall responsibility for the development and enhancement of the college’s innovation and enterprise strategy. Prior to this, he was Director of Trinity Research and Innovation with responsibility for both the Research Development Office and the Office of Corporate Partnership and Knowledge Exchange. In that role he led the establishment of the University Bridge venture fund, which is ranked in the world’s top five collaborative university funds, according to Global University Venturing.

While at Trinity, Diarmuid was also the Executive Director of CRANN, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for nanotechnology and materials science research. He has held senior management roles in several university-founded start-up companies, including NTera, Xoliox, and Deerac Fluidics.

Diarmuid was a Research Fellow at Princeton University. He has a PhD in Physics from the University of Sheffield and a degree in Materials Science from Trinity College Dublin.