Robyn O’Brien

Bloomberg and the New York Times have called Robyn O’Brien “Food’s Erin Brockovich”. She is a sought-after speaker for her catalyzing work in the food industry and efforts to rebuild the health of our country. Her TEDx talks have been viewed by millions around the world and translated into French, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German and Hebrew, igniting a global conversation around food. 

Robyn received her MBA on a full scholarship, graduating as the top woman in her class from Rice University. Exxon, Enron and multinationals recruited her before she went to work as an equity analyst on a team that managed $20 billion in assets. She was part of the team that launched the company’s first hedge fund, which won top performer at the company. While working as an equity analyst, she was specifically assigned to cover the food industry where she had the opportunity to meet with the management teams from Kroger, Costco, Whole Foods and other companies on a regular basis. She also met with Goldman Sachs’ Henry Paulson, EBay’s Meg Whitman and Martha Stewart as they were taking their companies public. 

Her life took an abrupt turn when her fourth child had a life threatening allergic reaction. She turned her analytical skills towards our food system and the impact our health, chronic diseases and health care costs are having on productivity, profitability and our economy.

For over a decade, she has lead a food awakening among consumers, corporations and political leaders. She leads food and health care reform and regularly appears in the press. 

Random House published her acclaimed book, The Unhealthy Truth: How Our Food Is Making Us Sick and What We Can Do About It and today, Robyn is regarded as a food and health expert and sought after speaker who lectures and writes extensively, addressing the economic burden that disease is placing on our families, our companies and our country. 

Armed with data and analytics, food companies now responding to Robyn’s work include Compass Food Group, General Mills, Coca Cola, Burger King, Chipotle, Nestle, Target, Annie’s, Back to the Roots and others. She sheds light on how the changing landscapes of food and health are impacting the food industry and our economy. She also created the #epigate campaign to tackle the skyrocketing prices of EpiPens. 

Robyn’s work has been recognized by political leaders around the country, in Congressional hearings, by investors and across the food and health care industries. She is a recognized thought leader, an advisor to startups and multinationals, named by Forbes Women as a woman to follow on Twitter, named by SHAPE Magazine as a woman to shape the world, the author of the bestseller The Unhealthy Truth and the founder of the strategic advisory firm, Do Good, and the non-profit, AllergyKids Foundation. She lives in Boulder, Colorado with her husband and four children.