Danny O'Brien

Danny is the Managing Director of EMEA at THRIVE where he is responsible for leading their expansion in the region, connecting with partners and identifying disruptive startups who are positively changing their food system.

Danny has a background in management consulting and corporate innovation spending a number of years in Dublin, London and New York working closely with corporate clients and startups. In 2017 he founded Idea 2 Scale, a virtual accelerator program and entrepreneurship community which helped hundreds of founders from 33 countries become market and investor ready. At the same time, he started a coworking and innovation hub in Ireland called Business Barn. Danny sits on the Advisory Board of the International School of Agri-Management (ISAM) in Spain where he also teaches Entrepreneurship. He has a particular interest in emerging markets where he sees the potential of Agri-Food Tech to transform the lives of at-risk communities.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Marketing Practice from the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School (UCD) and a Bachelors of Business Studies from DCU.