Robert O'Brien

Bob O’Brien is Senior Vice President heading Amalgamated Bank’s newly created Public Finance Division with an emphasis on lending to distressed municipalities as well as to those municipalities faced with diminished financing options. Established in 1923 by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and now owned by its successor organization, Workers United, Amalgamated Bank is the largest union-owned bank in the United States. Amalgamated’s financing efforts in the distressed municipal space are designed to provide municipalities with breathing space while its leaders work through a recovery plan. Our view is that reducing a municipality’s immediate liquidity stress is an important step in potentially improving outcomes for local residents, municipal workers, and the community itself – a message consistent with Amalgamated’s history of being the bank of working families and local communities.Before joining Amalgamated, O’Brien started and headed the public finance group at LBBW, Germany’s fifth-largest bank, and he also led the municipal finance credit underwriting efforts of BluePoint Re, a start-up bond reinsurer owned by Wachovia.O’Brien’s experience includes time at Fitch Ratings where he analyzed local municipal issuers and rated municipal structured transactions. He earned an MPA from Columbia University and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.