Timothy L. O'Brien

Early life and education

Born in Illinois, O'Brien is a graduate of Loyola Academy and Georgetown University, where he studied literature. He has three master's degrees from Columbia University, in history, journalism, and business.

Career

O'Brien is the publisher and a member of the editorial board at Bloomberg View, a commentary site about business, politics, and foreign affairs. O'Brien was a reporter for the New York Times before becoming its Sunday Business editor in 2006. O'Brien has written two nonfiction books: 1998's Bad Bet: The Inside Story of the Glamour, Glitz, and Danger of America's Gambling Industry (ISBN 0-8129-2807-5) and 2005's TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald (ISBN 978-1422366189). He contracted with Random House for a series of historical novels during the period between the American Civil War and World War I. His novel The Lincoln Conspiracy (ISBN 978-0-345-49677-5) was published in 2012. He was previously the executive editor of The Huffington Post and has written for The Wall Street Journal and Talk Magazine. O'Brien edited a multi-part series on wounded war veterans that won a Pulitzer Prize for national reporting in 2012. He is also a recipient of a Loeb Award for Distinguished Business Journalism. He helped oversee a team of New York Times reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize finalist for its coverage of the 2008 financial crisis.

TrumpNation is notable for its controversial claim that celebrity real estate mogul Donald Trump was worth no more than $250 million (USD). Trump, who claimed at the time to be a billionaire and who has built a reputation upon his wealth, filed suit against O'Brien and Warner Books on January 23, 2006. On July 15, 2009, the suit was dismissed by a New Jersey judge. Trump appealed, but the dismissal was upheld by an appeals court on September 7, 2011.