The O'Briens - Making Their Mark!  

Kieran completed most of his secondary college at St Virgil’s, finishing Year 12 as a graduate of Guilford Young College in its inaugural year in 1995. 

Kieran continued study at the University of Tasmania (UTAS) in 1996, graduating with a Bachelor of Economics and Bachelor of Arts in 2000 and a Bachelor of Information Systems with Honours in 2001. 

Following travel and work at Vodafone in 2002, Kieran entered the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) graduate programme in 2003, working in economic and population statistics and managing an economic, employment and regional statistics unit before taking up a role as Change Manager at the Commonwealth Department of Science, Education and Training in 2006. 

During undergraduate and early career years, Kieran was a member of original bands Waiter (guitar) and Slide (drums), playing gigs across the state and country. Waiter played at the inaugural Tasmanian Falls Festival in 2003 releasing an EP 'In the Sand' (TLA Records, 2003) produced by the late Tony Cohen who was well known for his work with Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and The Cruel Sea. Memorable Waiter gigs included supporting Brian Ferry in 2004, the Falls Festival again in 2005 and the Victorian Festival of Folk, Rhythm and Life in 2005 and 2006. 

Waiter’s debut album 'Moving Objects' was released in 2005 with the album's single 'Epsilon' featured in Triple J's 'Next Crop".

An avid rugby fan, Kieran played Tasmanian senior grade rugby from 1996 to 2010, also representing Tasmania against Victoria and representing UTAS in two Australian inter-varsity rugby competitions in the 2000s. 

Following a secondment from the ABS to the Australian Innovation Research Centre (AIRC) at UTAS from 2007 to 2009, Kieran continued as a  Senior Research Fellow at the AIRC from 2010 until 2017, a position that gave him the opportunity to establish collaborations with researchers in Brazil, London, Norway and the Netherlands and to present his research at academic conferences in Germany, Barcelona, Oslo, Prague, Montreal, Seoul, Hong Kong and Taipei. Kieran completed a Masters by Research (Commerce) in 2013 and is currently finishing a PhD by publication in the field of innovation studies.  

Since 2017 Kieran has been working as Manager of a Performance, Systems and Data team in Skills Tasmania at the Tasmanian Department of State Growth. Kieran has two children Maxwell (4) and Olive (2) with partner Anna. With rugby days well behind him now, Kieran still enjoys playing touch football and futsal. 

Damien O'Brien 

Following his secondary education at St Virgil’s and GYC, Damien started at UTAS and did the first three years of a Mechanical Engineering Degree, then became very interested in aerospace  and subsequently transferred to Monash in Melbourne to do the 'Aero/Mech' double degree. While at Monash, he went on ‘exchange’ to Virginia Tech. in the USA. 

After graduating, Damien worked for three years in Melbourne at a defence contractor QinetiQ, then moved to Hamburg, Germany in 2009 to work for Airbus. He spent three years in Germany and while there learnt German (he recently successfully completed a German C1 exam) and of course travelled all over Europe, often with his brother Kieran when he visited.

In 2012 Damien moved to Bristol, UK, again to work for Airbus

It was back to Australia in 2014 where he continued his employment with Airbus in Brisbane where he currently holds the position of Design Engineering In-service Structures Team Lead.

Since Airbus in Australia works closely with Airbus in France, ( Damien has travelled there several times for work),  Damien has taken to learning French and recently successfully completed his French B2 exam. 

Damien has excelled in soccer having played at a senior level for the past 22 years.   Highlights include playing for Virginia Tech (Division 1 College soccer team, in the NCAA Atlantic Coast Conference - playing college soccer was main reason he went to the USA); playing in the 5th division in Germany, in England (8th or 9th tier in the football pyramid), in the 2nd division in Melbourne; in the Brisbane Premier League and has just finished a successful season in the Capital 1 League in Brisbane in 2021, and of course playing for his home town club, New Town Eagles, early in his career. He plans to play again in 2022 – provided he gets his wife’s permission!

Damien’s wife, Sonia, is a secondary teacher at St Patricks College in Brisbane, which, like St Virgil’s, is part of the EREA network.  Sonia and Damien have three young children -Alice 7, Jamie 4, Harry 1.

Whilst Damien and Kieran attended the College their mother Gail was a great servant of the Parents and Friends Association.