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Stuart (Tuck) O’Brien, 36Project Development Manager & Associate General Counsel
Ocean Renewable Power Company
Stuart “Tuck†O’Brien (“Tuckâ€Â, as he is invariably known, “is a family nicknameâ€Â) notes that “my career path has taken different turns but I have always been fascinated by the development process and that has evolved into a focus on sustainability issues in infrastructure and economic development.â€Â
“So ORPC and the renewable energy industry are a really good fit for me, personally and professionally.â€Â
Ocean Renewable Power Company, its Web site explains, develops “breakthrough technology and ecoconscious projects that use ocean and river currents to produce clean, predictable electricity.â€Â
O’Brien’s role is in project development and legal work, including Nova Scotia and the Maine Tidal Energy Project, which has brought more than $14 million into the Maine economy, and created or helped retain more than 100 jobs in 13 counties. The Cobscook Bay project received only the second license of its kind from the federal government, and the first from Maine.
A Massachusetts native, O’Brien majored in East Asian studies at Bates, where his work also included touring the state interviewing people in all walks of life for an oral history of Edmund Muskie. He’s worked as a carpenter on Mount Desert Island, in real estate at a Boston law firm (his law degree is from Boston College), as a city planner and as a consultant at Barton & Gingold.
O’Brien is vice chair of the Portland Planning Board; and as a board member of the Portland Society of Architects, he assisted the group with becoming a 501c3 nonprofit. He also occasionally provides pro bono legal services to start-ups and nonprofits in both Maine and Massachusetts.
He, wife Kate, and son, Owen, moved to Portland in 2009. Their second child is due May 25. “So I may, or may not, be able to attend the event at Hadlock,†O’Brien said.
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