Shannon Patricia Elizabeth O'Brien was born on April 30,1959 and is an American politician and attorney who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1987 through 1993, in the Massachusetts Senate from 1993 through 1995, and was the Massachusetts state treasurer from 1999 through 2003.
14 Facts About Shannon O'Brien
2.
Shannon O'Brien was the Democratic Party nominee in the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, but lost in the general election to Mitt Romney.
3.
Shannon O'Brien's father Edward O'Brien was a lawyer who served on the Massachusetts Governor's Council from 1970 to 1975, left the post to run for Massachusetts attorney general, losing the 1974 Democratic primary to Francis X Belotti; her father ran for Congress in 1976, losing to the incumbent Silvio Conte; he returned to the Governor's Council after the 1978 election and remained in office until his death in 2004.
4.
Shannon O'Brien has four siblings: Erin, a clerk at the West Roxbury District Court; Gaelan, a court officer in the Northampton District Court; Tara, a former employee at Boston City Hall; and Michael, who runs the family funeral home in Easthampton.
5.
Shannon O'Brien graduated from Yale University in 1981, where she was captain of the Yale Bulldogs varsity women's soccer team.
6.
Shannon O'Brien received her Juris Doctor degree from the Boston University School of Law in 1985.
7.
Shannon O'Brien worked for a large Boston law firm before her father alerted her to an open seat in the state legislature, which she won.
8.
Shannon O'Brien served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives from 1987 through 1993, and in the Massachusetts Senate from 1993 through 1995.
9.
Shannon O'Brien was the Massachusetts state treasurer from 1999 through 2003, winning the office in the Massachusetts general election, 1998, after losing in her first attempt for that office in Massachusetts general election, 1994 and subsequently working as a vice president for external affairs at a health-care company.
10.
Shannon O'Brien was the first woman to be elected in Massachusetts to statewide office by her own accord.
11.
Shannon O'Brien came into the office after it had suffered a major embezzlement scandal, and she tightened controls over the funds involved.
12.
Shannon O'Brien refinanced state debt and in doing so saved about $500 million.
13.
Shannon O'Brien won the Democratic gubernatorial primary in 2002, defeating State Senate President Thomas Birmingham, former Democratic National Committee and American Israel Public Affairs Committee chair Steven Grossman, former United States Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, and former nominee for lieutenant governor Warren Tolman.
14.
Shannon O'Brien left the station in 2005 to head the Boston Area Girl Scouts, and as such is the CEO of the Patriot's Trail Girl Scout Council covering Greater Boston.