Meagan O’Brien

Meagan is what you get when you combine the logical mind of an engineer, the passion of a teacher, and the comedic delivery of a stage performer. With an entertaining approach to skill building, Meagan O’Brien has helped create meaningful change for clients like Blue Cross Blue Shield, Facebook, and Google.

Twenty years ago, Meagan O’Brien was a mechanical engineer. By day, she designed flight deck controls for military and commercial airplanes. By night, she studied and performed improv at iO and The Second City Theater in Chicago. After trading her day job for road trips in The Second City National Touring Company vans, she put her skills and experience to use at Second City Works, which uses humor and improv to train corporate audiences.

At FutureThink, Meagan is known for shifting mindsets in a single workshop, as well as her “enter-training” techniques for improving culture and boosting creativity. (Also for the ability to wiggle her ears on demand.) Named to Fast Company’s list of the “Most Creative People in Business,” she helps companies apply improv’s “Yes, and…” approach to workplace collaboration, brainstorming, and problem-solving.

Meagan earned her BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo in Ohio. In one of the nine lives she’s had since college, she ate a yak steak at an elevation of more than 11,000 feet in Nepal. Whether she’s at the base camp of Mount Everest or hosting an annual Derby party, elaborate headwear is always involved. Meagan lives with her husband, four kids, and Princess Leia Noodle Flop, who’s arguably the cutest goldendoodle in Illinois.