Pasadena Resident Robert C. O’Brien Elected Chairman of Richard Nixon Foundation

One of America’s top diplomats, strategic thinkers, and an accomplished leader in foreign policy, Ambassador Robert C. O’Brien was elected July 18 to Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Richard Nixon Foundation.

O’Brien resides with his family in the Linda Vista area, where they moved from La Cañada Flintridge about three and a half years ago.

“I’m enormously grateful to the Board for trusting me with this special responsibility. Throughout his time in public life, and in the decades that followed, President Nixon used strategic diplomacy to further the cause of peace and ensure America’s security,” O’Brien said in a prepared statement. “Today, fifty years after his trips to China and Russia —and as we approach the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War— his foreign policy represents the ultimate example of the type of strategic thinking that should again guide America today.” 

O’Brien added: “In this role, I hope to work with colleagues in the foreign policy community to encourage a Nixonian style of thinking about world affairs and grand strategy.”

He served as U.S. National Security Advisor from 2019 to 2021. He was the fourth and final appointee during the presidency of Donald Trump.

During O’Brien’s time as National Security Advisor, the United States orchestrated the historic Abraham Accords in the Middle East, brokered economic normalization between Serbia and Kosovo, achieved significant defense spending increases among its NATO allies, and instituted a new framework of strategic cooperation with allies across the Indo-Pacific.

O’Brien was appointed Ambassador,  Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, in May of 2018.

O’Brien has served as co-chair of The Nixon Seminar on Conservative Realism and National Security since March of 2021 and was the recipient—along with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo— of the Nixon Foundation’s 2021 Architect of Peace Award. 

O’Brien succeeds Dr. James H. Cavanaugh as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Dr. Cavanaugh said: “Ambassador O’Brien brings real accomplishment, reasoned leadership and sound judgment, as evidenced by his years of experience on the international scene. We are pleased about this next chapter for the Nixon Foundation, which coincides with commemorations marking the fiftieth anniversary of the Nixon presidency’s visionary foreign policy.”