John O'Brien is a co-founder of Inglewood and a member of its Advisory Board, and he is one of the reasons the firm exists in the form it does today. In 1990 he joined Mark DuMars, who had launched the practice in Pittsburgh in 1983, and together they built the Cleveland firm that has advised troubled and growing middle-market companies across the Great Lakes ever since.
John and Mark were more than partners. High school classmates who went on to serve as partners at Price Waterhouse for more than 20 years, they brought a rare combination of trust and discipline to the table. From that foundation they carried the investigative and analytical skills of top-tier public accounting into a very different arena: hands-on operational and financial advisory for companies that needed real answers, not theory.
Under John's influence, Inglewood evolved from its audit roots into a firm known for deep operational and financial expertise across manufacturing, services, and a wide range of industries. He helped establish a standard that every Inglewood partner still holds to: operational breadth across all business functions, paired with the depth to deliver genuine insight rather than surface-level observation.
That standard is not a slogan. It is the origin of the line Inglewood is known by today: "we're business people first, not lifetime consultants." John O'Brien helped write that ethos into the firm's DNA, and it continues to define how Inglewood shows up for the businesses it serves.
Core experience
- Co-founded Inglewood in Cleveland in 1990 with Mark DuMars
- Partner at Price Waterhouse for more than 20 years
- Helped evolve the firm from audit roots into operational and financial advisory
- Advisory expertise across manufacturing, services, and a wide range of industries
- Origin of the firm ethos: 'business people first, not lifetime consultants'
- Member of Inglewood's Advisory Board
Core Disciplines
Where John goes deep
Operational & Financial Advisory
At Inglewood, operational and financial advisory means diagnosing how a business actually runs and where value leaks, then fixing it from inside the company rather than from a report. John O'Brien helped define this practice, taking the analytical discipline of top-tier public accounting and applying it to real operating problems across manufacturing, services, and a wide range of industries. The work spans all business functions, joining financial clarity with operational breadth so that recommendations translate into execution. It is advisory built by people who have run businesses, not merely studied them.
Forensic & Investigative Analysis
Forensic and investigative analysis is the discipline of looking past the numbers a company reports to understand what those numbers truly mean. Drawing on more than two decades as a Price Waterhouse partner, John O'Brien brought this investigative rigor to the heart of Inglewood's approach. It combines audit-grade scrutiny with pattern recognition to surface the root causes of underperformance, distress, or risk. In practice, it means asking the harder questions, testing the assumptions others accept, and giving owners and lenders an unvarnished, evidence-based read on where a business really stands.
Firm Building & Advisory Leadership
Firm building is the work of creating an advisory practice that outlasts any single engagement or founder. John O'Brien co-founded Inglewood in Cleveland in 1990 and helped shape the culture, standards, and talent model that still guide it. As an Advisory Board member, he continues to steward the firm's philosophy: partners must have operational breadth across every business function and the depth to deliver true insight. This discipline is about institutional judgment, mentorship, and holding a firm to a consistent standard of substance over the life of the practice.
Manufacturing & Services Advisory
Manufacturing and services advisory is hands-on counsel for the companies that make and move the economy of the Great Lakes. John O'Brien helped extend Inglewood's expertise across manufacturing, services, and a wide range of adjacent industries, translating financial analysis into operational decisions on the plant floor and in the back office alike. The work respects how these businesses actually function, from cost structure to throughput to service delivery, and pairs that understanding with financial discipline. The result is advice grounded in the realities operators face, delivered by people who have carried the same responsibilities.
Audit-Rooted Business Judgment
Audit-rooted business judgment is the practice of bringing the discipline, independence, and analytical honesty of the audit profession into everyday business decision-making. Inglewood grew from exactly these roots, and John O'Brien, a longtime Price Waterhouse partner, was instrumental in carrying that heritage forward while pushing the firm well beyond it. This discipline values evidence over assumption and clarity over complexity, giving clients a trusted, objective foundation for strategy, restructuring, and growth decisions. It is the quiet backbone behind Inglewood's promise to be business people first, not lifetime consultants.
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