Doug O’Brien
President and CEO
National Cooperative Business Association (USA)
Candidate Statement – September 2026
The world needs cooperatives now more than ever—and that means it needs a strong International Cooperative Alliance. I respectfully ask for your vote so I can continue helping strengthen ICA and advance the global cooperative movement.
In many ways, I was born into cooperatives. I grew up on a farm in Iowa, where cooperatives were part of everyday life. Farmers depended on co-ops for inputs and marketing, and our communities relied on cooperatives for essential services such as electricity. From an early age, I saw that cooperation was not an abstract idea. It was how people worked together to meet needs, strengthen communities, and create opportunity.
That experience has shaped my career. I have spent decades working at the intersection of cooperatives, public policy, advocacy, and economic development, including service in senior positions in the U.S. government, including at the White House for President Obama, and since 2018 as President and CEO of the National Cooperative Business Association, the apex association for cooperatives in the United States.
For the past two years, I have also had the privilege of serving on the Board of the ICA. That service has deepened my conviction in the importance of cooperatives and in ICA’s increasingly critical role. I have worked actively on the development of ICA’s new strategy, the Cooperative Identity consultations, the Audit and Risk Committee, the Policy Committee, and representing ICA at the United Nations.
I am seeking a full term on the Board because I want to help turn ICA’s new strategy into action that makes a greater impact.
I would focus on three priorities.
First, strengthening ICA’s long-term financial and organizational sustainability so that our ambitions are supported by the capacity and resources needed to achieve them.
Second, increasing ICA’s global influence and making the case more effectively for the relevance of cooperatives in addressing today’s economic and social challenges.
Third, supporting innovation in ICA’s governance, programs, and member engagement while remaining firmly grounded in our cooperative identity, values, and principles.
Across the globe, people are looking for economic institutions they can trust – institutions that give them a meaningful voice, strengthen their communities, and create opportunity. Cooperatives can meet that need. ICA has a vital role in helping the world understand that potential and in helping the cooperative community realize it.
I would be honored to continue bringing my experience in cooperative leadership, public policy, advocacy, organizational management, and communications to ICA. I respectfully ask for your support and your vote so we can strengthen ICA’s impact and help cooperatives meet this moment.
