- Born
- Walter O'Brien (aka "Scorpion") is a computer scientist, businessman and the Founder and CEO of Scorpion Computer Services, Inc. Walter O'Brien and his company are the inspiration behind CBS's tech-drama, Scorpion.
Walter O'Brien was born in 1975 in Clonroche, Ireland, where he grew up on a farm. O'Brien's interest in computers began while attending computer science classes at primary school, St. Patrick's National School. His parents bought O'Brien his first personal computer, an Amstrad model CPC464, when he was just nine years old.
When he was 13 years old, his family moved to Rosshaven, Ireland, where O'Brien started Scorpion Computer Services to provide computer consulting and security services. After graduating from the prestigious Sussex University with a degree in Artificial Intelligence, he moved to the United States. Scorpion Computer Services incorporated in 2009 and became what it is today: A global think-tank-for-hire that solves any funded problem with a budget over $10K. Like a super butler at your service - someone whom you outsource any problem to that is not your core competency - the company provides solutions for some of the world's most complex problems.
In September 2014, CBS premiered the first season of SCORPION, which attracted more than 26 million viewers. O'Brien is as an executive producer for the series and regularly contributes to story development, providing insight on technical problems and how he would solve challenges presented in the show's scripts.
O'Brien said he introduced the idea for the show to executive producer Scooter Braun to attract talent to his company, inspire young children to pursue STEM fields and to encourage all generations to celebrate intelligence. O'Brien also founded Scorpion Studios and is credited as a technical advisor on the blockbuster Spiderman: Homecoming, co-produced by Sony's Columbia Pictures and Disney's Marvel Studios.
In April of 2017, O'Brien became the youngest recipient of the Humanitarian Lifetime Achievement Award for his work in philanthropic ventures which create positive societal change. His other philanthropic works include Code Wars, California State Science Fair, MENSA, MIT Technology Review, the Junior Achievement Conference, Project ECHO, Superhero Brain and Houston Technology Center.
He also received C-Suite Quarterly's Visionary award in 2017 and funded Kilkenny's Taxi Watch, a suicide-prevention program that has saved more than 130 lives since its inception in 2014. Often appearing on CNBC, Fox News and CBS as an expert on computer security, O'Brien has contributed to XPRIZE selection as part of XPRIZE Visioneering.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Kim
- Scorpion Computer Services Founder and CEO, Walter O'Brien was awarded the EB1-1 permanent residency visa status at the American Embassy in Dublin, Ireland. O'Brien is well known in Ireland as the child prodigy that started researching Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality in computers from the age of 13 years. He founded Scorpion Computer Services in 1988 and supplied Ireland with more Personal Computers than DELL and Gateway together up to 1993. He represented Ireland in the 1993 Computing Olympics and achieved the ranking of 6th fastest computer problem solver in the world.
- Walter O'Brien provided the initial funding for Taxi Watch Kilkenny, a suicide prevention program that saved over 50 lives in 2015.
- Walter O'Brien was among the decision makers at the 2015 XPRIZE Visioneering workshop. The competition included singer-songwriter will.i.am, journalist Ali Velshi, actor Ashton Kutcher, and Gavin Newsom, Lieutenant Governor of California, and Walter O'Brien, among others. Of the competition, O'Brien said, "I treasured my experience working with this incredible group to develop the XPRIZE agenda. The competition to create a prize to solve each challenge spurs world-class ideas and solutions.".
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