Editor in Chief, Portco News

The only media outlet focused exclusively on how private equity firms run their portfolio companies.

Freelance Journalist

Clients include: The Guardian, Mergers & Acquisitions, and CleanTechIQ.

Co-Founder & President, The AWBJ

International trade organization aiming to uplift non-male journalists covering business and finance.

Isabel O’Brien is an investigative journalist based in New York, reporting on how money and power shape infrastructure, climate, and private markets. She is the Editor in Chief of Portco News, an independent, accountability-focused publication covering how private equity runs its portfolio companies. 

Her work has appeared in The Guardian, Freakonomics Radio, and other outlets, where she covers climate finance, emissions disclosures, and regulatory blind spots. Previously, she was a reporter at Infrastructure Investor (PEI Group), covering North and Latin America, with bylines also published in sister publications like New Private Markets and Secondaries Investor.

Isabel’s work has earned multiple honors, including two Aviva Investors Sustainability Media Awards (2022, 2023), a screenwriting award at the New York Script Awards, and a semifinalist spot at the 2024–25 Athena Film Festival Writers Lab. In 2025 she was named an "Emerging Leader" in writing and journalism by Marquis Who's Who.

She is also the co-founder of the Association of Women in Business Journalism (AWBJ), an international initiative supporting non-male journalists on her beat.

Isabel is a graduate of the Dual BA between Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris. She studied economics, politics, and creative writing.