Insight

Meet our new Creative Technologist, Benjamin Laken

Our mission is Data for Everyone, and part of that mission means harnessing the power of technology in innovative and captivating ways to serve the broadest possible audiences and their needs. So we’re delighted to introduce our new Creative Technologist, Benjamin Laken. Benjamin will also lead our incoming Science pod (or Sci-Pod for short).

Based in Madrid, Benjamin is a product and organisational specialist working at the intersection of design and digital technology. He brings a wealth of experience as an interdisciplinary scientist working across the public and private sectors.

Ben has contributed to the field of atmospheric science and climate change, having published more than 15 first-authored peer-reviewed scientific papers, as well as multiple contributions to books and international reports, including the IPCC AR5 WG1. He has also worked with the open-source project Software Carpentry to upskill academics in open science practices and reproducible high-quality workflows. 

Following his time in academia, Ben moved into the private sector, leading multidisciplinary product teams working on best-in-class products for NGOs, governments and corporates, including the E.O. Wilson Foundation’s Half-Earth Project and WRI’s Global Forest Watch. He translated his product expertise into the emerging industry of Physical Climate Risk and created and led EarthScan for Cervest (now Mitiga) as Chief Science Officer.

Now Ben is applying his expertise to develop solutions at the frontier of design, science, AI, data, and technology for multiple sectors, working on a range of critical societal issues with mission-driven organisations.

Here’s Ben on why this matters:

“The window of time for us to act in a meaningful way on critical issues facing humanity and life on our planet is shrinking day by day. Market-based solutions are the most effective tools at our disposal to affect rapid change at scale. Innovating products and services at the forefront of these issues has been my primary focus now for nearly a decade.”

And here’s infogr8 founder and CEO Richard Silvester on Ben’s arrival:

“Technology is helping advance visual intelligence faster than any of us could ever have expected, and this brings with it a host of opportunities. It’s becoming increasingly complex to understand user intentions and react appropriately – every user is different, so a one-size solution doesn’t work. This is where advancement in AI, for example, can really help us make better human-computer interaction technologies, taking us one step closer to our Data for Everyone mission.

“I’m delighted to amp up talent that reflects our mission and values – whether that’s in our people aligning to mission-critical services for our clients or how we harness technology to make data really ‘for everyone’. Fortunately for infogr8, Benjamin possesses both facets in abundance. We’re very excited to see the new Science pod create change for its clients, alongside Benjamin’s creative technology expertise that will begin to layer across our growing Sustainability, EdTech and Healthcare pods.”

You can connect with Ben on LinkedIn or start a conversation below.