Ben Black

Ben Black is a Board Member at CitizenHawk, a company specializing in digital brand protection. He is the co-founder and chief investment officer of Akkadian Ventures, a firm specializing in complex liquidity solutions for technology entrepreneurs. Black has a decade of venture capital experience on the investment teams at Maveron, a consumer-focused venture capital firm co-founded by Howard Schultz, the chairman of Starbucks, and Rosewood Capital, a consumer-focused private equity firm. He also manages New Cycle Capital, a seed fund focused on green technology.

Country:	USA

As an entrepreneur, Black was vice president of corporate development for the team that transformed Harris Interactive into the leading Internet-based market research firm, culminating in a successful IPO. Black’s successful investments include Allconnect, Underarmor, Opower, Cloudmark, Telephia, Lithium Technologies and Convio. He currently serves as a board director for several companies, including Citizenhawk, The Villa, Debtgoal.com and People Power.

As an attorney, Mr. Black worked at Latham & Watkins after clerking on the Federal Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in 1997. He earned both his bachelor’s degree and juris doctor degree at Cornell University.