Ben Hammersley

FRSA The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), also known as the Royal Society of Arts, is a London-based organisation committed to finding practical solutions to social challenges. The RSA acronym is used m ...

FRGS The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...

(born 3 April 1976) is a British technologist, strategic foresight consultant, futurist, keynote speaker, broadcaster and systems developer, based in New York City. He specializes on Adaptive Futurism and Cognitive Risk from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Education

Hammersley is the eldest of three children and was educated at

Loughborough Grammar School , religion = Christian , head_label = Headmaster , head = Dr Daniel Koch , r_head_label = Chaplain , r_head = Revd E J York , chair_label = Chairman ...

, and the

School of Oriental and African Studies SOAS University of London (; the School of Oriental and African Studies) is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury are ...

, from which he dropped out after a year.

Technology and strategic forecasting

Hammersley is the founder and principal o
Hammersley Futures
an international strategic foresight consultancy advising corporates and governments on futureproofing and risk planning. Hammersley Futures specializes on how society reacts to technological innovation and the changing nature of the workplace, crime and conflict, and the market, and on tools to adapt to the changes. Clients include the UK Foreign Office, the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

, the

US government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a feder ...

HSBC HSBC Holdings plc is a British multinational universal bank and financial services holding company. It is the largest bank in Europe by total assets ahead of BNP Paribas, with US$2.953 trillion as of December 2021. In 2021, HSBC had $10.8 tri ...

Vodafone Vodafone Group Public limited company, plc () is a British Multinational corporation, multinational Telephone company, telecommunications company. Its registered office and Headquarters, global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It ...

Deloitte Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited (), commonly referred to as Deloitte, is an international professional services network headquartered in London, England. Deloitte is the largest professional services network by revenue and number of professio ...

and other corporates. As a leading futurist, he gives keynote presentations to corporates and large events internationally. Until 2013, he was the UK Prime Minister's Ambassador to

East London Tech City East London Tech City (also known as Tech City and Silicon Roundabout) is a technology cluster of high-tech companies located in East London, United Kingdom. Its main area lies broadly between St Luke's and Hackney Road, with an accelerator spac ...

Multimedia reporting and broadcasting

In 2015, Hammersley presented a six-part

BBC World News BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media an ...

series on cybercrimes. He has twice presented on

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of Talk radio, spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history fro ...

's documentary strand

Analysis Analysis ( : analyses) is the process of breaking a complex topic or substance into smaller parts in order to gain a better understanding of it. The technique has been applied in the study of mathematics and logic since before Aristotle (3 ...

, covering Facebook in November 2007, and personal

genetic testing Genetic testing, also known as DNA testing, is used to identify changes in DNA sequence or chromosome structure. Genetic testing can also include measuring the results of genetic changes, such as RNA analysis as an output of gene expression, or ...

in December 2008. He also presented the five-part

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

series ''Futureproof Yourself''. Hammersley previously worked as an internet reporter for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

''. He was Associate Editor and Editor-at-Large at the launch of the UK edition of Conde Nast's ''

Wired UK ''Wired UK'' is a bimonthly magazine that reports on the effects of science and technology. It covers a broad range of topics including design, architecture, culture, the economy, politics and philosophy. Owned by Condé Nast Publications, it is ...

'' magazine. In 2006, he pioneered multi-platform journalism for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide ...

'' covering conflict in Afghanistan, and in 2007 also for the

covering the election in Turkey. He later used the systems he developed to build ''The Guardians pioneering range of blogs, including the award-winning Comment is Free.

Podcast

Hammersley is known for coining the term "

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

" in an article he wrote for ''The Guardian'' in 2004. It was declared "Word of the Year" by the

New Oxford American Dictionary The ''New Oxford American Dictionary'' (''NOAD'') is a single-volume dictionary of American English compiled by American editors at the Oxford University Press. ''NOAD'' is based upon the ''New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (''NODE''), publishe ...

in 2005. Hammersley has said that he made the word up to pad out an article he was writing that was a little too short.

Fellowships and associations

Hammersley is a member of the Transatlantic Network 2020, and a trustee of the London chapter of the Awesome Foundation. In August 2011 he was made a fellow of the UNAOC. He is a judge of the Lovie Awards. In 2013, Hammersley became a

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the Robert Schuman School for Advanced Studies at the

European University Institute The European University Institute (EUI) is an international postgraduate and post-doctoral teaching and research institute and an independent body of the European Union with juridical personality, established by the member states to contribu ...

, Innovator-in-Residence at the Centre for Creative and Social Technologies at

Goldsmiths, University of London Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...

, a member of the

High Level Expert Group on Media Freedom, and a non-resident fellow of the

Brookings Institution The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in e ...

Personal life

Hammersley is married to Aleks Krotoski, with whom he has a daughter. Hammersley is a pilot, a licensed

Emergency medical technician An emergency medical technician (EMT), also known as an ambulance technician, is a health professional that provides emergency medical services. EMTs are most commonly found working in ambulances. In English-speaking countries, paramedics a ...

and Wilderness Medic, a triathlete and ultra-runner, a diver, photographer, and disaster response volunteer.

Bibliography

Hammersley has authored or co-authored several books on technology and journalism.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hammersley, Ben 1976 births Living people People from Leicester People educated at Loughborough Grammar School Alumni of SOAS University of London British bloggers British male journalists British technology journalists British technology writers Online journalists Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society Male bloggers Brookings Institution people