Benjamin Todd Jealous is the former president and CEO of the NAACP. He stepped down from his post at the end of 2013. Ben has been a leader of successful state and local movements to ban the death penalty, outlaw racial profiling, defend voting rights, secure marriage equality, and free multiple wrongfully incarcerated people. Under his leadership, the NAACP grew to be the largest civil rights organization online and on mobile, experienced its first multi-year membership growth in 20 years, and became the largest community-based nonpartisan voter registration operation in the country. Prior to leading the NAACP, he spent 15 years serving as a journalist and community organizer. While at Mississippi’s Jackson Advocate newspaper, his investigations were credited with exposing corruption at a state penitentiary and proving the innocence of a black farmer who was being framed for arson. A Rhodes Scholar, he has been named to the 40 under 40 lists of both Forbes and Time magazines. He is #1 on TheRoot.com’s 2013 list of black leaders under 45. Jealous serves as an advisor for multiple tech startups that work to close gaps, particularly in the areas of financial inclusion, justice tech, and low wage work. He serves as a board member at Pigeonly and a board advisor at PayNearMe.