From an island in Fiji, via the beaches of West Africa, to the English West Country, Ben has spent 20 years exploring how to make a positive impact through building startups, communities and adventures.
Ben has helped 1000s of people and organisations do work that matters to them (& the world) - whether that’s through starting an impact business, building an exciting career, or growing a purposeful community.
Escape Artists Interview: A career journey from a remote Fijian Island to co-founder of Rebel Book Club & Raaise.
Recent speaking events:
- Impact Career workshops at Sherborne School, January 2023
- Startup workshops at Enterprise Nation & Virgin Startup, December 2022
- Climate Startups at AllBirds London, December 2022
- Keynote on Brave Brand Building at B&B Agency, November 2022
- Climate Startups Panel on Seedrs with Raaise, November 2022
Part One: Tribewanted
"On January 14, 2006, Ben Keene received an email that changed his life. The weather outside was rainy, windy, and freezing and Keene was holed up in his loft office, the window fogged with mist. He had just taken a sip of hot tea when the message popped up, and Keene did a double take at the subject line: “A TRIBE IS WANTED” National Geographic
The idea behind Tribewanted was to recruit a group of similar people online before heading to the Fijian Island of Vorovoro to build a sustainable community alongside the local indigenous tribe.
The idea was swept along with a flood of interest, the island lease was secured, and the virtual community sprung to life.
Tribewanted had to quickly overcome multiple challenges including a fire sweeping through the island in week one of the project, a military coup, and a tropical cyclone threatened to wipe out the emerging village. Online disagreements also made decision making hard and pushed it to the edge.
The project survived, and for a while, thrived. Ben spent 10 years leading Tribewanted: building crowdfunded sustainable-tourism villages on an island in Fiji (which was turned into a 5 part BBC series and book and invested over $3m into the local region), a beach in Sierra Leone (from ‘Blood Diamonds to Beach Football’ & measuring our impact) and a farm in Umbria (think River Cottage but with homemade pasta, olive oil and red wine).
Blog 2008 - 2014
Part Two: Escape the City
In 2010 Ben spoke in a Soho nightclub to 600 drunk bankers at the launch of ‘Escape the City’. Two good things came from that event - a new role helping build ‘The Escape School’ to support ‘escapees’ making the transition from unfulfilling corporate careers to something new, and he met his wife (not a drunk banker). Over the next 5 years the ‘Escape Team’ built two curriculums and led 1000s of people through 3 month part-time evening and weekend programmes. Ben personally led 10 ‘startup accelerators’ and is in close contact with many escapee projects.
Alongside Escape the City, Ben worked with a sports development project, Right to Dream, which has grown into the most successful football academy for boys and girls in Africa. This led to helping host the Ghanaian Paralympic team from Right to Dream at London 2012. Ben also joined THNK: School of Creative Leadership, as a way to connect with other impact entrepreneurs from around the world.
Part Three: Rebel Book Club
Soon after Ben’s daughter was born, he and his wife headed to Bali to set-up an impact startup retreat. In a bamboo co-working space in the monkey forest he started Rebel Book Club with a friend, to help solve the problem of what the Japanese call ‘Tsundoku’ - the growing pile of unread books on your bedside table (or, kindle).
Rebel Book Club is now a global community of paying subscribers who, every month, read one non-fiction book together, meet and, over a book-inspired cocktail, discuss it and see how they can apply its lessons.
Alongside Rebel Book Club, Ben continues to support first-time entrepreneurs at Escape the City, Virgin Startup & THNK.
Ben’s goal is to move his work to be 100% ‘earth focused’ within the next few years, to do the best he can to tackle the climate and ecological crises through education and community, in the most creative, fun way possible. Started doing this at Raaise.
Blog 2014 - 2021
Speaking, Hosting & Workshops
Ben speaks regularly about how to build a career or business around your passion whilst tackling problems you care about – whatever your age or background. He is the host of virgin Startup meets and podcast: The Jump.
His story shows how you can turn a passion into a job, a way of life and so much more.
Ben has delivered keynotes, hosted events and led workshops at events all over the world from a CIA conference in Las Vegas (which he didn't realise was the CIA until afterwards) to a mosque on a remote island in Myanmar.
“Thanks to Ben for being a brilliant host for Simon (Sinek) and myself.”
- Sir Richard Branson, September 2020
“Everyone found Ben’s session and presence inspirational.”
- Dame Jo Williams DBE, Chief Executive, Mencap
“Ben Keene gave one of the best presentations I have ever seen.”
- David McQueen, Speaker, Entrepreneur, TV Presenter
“The best speech at the conference by a mile.”
- Chris Cramer, ex-President CNN International
