Strategy
Growth
Innovation
Two decades at the intersection of creative and technology — from digital agencies to craft beverage, from blockchain to enterprise demand generation.
Two Decades
of Building.
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micro1
Consulting engagement as a Senior Marketing Consultant – AI at micro1, a data research lab training frontier AI models and evaluating agents. Leveraging years of enterprise marketing, demand generation, and GTM experience to train, evaluate, and improve AI models.
Vivantio
Led an 8-person team across the UK and US spanning Sales, Marketing and Customer Success for an ITIL-aligned enterprise service management platform serving Insurance, Finance, Healthcare, Government and Education.
“A rare combination of builder and operator, with the presence to represent a brand publicly and the practicality to make programs stick.”
AveriSource
Owned demand generation across direct, indirect and partner channels for a legacy-modernization platform (mainframe to microservices/cloud, AI-powered transformation) used by Fortune 500 — an AWS Migration & Modernization Competency Partner.
“One of the most talented leaders I've worked with… a remarkable ability to craft and execute data-driven campaigns that contribute to meaningful pipeline growth.”
Left Field Labs
Led marketing for a Stagwell subsidiary of ~140 engineers, designers and creative technologists — building pipeline-supporting campaigns, field marketing and lifecycle programs, with work for Starbucks and Amazon (XR/VR).
OpenText (Micro Focus)
Led a 23-person team across North America and International (UK&I, DACH, Latam, Middle East) for the AMC and IM&G portfolios — supporting ~200 sales staff and tens of millions in pipeline, with GTM partnerships alongside Amazon and Google for mainframe-to-cloud modernization.
“A brilliant, data-driven mindset that always leads to strong, results-focused strategies… his drive to improve GTM efficiency across sales, marketing, and operations was impressive.”
Independent Consultant
9+ years of independent strategic advisory — delivering embedded and fractional leadership across marketing, sales, IT, product and RevOps for enterprise tech, growth-stage and founder-led organizations.
“His acumen for business strategy, technology and marketing is beyond exceptional. Ben was instrumental in helping us craft a solid technical white paper, which led to a very successful Initial Token Offering.”
Cypherglass
Chief Marketing & Operations Officer for an independent blockchain infrastructure company building and maintaining infrastructure for EOS and DAPP Network — launched GLASS (on-chain transparency) and LENS (enterprise blockchain voting) and ran a $1M+ global marketing plan.
“Ben is an experienced operator, and it shows in his detail-oriented leadership. Working under Ben as a young professional in a start-up setting was one of the best mentorships I've experienced.”
EOS Name Service
Architected product and platform strategy for the most comprehensive EOS Blockchain account name registry — built the engineering team and drove the platform to ~10,000 customer sales and 1,000 DAUs within its first 12 months.
Foodmix
Vice President, Business Development at Foodmix Marketing Communications — a leading full-service marketing communications firm specializing in B2B and B2C food and beverage marketing with over three decades of food marketing expertise.
Finch's Beer Co.
Founded and grew a multi-million dollar craft brewery in its first three years — building a semi-national distributor network across 20 states and a team of 20 full-time + 25 part-time staff. Illinois' 6th largest brewery in 2015; sold a material stake at ~10,000 barrels annually.
Killswitch Collective
Built a multi-million dollar design and software development agency over 9 years — profitable by year two, no debt, scaling to 33 employees. Built custom CMS, web platforms and early social networking products on Ruby on Rails.
“Time and time again, he's proven to be creative, able to perform under deadlines, and always creates a product that we've been delighted with.”
What I'M Building.
Prototypes from my mind — live experiments in product thinking, each one a working draft of an idea still taking shape.
Donor Impact IQ
AI-powered donor intelligence platform that helps nonprofits discover, screen, and engage high-potential supporters — replacing manual research with automated prospect validation, wealth screening, and a 6sense-style orchestration engine.
Executive Intelligence
AI-powered executive research platform that applies intent signals to identify, understand, and prioritize high-value accounts and decision-makers. Built on an Intent Signals subject company.
Intent IQ
AI-driven SaaS intent intelligence platform that analyzes buyer signals so ITSM companies can identify prospects, personalize outreach, and accelerate pipeline creation. Built on an ITSM subject company.
My Plate IQ
Restaurant growth platform that helps operators manage customer relationships, improve engagement, and drive repeat business through actionable, data-driven insights.
Code IQ
Enterprise-grade AI code modernization platform that translates source code across 40 languages — 1,560 source-target pairs — into production-ready, idiomatic output. Multi-tenant, secure, built for legacy lift-and-shift.
Press & Milestones.
Over 17 years of articles, news clippings, and other notable milestones in Ben's career.
How One Craft Brewery is Tapping Social Media
Michigan Avenue Magazine Rookies of the Year
Meet 10 Of Chicago's Coolest Dads
The Perch Partners with Finch Beer on a New Brew Pub
Wicker Park's second brewpub is slated to open later this month along Division Street. The Perch is a collaboration between 4 Star Restaurant Group (Smoke Daddy, Ella Ellie, Tuco & Blondie), and Finch Beer Co.
Commoot Launches Out of Home Advertising Platform for Vehicles
Commoot is a Chicago-based Startup with big plans for the Out of Home marketing space. Rather than presenting the same billboard concept in a digitized way, 8 professionals aim to bring brand awareness to the road.
Cypherglass Announces EOS Block Producer Candidacy
"All of our audiences—from large EOS contributors, to non-crypto holders who could potentially become critical contributors and electors—deserve a block producer team that is not only experienced in leading and propelling other blockchain and crypto projects, but is actually passionate about the potential of EOS," said Ben Finch, Cypherglass Head of Strategy & Marketing as well as Founder at The Ledger Agency.
Can A Clean Label Help You Achieve Brand Love?
We are in the midst of a food renaissance. Food is no longer just an aspect of our individual lives; it’s increasingly a central part of our culture. It’s being used to help define who we are and the values important to us.
Birds of a Feather Brew Together
So a sculptor and a photographer start a brewery…. What sounds like a bad joke is actually a story about two SAIC alumni who took circuitous paths to launching a successful business.
Finch's Beer Company Announces Management Team
Finch's Beer is happy to announce two new appointments to its management team. Rob Poulsen has been named Chief Financial Officer and Ken Limas as Chief Marketing and Sales Officer.
Finch's Beer Company Looks to Build New Brewery on the River
Beer brewing has become a very big business in Chicago, and one more local brewer is looking to step up its game by building a new 80,000 square foot brewery along the North Branch of the Chicago River in Lincoln Park.
Gold — Secret Stache Stout — U.S. Open Beer Championship
Breweries from around the world sent in more than 2500 beers representing 68 different categories for the 2013 U.S. Open Beer Championship, the only brewery competition to include professional breweries and award-winning home-brewers. (Also Silver in 2014.)
Finch's Beer: Capacity up 35 Percent, Plans for Much More in 2013
Finch's Beer Co. announced that 2012 proved to be a lucrative year, with 130-percent growth for the Chicago-based craft brewery and there are no signs of slowing down in 2013.
The Business of Beer
"We. Will. We. Will. Rock you." The Queen classic streams out of computer speakers on one of a dozen desks at Killswitch Collective. The mod workspace is obscured by an artfully angled lime-green wall, a barrier between Ashland Avenue and the tech-savvy hipsters turning the wheels at this West Town creative agency.
Entrepreneurs: Lawyers Strive to Build Start-Up Businesses
Marshall met Ben Finch, a founding partner and managing director of The Killswitch Collective, a full-service creative agency, two years ago when he drafted a master services agreement and other contracts for the agency.
Taxi Share and Finch Beer Partner for Anti-Drunk Driving Campaign
In 2009, serial entrepreneur and branding guru Ben Finch needed an escape from the client-service world. Finch is the co-founder of The Killswitch Collective, a digital marketing agency that boasts clients like Pitchfork and MTV. To change things up, Finch started putting together a business plan for developing a craft beer.
Killswitch Announces New Office in Chicago's West Town
Over the years the Killswitch office changed from a small apartment, to a loft in the west loop, to our 1st professional office in West Town. Made up over 6000 square feet and over 30 employees, this office served the firm well for over 5 years.
The Business of Holidays
Ben was the lead designer and typographer for the project, and worked with Mrs. Lavin over the course of 2 years with a core team of writers and designers to deliver the book to the world!
Building brands
across creative &
technology.
My career has been influenced heavily by both the entrepreneurial and corporate landscape. I come from the world of startups, having successfully built, launched and sold businesses earlier in my career.
In the past decade I have excelled in global companies, executing cross functional marketing campaigns and pipeline growth strategies across worldwide markets. With a laser focus on building businesses in markets, both new and established, I have launched products, accelerated existing pipelines and led teams across a series of functions and a series of business sectors both in direct (B2C) and partner led (B2B) business models.
More recently, I led a marketing organization at OpenText, formerly Micro Focus. My team handled the Application Modernization (AMC) and Information Management & Governance (IMG) product portfolios for all of North America and International regions worldwide. I owned the entire marketing function including all the corporate marketing campaigns, partner marketing campaigns, digital campaigns, sales enablement, and pipeline campaigns.
I have held Manager, Director and Vice President level roles leading Demand Generation, Sales and Marketing at mid sized software and technology firms. I specialize in building marketing and demand generation disciplines as well as supporting sales leaders and their teams.
Most recently, I have been consulting at micro1 as a Senior Marketing Consultant – AI, leveraging my years of enterprise marketing, demand generation, and GTM experience to train, evaluate, and improve AI models.
I am currently consulting while pursuing full time opportunities. Reach out!