Benjamin Dean

Benjamin Dean is a Fellow for Internet Governance and Cyber-security at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs in New York City. In this role, he works at the intersection of technology, economics and public policy.

Benjamin has lived and worked in seven countries over the past decade: his native Australia, China, India, Bhutan, France, the USA and Venezuela. He spent three years working as a research assistant in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Center for Entrepreneurship, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Local Development. In this role, he worked on a variety of projects including entrepreneurship and innovation policy reviews of Thailand and Mexico, the SME Financing Scoreboard and intellectual property rights management by SMEs.

For the past few years, Benjamin has concentrated on digital and information policy as well as working in New York's start-up scene. He is presently interested in developing alternatives to the advertising business model, which has led to the wide-spread surveillance and control of information on the internet.