Ben Rowswell

A diplomat for more than twenty years, Ben has spent the last five exploring the use of civic tech in global affairs. During a year as Visiting Scholar with the Liberation Technology program of Stanford University in 2010/11, Ben led a project to connect Egyptian democracy activists with Silicon Valley technology expertise, a project known as Cloud to Street. Returning to Ottawa he served as Director for Innovation at Canada’s foreign ministry and subsequently launched the “Direct Diplomacy” campaign that reached millions of Iranians online after Canada’s closed its physical embassy in Tehran. These activities are on pause while he serves as Canada’s Ambassador to Venezuela, but he continues to lead research at the University of Toronto and the Montreal Centre for International Relations (CERIUM) to understand how citizen movements are transforming global affairs.