Ben Dowling

Cofounder and Deputy Chief Executive

Ben is a founding member of the Unloc team alongside Hayden Taylor. Ben currently acts as the organisation’s senior lead on HR, Innovation and Programme Delivery. Ben is passionate about ensuring every young person is able to have their say and believes deeply in young people being global citizens.

When he was 20, Ben was elected to Portsmouth City Council and served two terms from 2014 to 2022. Ben held various roles on the council including as a spokesperson (and later a Cabinet Member) for Planning, Regeneration and Economic Development, as Chair of the city’s Employment Committee, as the city’s Deputy Lord Mayor and most recently as the Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Economic Development.

Ben believes in leading by example at a local level and currently does so as Chair of Trustees of a small housing charity, as a Local Leader for the Franco-British Council, and as a Non-Executive Director of Eldon Housing. He has previously been a school governor, a director of a community coffee shop, a trustee of a charity focussed on protecting green spaces, a director of the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership, and a non-executive director of Portico – a deep water cargo terminal.

Ben also holds a BA Modern History and Politics degree from the University of Southampton.

Download our free changemaker toolkit