Ben Bassi is the Founder and CEO of CommonPlaces Interactive. With over 30 years of Internet technology industry leadership and strategic planning experience, Ben has led two companies to Inc. 500 status (#1 and #446). Ben has been involved in raising $125 million of private and public capital, joint ventures, Public Offerings and an acquisition by Microsoft. He has built web-based systems for the DOD and security agencies. He was on the founding management team of Lycos and has served as EVP of the Firefly Network, the web's first social network and developer of the .Net platform. He was a leader in developing Internet Privacy legislation with Congress and the White House.

Ben founded CommonPlaces in 1998, which merged with a public company to form YouthStream Media Networks (NASDAQ:NETS) as a roll up of acquisitions. YouthStream is best known for the social networking patents and technology that powers LinkedIn. CommonPlaces has delivered over 1,000 Internet based projects specializing in B2B Customer Engagement in high technology, manufacturing, healthcare and nonprofit industries.

My professional journey started a little over 20 years ago using open source software to build digital solutions for customers in various industries. I believe the open platforms we use to build our software help contribute to a free and open web, and that has been my guiding principle and ongoing source of inspiration.

I also believe the secret to a great career is to do challenging work, while surrounding yourself with amazing people who can help you grow both personally and professionally. CommonPlaces ticks all those boxes. I get to work with a world-class group of professionals while building truly innovative solutions for our customers. I’m honored to be a part of this great team.