Ben Richardson leads all strategic partnerships for Makena Technologies involving interactive advertising, product and content integration as well as custom worlds development. He is also a company spokesperson and has been a featured speaker around the world on the topic of virtual worlds. Prior to Makena, Mr. Richardson spent five years as a management consultant to CEOs in the financial and news media industries, assisting in funding and business planning. Prior to consulting, Mr. Richardson served as a founding member and executive of Onvia, a business-to-business ecommerce and services provider that he helped lead to $150M in revenue and a subsequent $240M IPO on the NASDAQ. Mr. Richardson holds a BA in Cultural Anthropology. He lives with his wife and two children in Seattle, WA.