Ben has provided wide-ranging communications support for some of the South West’s most high profile and complex projects.

He founded Distinctive after growing Social’s South West agency from its inception in 2017, to one of the region’s best known specialist consultancies in 2022.

Ben is an excellent writer and communicator who can distil complex detail to create content that people ‘get’.

One of around 400 Chartered PR practitioners in the UK, Ben worked for five years in the Homes and Communities Agency (now Homes England), gaining great exposure to the issues, challenges and opportunities facing the development sector.

He is passionate about places and communications’ role in supporting them.

What is your favourite place in the South West?
I feel fortunate to live in Somerset, which has an amazing blend of places to enjoy. My favourite – if pressed – is the nature reserve at Ham Wall on the levels near Glastonbury. We go there at Christmas to watch the starling murmurations. It’s a staggering sight.

What do you enjoy doing when you are not working?
Spending time in Pembrokeshire with my family. Or reading football books on a beach.

Tell us an interesting fact about yourself.
In my younger days and well into adulthood, I was an avid (‘cheesy Quaver’) raver. Brit Pop passed me by in the 1990s as I spent much of it stood beside speakers in dark, hot places somewhere in Wales or the north of England. I remain a techno fan today.