Working with Ben

Senior Director, Field Engineering EMEA · Vercel

A living document. If something here doesn't match your experience of working with me, that's the most useful feedback you can give.

Where I Come From

I was a physics teacher. I left the classroom over twenty-five years ago, but it never really left me. Almost everything about how I lead - the emphasis on development, the conviction that asking the right question is at least half the work of finding the right answer, the belief that people grow fastest when you trust them with real responsibility - traces back to inspiring the next generation to find the universe a fascinating place that is worth paying attention to.

I grew up as an only child to a single parent in the Welsh Valleys. That shaped more than I usually let on. It taught me independence early, it taught me resourcefulness, and it gave me a deep respect for people who figure things out with whatever they've got. I live near Oxford now and probably sound like I'm from Oxford, but the Valleys are where the foundations were laid.

I've worked at a handful of generally West Coast companies over the 25+ years since leaving teaching. Each one taught me something different about scale, ambition, pace, and people. What stayed constant across all of them is the thing I care about most: helping people get from where they are to where they didn't know they could be.

What I Actually Do

My job, stripped to its core, is three things:

  1. Hire excellent people and give them the environment to thrive. I look for skill and potential, but above all agency - people who see what needs doing and don't need to be asked to get started. Then I try to create conditions where they can do the best work of their careers.

  2. Translate between customers, teams, and leadership. I see sales and education as two sides of the same coin. You have to express the value in play in order to get the investment needed. Whether that's a customer investing in a platform or leadership investing in a team, the work is the same: make the case clearly, honestly, and in terms that resonate.

  3. Protect the space for deep work while maintaining commercial urgency. This tension never fully resolves. The best I can do is be deliberate about when we need to move fast and when we need to think properly.

How I Think About People

I delegate ownership, not tasks. Once someone reaches IC3+, I expect them to own outcomes, make judgment calls, and come to me when they're stuck or when the stakes require alignment - not for permission.

The framework I use:

My order of preference for how we align: shared values, shared mission, shared responsibility, then process. I reach for process last, not first. If the values and mission are clear, good people will usually find the right path without being told which steps to take.

My highlights of a given year are typically those moments when someone has pushed themselves to deliver something they perhaps didn't know they were capable of. If you're reading, building, experimenting, pushing yourself - I'll notice and I'll match your energy.

How I Make Decisions

I'm fast on reversible, low-stakes calls. Bias for action has its place.

For high-stakes or complex decisions, I prefer time to absorb. Complex problems get better, and more concise, answers from me after time to digest properly. Send me the context async - a message, a doc, a Loom - and give me space to sit with it.

Not every delay is indecision. Sometimes the best information hasn't arrived yet, or a premature choice closes off better options.

How I Communicate

I default to long-form. In conversation, in messages, in presentations. A common response I have to quite a few categories of challenges is to learn and develop my way out of them, and I tend to bring people along on that journey - sometimes at greater length than they need. If you want concise, tell me, or give me constraints up front.

I think out loud. In meetings, I sometimes explore ideas verbally as a way of working through them. Not every thought I voice is a conclusion. If you're unsure whether I'm thinking aloud or making a decision, ask: "Is that where you've landed, or are you still working through it?"

I present without speaker notes. I read the room and adapt. I probably never give the same talk twice. If circumstances warrant something repeatable and on-script, give me prep time and clear guardrails.

I believe the person asking a question shares partial responsibility for the answer. Timing, framing, and context shape what you get back. A broad question with no background five minutes before a call gets a broad answer. A well-framed question with context gets something you can use.

Async over sync for most things. I process written information deeply. Save meetings for alignment, ambiguity, and relationships.

What I Need from You

Flag early. I'd rather have an FYI about a developing situation than an "action required" when options have narrowed. The higher the risk or impact, the sooner I want to know - even if there's nothing for me to do yet.

Flag the good stuff too. I manage a lot of people doing a lot of good work, and I can't always see it in real time. Customer wins, creative solutions, moments of growth - tell me. I want to make sure it gets the recognition it deserves.

Nudge me if you're waiting on me for something. I hold a lot of threads mentally and can lose track. If something matters and I haven't responded, follow up. I'll be grateful, not annoyed.

My Working Hours

I flex around time zones - EMEA primary, with APAC and AMER overlap as needed.

Everyone on my team has my personal mobile - the same number my family calls me on. I trust your judgment about when to use it.

When you're on PTO, please be fully away. Ensure handovers are done, then disconnect. Don't check messages. I mean this.

What Helps Me Do My Best Work

Time to prepare. I'm meaningfully better when I've had time to absorb material ahead of any meeting or conversation. Last-minute context dumps reduce the quality of what I can contribute.

Physical movement. I walk with the dog most mornings, and do longer walks - 15 to 20km - at weekends. I've also been going to the gym regularly, and the connection between physical capacity and professional confidence turned out to be stronger than I expected. They are, after all, all me.

A manageable audio environment. I have a hearing anomaly that makes it hard to filter speech in noisy or acoustically busy settings - restaurants, open-plan spaces, loud conference floors. I hear fine one-to-one or in smaller groups. If I suggest moving somewhere quieter, or I'm wearing noise-cancelling headphones, it's not antisocial - it's practical.

Work-life integration, not separation. I like it when the things I enjoy outside of work overlap with what I do inside work. I bring personal interests into professional context and vice versa. I love it when others do the same - but only if they're comfortable with it. Never an expectation.

How I Give and Receive Feedback

Giving: I default to coaching over directing. I'll often respond to a problem with questions rather than answers, especially for IC3+. This is deliberate - I'm trying to build your ability to navigate, not create dependency on my judgment.

I try to give feedback close to the moment. If it feels abrupt, it's because I'm prioritising timeliness over polish - ask me to elaborate.

I will tell you what I think, even when it's uncomfortable. I'd rather give you a difficult truth early than a comfortable fiction that unravels later.

Receiving: Directly. In writing if it's complex - verbal feedback in passing often doesn't land with me when I'm processing a lot. Challenge my ideas. Push back. The best outcomes come from people who engage honestly rather than defer.

Things to Know

I'm a highly social introvert. I genuinely enjoy people, conversation, presenting to a room. Then I need to go for a very long walk on my own. Both parts are real.

I care about the ideal and the pragmatic simultaneously. Ideals for long-term direction, pragmatism for solving today's problems today - while keeping an eye on converging toward the ideal. If I seem to hold both at once, it's because I do.

I have a strong dislike of flying. I accept it as part of the work. I've also found that turbulence is an excellent clarifier of priorities.

I build things. Side projects, tools, educational products. I believe in the value of making things, not just managing them. This sometimes means I'm prototyping something at 10pm. It's not workaholism - it's how I think.
Building is how I learn.
Curiosity without action is pointless.

I read a lot. The books that have most shaped how I lead include Julie Zhuo's Making of a Manager, Lopp's Art of Leadership, Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks, and Arthur Brooks' From Strength to Strength. I find the Eightfold Path and elements of the Tao Te Ching useful ways of thinking, though I don't align with any specific practice. The through-line: perspective is the only thing you can truly control.

What I'm Working On

I'm always working on something. As of early 2026:

Still a Teacher

The heart of education is taking the pupil from where they are, to where you would like them to be. To move from the concrete to the abstract. I feel this is still the best approach for the individuals and teams within our customers' organisations as well as our own.