Ben Dwyer - Mountbatten Program
#mountbattenlife

Ben Dwyer

Ben Dwyer

Alum Of The Month

Program:  London

Intake:  August 2009

Current Role: Director Strategic Enterprise Accounts – West at WeWork, San Francisco

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What and where did you study before your Mountbatten placement?
I attended the University of Southern California with a Major in Psychology and minor in Business.

What made you apply for the Mountbatten Program?
While working at Morgan Stanley at the beginning of the financial crisis I found myself with a huge glaring gap in both my life and professional experience, which was both living and working in a foreign market. My sister Kate (Dwyer) Caulfield had participated in the program about four years previously and encouraged me (in all reality demanded) that I seriously explore the opportunity. Wanting to continue to build my exposure to financial institutions, while garnering that professional and personal experience abroad, there simply was not a better program or option for me to accomplish all of the above.

Describe your host company and your role within it.
I was placed in Deutsche Bank in a KYC Analyst role, where I was responsible for due diligence of new banking clients in accordance with regulatory requirements. I worked heavily with capital markets, corporate banking, and the trading desks to quickly on-board new clients, while abiding by the regulators requirements. Working closely with the client facing organization helped to solidify my path forward of client facing roles ever since.

What was the social highlight during this year?
The best things that came from time in the program was really three things. First, being the benefit I have received post-program of having exposure to multiple cultures professionally, and through education that has really enabled me to position myself against others as I have progressed through my career. Second, is the life-long relationships I have established in the program including Nick Anable, who became the best man at my wedding. Third, being the amount of the world I was able to see and the travel I was able to do. It’s simply one of the best things I have done in my life.

What happened after completing the year – what did you do next?
When I finished Mountbatten, I took 3-months to go skiing in Tahoe as I knew this would be the last time in my life I could take that amount of time away from my professional endeavours. After that, I went into the front office of Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, where I was working on the Institutional Equities desk on the sell-side.

Where are you now in your working life and what do you do? Do you have any future plans that you would like to realize and what are they?
I have now lived in San Francisco for the last eight years and I have run sales organizations ranging from small startups, and now working for a larger company in WeWork. I am the Director of Strategic Accounts West and run a team of sellers, account managers, real estate specialists, and workplace strategists that are focused on delivering world class experiences to some of the world’s leading organizations. Some of our clients include Oracle, EA, Intel, Chevron, and Boeing. I will be continuing down the sales leadership path and have an open-mind about continuing to lead in Real Estate, but also very open to technology positions as well.

What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I am a triathlete, completing now 4 Ironman races.