Benjamin Skinner

E. Benjamin Skinner (born May 4, 1976) is a writer on modern-day slavery^[1] and Founder and President of Transparentem.^[2]

Career[]

Skinner began his career at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, where he focused on U.S. foreign policy.^{[3][failed verification]} While at the Council in August 2001, he met veteran diplomat Richard C. Holbrooke.^[4] Skinner soon became "one of Holbrooke’s youngest protégés,"^[5] and his Special Assistant for the next three years. Subsequently, he also worked for journalist David Halberstam^[6] and Gen. Stanley McChrystal (U.S. Army, Ret.).^[7] In 2003, while on assignment in Sudan for Newsweek International, Skinner met his first survivor of slavery.^[8]

As a writer, Skinner has infiltrated trafficking networks and slave quarries, urban child markets and illegal brothels, going undercover when necessary.^[9] His work has appeared in Time, Bloomberg Businessweek, Travel + Leisure, the Los Angeles Times, the Miami Herald and Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy, among others.^{[10][failed verification]}

The New York Times and The Boston Globe called Skinner's first book, A Crime So Monstrous, "devastating."^[11] The book was awarded the 2009 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for nonfiction,^[12] as well as a citation from the Overseas Press Club in its book category for 2008.^{[citation needed]} He was also named one of National Geographic's Adventurers of the Year 2008.^{[citation needed]} The book was published in Czech, German, Korean, Italian, and Polish translations. Chapters from the book have been adapted for an Emmy Award-winning episode of ABC's Nightline and for NBC’s Law & Order.^[13]

Starting in 2009, Skinner was a Senior Fellow at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism at Brandeis University,^{[10][failed verification]} where he focused on tracing slavery in corporate supply chains from theaters like the New Zealand fishing industry^[14] and Indonesian palm oil plantations^[15] to U.S. and Chinese consumer markets. Previously, he was the first fellow for human trafficking at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.^[9] In 2011, the World Economic Forum named Skinner one of its Young Global Leaders,^{[10][failed verification]} and he formerly served on the Forum's Global Agenda Council on Illicit Trade.^[13] Skinner is a former Senior Vice President at Tau Investment Management. ^[2]

Personal[]

Skinner was raised in Wisconsin and northern Nigeria where his father served as a British colonial administrator.^[9] Skinner comes from a long line of abolitionists. His great-great-grandfather, Robert Pratt, served with the 1st Connecticut Artillery at the Siege of Petersburg, which led to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.^[12] Skinner received his bachelor's degree from Wesleyan University.^{[10][failed verification]} He currently lives in Manhattan, NY.^[16]

Bibliography[]

• Crimes of War 2.0: What The Public Should Know (Revised and Expanded) (Essay by Skinner, Editors Anthony Dworkin, Roy Gutman and David Rieff) (W.W. Norton & Company, 2007) ISBN 0393328465
• A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery (Free Press, 2008). ISBN 978-0-7432-9008-1
• The Unquiet American: Richard Holbrooke in the World (Essay by Skinner, Editors Derek Chollet and Samantha Power) (PublicAffairs, 2011) ISBN 1610390784

References[]