Ben Golden | Board of Trustees Assistant Secretary / LAC Chair

Class of 2007, Bachelor of Arts, Political Science
Class of 2011, UW School of Law

Why I Serve

The UW has always felt like home. My older sisters are graduates. As a kid, I frequently visited them and had sleepovers on the dorm-room floor. It was exciting to taste that sense of independence. As an adult, UW further expanded my sense of family. My wife was a fellow student and we met studying abroad in Greece. We planned our wedding so it didn’t conflict with the UW football schedule. With so many Huskies in the family, it was the considerate thing to do!
I was a student government nerd. Student advocacy was a natural extension of my interest in local politics. I served as ASUW Director of Government Relations, three years as a student representative on the Board of Regents and even lived in Olympia for a legislative session working as a student lobbyist. I advocated for expanding online voter registration and making textbooks more affordable. It was an opportunity to make a difference and provided valuable experience working alongside “the grownups.” UW encourages grass-roots activism and affecting change in the world.

Being a trustee is a choose-your-own-adventure experience. There are so many ways to give back to the UW. That’s true for everyone. We all have unique interests and experiences to share. UW is invaluable to the entire region and we need to continue investing in the university. Don’t pull up the opportunity ladder behind you. Pay it forward to future generations.

Biography

Ben Golden is General Counsel at TUNE, a Seattle-based marketing technology company. He previously worked as an attorney at Perkins Coie, managed a state legislative campaign, researched in Ghana on behalf of a startup social enterprise, and lectured on Pink Floyd as an English teacher in Taiwan.