Ben spent the first part of his career with 15 years of service at the Mesa County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO). Ben was the founder and program director of the first operational unmanned aerial system (UAS) program for a non-federal public safety agency in the United States. The MCSO UAS program has been featured in prestigious print media—such as National Geographic, Time, and Smithsonian Air & Space—and has been covered by numerous news organizations around the world, including Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.Ben has numerous UAS deployments and has flown many types of unmanned operations, to include flights over armed gunmen, crime scene reconstruction missions, search and rescue, and fire operations. Ben also had the opportunity to train game wardens in African nation of Namibia in support of their anti-poaching efforts.Throughout the industry, Ben is regarded as a thought leader on the applications of sUAS in public safety. His perspective has been shared in presentations across the United States and Canada, including testimony to the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as to other members of Congress at both the state and national levels. His expertise has been sought by prestigious organizations—such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Secret Service, the United States Department of Justice, and the FAA’s NextGen Institute—and numerous other entities in the unmanned aircraft space, including academia and industry.Beyond drones, been spent the later part of his public safety career researching, testing and evaluating public safety related technologies that increase safety and efficiency for first responders. Having managed the adoption of numerous new technologies and processes, Ben is excited for the opportunity to lead a first class team and create the space they need to big things for the public safety community.