Ben Rattray, a 1998 graduate of Dos Pueblos High School and former Associated Student Body president, is one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.
According to Time, “They are the people who inspire us, entertain us, challenge us and change our world.”
Rattray is the founder and CEO of Change.org.
Time’s profile says, “Ben Rattray is the brain behind Change.org, a website that transforms the way people tell their stories and make change happen. There are a lot of petition websites, but Change.org is simple to use and supported by a team that provides media-messaging and engineering support.
“Ben, 31, created a platform for me to make specific demands for banks to change their debit-card fees. This spring, Trayvon Martin’s mother wrote an amazing narrative on the site that got her son’s story out there, which helped build solidarity with her family and kept pressure on the police and attention on the case. That’s huge.”
Click here to read Rattray’s complete Time Magazine profile. Click here for the complete list of the 100 most influential people.
As a senior, Rattray left a telling quote in the 1998 Dos Pueblos yearbook: “If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.”
— Barbara Keyani is administrative services and communications coordinator for the Santa Barbara Unified School District.