Portfolio – Benjamin Reeves

Building a Complex World in Simple Steps

What we learned creating cross-platform fantasy storyworld Ballads of the Distant Reaches Some of today’s most ambitious stories take place within enormous, shared universes. Think of Game of Thrones, Star Wars, The Witcher, Marvel, The Lord of the Rings—the list goes on and on. Typically, these movies, TV shows, books, video games, and comics draw their inspiration from older source material. […]

How To Make a Short Film Without Going (Totally) Crazy

There’s no right way to make a film, but there are things you can do to help it go more smoothly. A short film can be creatively fulfilling, a way for a writer or director to start bringing their vision to life, and—if it’s successful—a gateway into the film industry. Unfortunately, just because a film […]

The Dividends of War: How Ukraine’s Entrepreneurs and Economists Are Fighting Back

“A lot of perceptions” changed for Maxim Shkolnick, a Ukrainian real estate entrepreneur and financier, on February 24, 2022. “I woke up in my house around five in the morning, and my wife was like, ‘we’re being bombed.’ Surreal concept, right? And then another missile hit.” He pauses. “When a ballistic missile hits the ground […]

Ballads of the Distant Reaches

I am the creator and co-editor of Ballads of the Distant Reaches, a bi-weekly anthology of illustrated fantasy short stories. I created this project and storyworld beginning in mid-2021 and brought on co-creator and co-editor Robert Frankel shortly thereafter. This project brings together some of the top genre writers working today with an incredible team […]

Do You Really Need An HQ?

Hybrid offices are challenging old assumptions and putting CHROs at the middle of a revolution in how we work. Over drinks on a recent rainy, early-Fall evening in Soho, the chief executive of a rapidly growing tech firm was debating the merits of leasing office space for a new global headquarters in Manhattan with an […]

The Compensation Race Is On, And Anyone Could Win (Or Lose)

As wages rise, CHROs keep quiet and offices are on the chopping block. Unwelcome and unexplained specters seem to lurk everywhere these days. The Covid-19 pandemic, while ostensibly on the wane in nations with easy access to vaccines, continues to sow volatility and uncertainty in people’s lives and the markets, and the new Delta variant […]

How Top CHROs Are Surfing The Talent Tsunami

The coronavirus pandemic upended the world of work, and now heads of human resources are pulling out the stops to win the war for talent. The coronavirus pandemic has already changed the world. The human tragedy is almost unfathomable, and its economic impacts continue to reverberate. Virtually overnight in March 2020, millions of workers shifted […]

Crossing Acheron

A woman grapples with the existential implications of a new AI technology, her mother’s death, and the blurring boundaries between the physical and digital, life and death.

‘Joker’ Isn’t Dangerous – Our Apathy Is

The fuss over the film coincided with four real-life murders that were entirely preventable.

The Business of the Border — Why America’s Economy Depends on San Diego

Thanks in large part to a border economy that defies stereotypes and a world-class scientific community, a city famous for its surf is riding a different kind of wave.

Can Savannah Survive a Trade War?

Savannah, Ga., known worldwide for its historic architecture and cultural richness, has a grittier but no less important asset: the Port of Savannah, a massive engine helping to drive the modern global economy.

How Tech Titans Are Disrupting Philanthropy

Bay Area tech entrepreneurs have changed how we communicate and do business. Now the community is trying to disrupt philanthropy by reinventing capitalism.

How George Lucas’ New Museum Could Transform Downtown LA

Star Wars creator George Lucas’ vision of a museum of narrative art is big, bold and unapologetically popular. And Los Angeles, with its unique mix of high and low culture, is the perfect place to build it.

Russell Okung Plays Offense

The NFL player is an agent, an angel investor and activist and a philanthropist.

Liesel Pritzker Simmons’ Family Values

In the 1990s, she was a successful child actress. Now, after striking out on her own, an heir to one of America’s most famous fortunes is putting that money to good work.

Journey of the Jaguar

Reeves worked closely with global big cat conservation group Panthera to create a live multi-media journey through jaguar territory in Brazil and Colombia.

Templeton World

Reeves created, writes and edits the Templeton World Charity Foundation’s blog. He works closely with the Foundation’s president and management team to craft their long-term communications strategy, promote their strategic goals and communicate the breadth of their work across the sciences and around the globe.

Columbia Business School

Reeves began his relationship with Columbia Business School as a staff writer on their communication’s team and has continued to be a regular contributor to the alumni magazine, the school’s thought leadership publication, Ideas At Work, and the publications of the Chazen Global Institute.

Imagination

In conjunction with global experience company Imagination, Reeves has helped craft high impact, cross-platform narratives for companies in industries including financial services, investment management and technology.

The “Billions” Producers Talk Power

Showtime’s hedge fund drama is television’s most insightful show about financial power. So Worth asked executive producers David Levien and Brian Koppelman to tell us where—and how—they get their material.

Meet The Naked Billionaires

Why men like Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein lie about their wealth, and why the New York City business media lets them.

Did Fearless Girl Change Anything for Women on Wall Street?

When State Street Global Advisors launched a woman-oriented exchange traded fund and placed the Fearless Girl statue in Lower Manhattan, the financial firm said it wanted to change the way thousands of companies do business. Two years later, is Wall Street a better place for women?

The Ghost of the Jungle

In remembrance of Alan Rabinowitz, one of the modern era’s great conservation scientists.

Making the Difference

Erika Irish Brown ’98, global head of diversity and inclusion for financial-information powerhouse Bloomberg, is working to disrupt the modern-day workplace and open its doors to the world.

Kane the Gunslinger

After breaking out of a deep space prison, a violent criminal is confronted by a cosmic being who challenges him to save his distant ancestor — a young Apache girl — in pursuit of lost gold in the old American west.

Ghost of the Jungle

Inspired by a true story, American field biologist Alan Rabinowitz confronts violent gangs and corrupt police in the jungles of 1980s Belize as he struggles to become a voice for the threatened jaguar.

Influencers

When a conspiracy theorist murders a notorious white-collar criminal and sex abuser, he finds himself enamored with the man’s daughter — a young, progressive media mogul — and the two embark on a dark and twisted journey to uncover the rot at the heart of American capitalism.

Private Army

Can there be loyalty in a world where everything, even violence, is for sale? Private Army is a groundbreaking nine episode premium short-form series set in the high stakes world of private military contractors. This is a world where presidents are deposed, diamond mines are plundered and political opponents assassinated—for a price.

Metamorphoses

Metamorphoses follows the Ancient Roman poet Ovid as he navigates intrigue, love and violence in Augustus’ imperial court. Each episode interweaves the mythological tales of Ovid’s greatest poetic work, the Metamorphoses, with power politics and a story of star crossed lovers.

Online fake news and hate speech are fueling tribal ‘genocide’ in South Sudan

South Sudan became the world’s newest country in 2011. But since breaking from Sudan, it’s been riven by its own internal conflicts between clan groups, minor warlords and government factions.

Resistance at the Crossroads of the World

Protests at John F. Kennedy airport against President Trump’s immigration policies highlight competing strains of American history.

The Fourth Estate Needs a Superhero

With journalism increasingly under attack, a new interpretation of Superman hits hard.

The Man Behind The Thrones

Entertainment powerhouse HBO is at the top of its game thanks to CEO Richard Plepler’s constant focus and love of storytelling.

The King of Cats

Billionaire conservationist Tom Kaplan is pursuing an audacious quest to save the world’s great cats from extinction.

Belcher Family Values

“Bob’s Burgers” is an exception in the world of animated sitcoms: The Belchers actually like each other.

The High End

Entrepreneur Travis Howard wants to reform America’s marijuana laws by growing and selling the best, most expensive pot in the country. His argument? If pot is a luxury good, then the wealthy will buy it—and if the wealthy are buying it, the government won’t prosecute it.

Drug traffickers are wiping out the jaguar in Central America

The international drug trade is destroying vital habitat out of reach of the law throughout Latin America.

Private Equity’s Philosopher

Robert F. Smith ’94, founder and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, finds value in the people and places that are most often ignored.

Will This Man Save Your Life?

Craig Venter was the first scientist to sequence any genome, the first scientist to sequence the human genome and the first scientist to create a synthetic organism.

The Search for Immortality

Deploying their immense wealth, business and tech impresarios are investing in their next disruption: ending death.

U.S. Moves to Stop Surge in Illegal Immigration

Contributed on the ground reporting on Vice President Joe Biden’s trilateral summit on immigration in Guatemala City, including press pool coverage and interview with the Vice President.

Guatemala’s Anti-Mining La Puya Protesters Are Under Siege

The communities around San Jose del Golfo have engaged in a two-year long peaceful resistance to prevent the construction of a new mine.

The Humanitarian Crisis in Guatemala City’s Immense Garbage Dump

The basurero neighborhood is desperately poor, lacks basic social services, and offers residents little hope of escaping.

The Drunken, Devilish Mayan God Still Worshipped in Guatemala

He’s the kind of god you pray to when you really want a motorcycle.

Beer Wars, Guatemala Edition

A family feud at Guatemala’s Gallo beer brewer has opened doors to what could be Anheuser-Busch InBev’s next big gulp.

The Deadly, Drunken Day of the Dead Horse Race

By the time the race begins the riders are already intoxicated after an entire night of drinking, and they’ll spend the rest of the day getting even more wasted, while riding back and forth on a track that goes from one end of the village to the other.

Recent Work

Building a Complex World in Simple Steps

How To Make a Short Film Without Going (Totally) Crazy

The Dividends of War: How Ukraine’s Entrepreneurs and Economists Are Fighting Back

Ballads of the Distant Reaches

Do You Really Need An HQ?

The Compensation Race Is On, And Anyone Could Win (Or Lose)

How Top CHROs Are Surfing The Talent Tsunami

Crossing Acheron

‘Joker’ Isn’t Dangerous – Our Apathy Is

The Business of the Border — Why America’s Economy Depends on San Diego

Can Savannah Survive a Trade War?

How Tech Titans Are Disrupting Philanthropy

How George Lucas’ New Museum Could Transform Downtown LA

Russell Okung Plays Offense

Liesel Pritzker Simmons’ Family Values

Journey of the Jaguar

Templeton World

Columbia Business School

Imagination

The “Billions” Producers Talk Power

Meet The Naked Billionaires

Did Fearless Girl Change Anything for Women on Wall Street?

The Ghost of the Jungle

Making the Difference

Kane the Gunslinger

Ghost of the Jungle

Influencers

Private Army

Metamorphoses

Online fake news and hate speech are fueling tribal ‘genocide’ in South Sudan

Resistance at the Crossroads of the World

The Fourth Estate Needs a Superhero

The Man Behind The Thrones

The King of Cats

Belcher Family Values

The High End

Drug traffickers are wiping out the jaguar in Central America

Private Equity’s Philosopher

Will This Man Save Your Life?

The Search for Immortality

U.S. Moves to Stop Surge in Illegal Immigration

Guatemala’s Anti-Mining La Puya Protesters Are Under Siege

The Humanitarian Crisis in Guatemala City’s Immense Garbage Dump

The Drunken, Devilish Mayan God Still Worshipped in Guatemala

Beer Wars, Guatemala Edition

The Deadly, Drunken Day of the Dead Horse Race