Ben Barry
Ground-Breaking Diversity Advocate | Bestselling Author of Fashioning Reality
Dr. Ben Barry is a trailblazer. The founder of the Ben Barry Agency—the world’s first modeling agency dedicated to representing models of all ages, shapes, races and abilities–Ben is also the Associate Professor of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Founding Director of the Centre for Fashion Diversity & Social Change at Ryerson University. In his passionate talks, Ben uses fashion as a lens to understand people’s experiences with discrimination and to design strategies that foster education, empowerment and inclusion.
Ben has helped the Governments of Quebec, Canada, and the UK develop policies to support body and gender diversity. He regularly writes about his work in leading academic journals and is the author of the forthcoming book, Refashioning Masculinity. His first book was the bestseller Fashioning Reality: A New Generation of Entrepreneurship. International media outlets regularly report on Ben’s research and seek his expert option including The New York Times, The Guardian and The Globe and Mail. Ben has also been a guest on Oprah and CNN.
In recognition of his work, Ben was the first male presented with the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Person’s Case for advancing the equality of girls and women in Canada, and is also a recipient of the Queen’s Jubilee Metal. His ground-breaking research on body and gender diversity was honoured as “one of the 50 game-changing research discoveries to come out of Ontario universities over the past 100 years” by Council of Ontario University. He holds a Master’s in Innovation and Strategy and PhD in Management from Judge Business School at Cambridge University.