Daniel Ben-Horin, CompuMentor's President and Co-CEO, feels very fortunate that his job has evolved over the years (since 1987!) to allow him to spend the bulk of his time trying to think about transformative things that this organization can do in the world. The rest of his time is spent trying to sell these ideas to the people at CompuMentor who have to implement them and the people outside whom we need to convince to be our partners and/or to fund us.

After graduating from college in 1969, Daniel spent 7 years as a journalist (Arizona Republic, New York Times, New Times) in Arizona. It was an important time for him, during which he realized that much as he liked to write and edit, he was more interested in what those skills can be deployed for, specifically for social change. Gradually, his work moved in the direction of becoming an organizer, administrator, fundraiser and what would today be called a social entrepreneur. He worked for Pacific News Service, directed Media Alliance in the early 80's, took a wild swing at writing fiction, took a couple of basic programming classes (Cobol! Yeah!) and, in 1987, founded CompuMentor with the notion that people who understood technology were an undervalued but potentially tremendous resource for social change organizations.

Daniel married late, at 41, and now, at 57, has two sons, 16 and 13. He is a total jock, both participatory (tennis, skiing) and as a fan (Maysfield). Daniel's wife, Jamie Stobie, is a wonderful documentary filmmaker (Freedom Machines). Daniel has lived on the same corner of SF's Potrero Hill since 1976, but became a homeowner only in 2004. So now, he and Jamie are discovering their inner Martha Stewarts in the garden and tearing up the house. Daniel is also passionate about music (Dylan, Springsteen, Lucinda Williams, Mary Gautier), though he can't carry a tune in a bucket (the kids, on the other hand, are ace musicians; clearly Jamie's genes at work). Daniel loves San Francisco and the Sierra, where he and Jamie have a cabin in MiWuk Village, and hopes his generation can remember its idealistic coming of age and become idealistic elders in the years to come.

Session: Conversation with Angela Glover Blackwell