Ben Barry

"Aren't you something!" (as told to Ben Barry)

Oprah Winfrey discovered him years ago, and now it's your turn. Ben Barry, named "One of Twenty-five Leaders of Tomorrow" by Maclean's, has been challenging the status quo of beauty since he was a teenager.

At age fourteen, Ben helped a friend who was told she was "too big" to be a model by sending her pictures to a magazine editor. The editor called him back, hired his friend, and with that one phone call, Ben launched his modeling agency. Today, Ben serves as CEO of the Ben Barry Agency, a model consultancy headquartered in Toronto, Canada. His company scouts and sources models of all ages, sizes, colours, and abilities for fashion and beauty brands.

Ben has been the subject of feature interviews on Oprah, CNN, and Fashion Television and in The Guardian, The Times of India, The Financial Times, and The National Post. He is a former business columnist for the Globe and Mail and author of the bestseller Fashioning Reality: A New Generation of Entrepreneurship, hailed by Profit Magazine as "a manifesto for young entrepreneurs and a call to arms to everyone." Ben has received the CIBC Student Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and is the first male winner of the Governor General's Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case for his leadership in advancing the equality of girls and women in Canada.

He holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Women's Studies from Trinity College at the University of Toronto and a Master's in Innovation and Strategy from Judge Business School at Cambridge University. He is currently completing his PhD on perceptions of beauty around the world at Cambridge University. Ben also serves on the Board of the Canadian Foundation for Women's Health and as Chair of the Toronto Fashion Incubator, a non-profit small business incubator for Canadian fashion entrepreneurs.