Ben is the recipient of the prestigious NFL Hall of Fame coach Tony Dungyโs โUncommon Leader Awardโ for his leadership performance both on and off the NFL football field. After retiring, Utecht began building a significant career across multiple talents. His speaking career launched him into the Fortune 500 community as a subject matter expert, focusing on the strategy for building high-performing culture. Utechtโs passion for people and culture then entered into a corporate leadership position as the Chief Culture Officer for True North Private Equity, a family of companies whose portfolio currently includes 28 companies across 5 industries. He is a franchisor in the top US Ninja Fitness/Entertainment Franchise, Conquer Ninja Gyms, where he oversees all culture systems that impact every location. Also, he is the culture and brand ambassador for Realty Group. To complete his pursuit of practicing a winning culture, Utecht became a partner in Behavioral Essentials, a technology company paving the way for talent acquisition and leadership development through customized behavioral assessment results and benchmarking.
Utecht believes that โyou will always have a culture by design or default, so why not design it?โ and thatโs what he does
Ben has become a leader in empowering companies to decide, design, deploy, and direct culture strategies that will improve the bottom line, but more importantly, inspire and develop the human condition at work and in life.
His philanthropic interests focus on concussions, which ended his NFL career. Utecht wrote his first book Counting The Days While My Mind Slips Away with Simon and Schuster and Howard Books detailing his brain injury story and the radical connection between memory and relevance. Utecht became the spokesperson on concussion for the American Academy of Neurology and was awarded their Public Leadership In Neurology Award, which has been given to some of the most influential celebrities and leaders in the world.
Lastly, Utechtโs hidden talent is an award nominated singer. He has produced 6 albums, sung for two presidents, performed with nationally renowned maestros and symphonies, and even serenaded Muhammad Ali on his birthday. His song โYou Will Always Be My Girlsโ went viral on YouTube as it details his concussion story and love for his family. Utecht truly is a modern day renaissance man.
Finally, and most importantly, Utecht loves sharing his life with his wife and four daughters.
