Ben Ku

Ben Ku
Born Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Education Georgia Institute of Technology Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
Political party Democratic
Website Campaign website

Ben Ku is a software engineer and entrepreneur and politician. He is the Democratic nominee for Gwinnett County Commissioner District 2.

Ku received 63.1% of the vote in the primary election on May 22, 2018.

Early life and education

Ku was born at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. He was raised in Druid Hills. Ku attended the Paideia School, a small private school in Atlanta. While in high school, he helped teach the programming classes with Steve Sigur and swing dance classes with Lynn Fryberger.

In 2004, Ku graduated from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science with highest honor. He worked with Gary May creating a Java version of object oriented neural network software.

After working for multiple marketing communications and consulting firms, Ku was excited by the revolutionary development of the iPhone and created a company to develop web applications and then native apps for the device. In 2012, realizing the potential of the Apple Wallet platform, Ku created a the first public website allowing non-developers to create and issue passes for the platform.

Ku has many hobbies and talents, having moonlighted as a professional photographer, group fitness instructor, Magic: the Gathering judge, and even has an actor credit in IMDB.

Community Involvement

Ku stepped up to be president of his homeowners' association and spent significant time and resources to improve the community via an improved web presence, board email addresses, new bylaws, and community email groups. He completed the Gwinnett 101 Citizens Academy as part of the 4th cohort along with future Duluth City Councilman Kirkland Carden and Georgia House District 97 candidate Aisha Yaqoob. Ku serves on the Gwinnett 101 Alumni Advisory Board as well as the Discovery High School Academy Advisory Council. Ku received the Distinguished Service Award from Gwinnett County for the most volunteered hours in 2017.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Ku would make history by being "the first Democrat on the county’s governing body in more than three decades — and the first non-white commission member in Gwinnett’s history."[1]

Being discouraged by the difficulty in getting non-partisan issue-based information about elections, Ku created the website MyVoterPage.org to solve this problem in Georgia.

Endorsements

Ku has been endorsed and recognized by Democracy for America, Sierra Club, Georgia Equality, Victory Fund, MoveOn.org, Georgia Senator Steve Henson, Georgia Representative Dewey McClain, Municipal Judge Ethan Pham, Senator Elect Sheikh Rahman, Georgia Advancing Progress, Senator Curt Thompson, Jon Ossoff, Councilwoman Stephe Koontz, Representative Pedro Marin, Georgia Stonewall Democrats, Representative Sam Park, Grassroots Gwinnett, Representative Brenda Lopez, and Run for Something[2]

References

  1. ↑ "Gwinnett election roundup: Commission, school board, judicial races". Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
  2. ↑ "List of Endorsements".
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