Ben Nelson

Who is Ben Nelson?

Ben Nelson is an American businessman known for being the president of online photo hosting and printing service Snapfish at the time of its acquisition by HP. In 2010, he started Minerva University, a for-profit university whose goal is to provide an Ivy League education at a fraction of the price. Minerva is accepting applications for an inaugural class in 2014.

Nelson joined Snapfish in 1999. In November 2000, Nelson brought the company to profitability and guided Snapfish's 2001 sale to District Photo. Since 2002, Nelson has been both Snapfish's CFO and the company's leading business strategist. He became president of Snapfish in March 2005, just before the acquisition of the company by Hewlett-Packard. Afterwards, he continued to run the company as an HP subsidiary.

Prior to Snapfish, Nelson was president and CEO of Community Ventures. He also helped start the Mergers & Acquisition practice at Dean & Co, a first tier strategy consulting firm, where he focused on transactions in the competitive telecommunications services industry. Nelson has also worked on launching Disney Regional Entertainment for the Walt Disney Company in Asia, SmithKline Beecham's first foray into the internet, and the growth plan for CDNow in the first months after its founding.