Benjamin Roberts
Sustainable Energy Commission
19 Farrell Road
Newtown, CT 06470
(203) 426-1039
ben.roberts@charter.net
I am honored to once again join the dedicated, thoughtful and principled team of Newtown citizens on the IPN ticket. We started two years ago with a vision for new leadership to replace an Old Guard that had lost touch with the people. Now, in addition to a full slate of candidates for both Legislative Council and Board of Selectman, I am excited to join Bill McNerny in running for the Board of Finance, as this is where my background lies. Given how powerful this Board can be in our town government, getting independent and fresh voices onto it is a key to moving the town in a new direction. Four of its current members have been in place since the Board’s inception, while a fifth has held office since 2004. It’s time for some new vision.
I have held finance-related positions throughout my twenty-two year career. After earning my Bachelor’s degree from Columbia, I worked in bond sales and trading in the 1980s, gaining first-hand experience in the nuances of the credit markets on which our town depends for financing. I then returned to Columbia for an MBA in both general and real estate finance. After graduating with honors in 1991, I entered the entrepreneurial world, first as the chief financial manager for the newly established Equinox Fitness, Inc. in New York City and then as the developer of my own venture in Norwalk, The Golf Training Center, which I managed until 2002. Now, in the third phase of my career, I have a financial counseling practice here in Sandy Hook called Conscious Financial Directions and I am an investment advisory representative of the First Affirmative Financial Network, LLC. Through that firm, I offer opportunities for socially responsible investing to individuals and organizations.
I have lived in Hawleyville for ten years with my wife Kim, a marriage and family therapist. Our household currently includes my step-son James Marron, our dog Trevor and three cats. James, currently working at Chao Chao here in town, and his sister Emily Howard (also a Newtown resident and a special education teacher in Stamford) went through the Newtown schools from K-12. I also have two daughters from my first marriage: Danielle and Emily Roberts, who are in college and high school respectively.