At first glance, Ben Kesler might seem to have an unusual background to be leading a technology-focused nonprofit.
Kesler is executive director of NPower Missouri, the local chapter of New York-based NPower, which provides free IT training to underrepresented groups to launch technology careers. Kesler doesn’t have a background in software or artificial intelligence. He made a career out of his passion for music, as a teacher and working as an audio engineer and producer for musicians. Kesler’s role with NPower adds to his experience in workforce development, having previously worked as director of career services for the Ex’treme Institute music program at Vatterott College.
Kesler, who grew up about an hour outside of Columbus, Ohio, made his way to the St. Louis region when he attended Greenville University, majoring in contemporary music. Kesler, who plays guitar, remains active in music. He is a member of the Recording Academy, which stages the Grammy Awards, of which Kesler is a voter.
NPower Missouri had revenue of $1.6 million in 2023, up from $950,000 in 2022. NPower Missouri in 2022 said it graduated 53 individuals, placing 72% in jobs or further education. NPower Missouri this summer will begin a pilot program in Kansas City, extending its operations beyond St. Louis.
How did you begin your career? Immediately after graduating college, I spent two years teaching music at what's now called Premier Charter School. After that, I had enough clientele and had enough interest in bands and was really focused on music creation and helping others in audio production. I spent years doing that self-business entrepreneur kind of thing with audio production.
What led you to get back in education and then into workforce development? In 2007, I was brought back to Greenville to be an adjunct professor there. That started my higher education journey. I continued professionally working in music and audio production while teaching at a lot of different local universities including Missouri Baptist University and Webster University. I was one of the directors at the Ex’treme Institute by Nelly. That’s where I really started focusing on workforce development. I was the director of career services, so I was taking a very specialized industry that I was knowledgeable in and not only finding students careers and helping them with job placement, but so much of what I had to do was track for accreditation standards, making sure that accreditation bodies understood what we were doing around entrepreneurship and small business development. I helped a lot of students develop LLCs and start up their own businesses.
How did you end up at NPower Missouri? I was brought on to NPower to start running internship programs. I hadn't worked specifically in tech, but I had a lot of tech-adjacent roles. Almost all my roles were around digital audio and production and things like that. It was my first non-music role, but where I could really utilize all that workforce development I spent years before working on. When I got to Npower, I was really impressed with a model that really works. I started out just running internship programs, but I could see how lives were immediately impacted and knew that was just the beginning of the trajectory of our young adult's lives. Thinking about those tangible results and the impact we were having, I just wanted to do more and eventually took over both the program director and placement director roles until landing the executive director role in late 2022.
What does being a member of the Grammys entail? Obviously, people think of the Grammys as the Grammy Awards, which is an amazing thing and funds the whole operation, honestly. I get to vote in the Grammy Awards, which I have a lot of fun doing. It's great. I get that invite every year to go to the Grammy Awards. I have not been, it's still quite a financial investment. But more than that, you have networking events and kind of the camaraderie of others in the industry. What people don't really think about that's quite incredible is the advocacy of the Grammys. We're all part of the Memphis Grammy chapter that includes markets like New Orleans and St. Louis. There are advocacy days where we are put in front of local legislators to try to make change. We met with U.S. representatives or our state representatives to take on what was called the Music Modernization Act. That act was the first significant copyright legislature that was passed since the 1990s.
How does Grammy Awards voting work? Members are allowed to vote on a select few on the final ballot based on expertise. Someone like me, who is a mastering engineer that has a lot of different genre experience, mine will typically be what I've worked on in the year or the last year. Maybe it's the Americana categories and the hip hop categories and the gospel categories, for example. Then from each of those categories, there's a certain number of awards you can vote on. Then everyone also is allowed to vote on the main categories, like album of the year, record of the year, producer of the year.
What do you like to do in your free time? I absolutely love food. I really think our food scene's pretty incredible. I'm lucky to be in Fox Park where we've got kind of the three Ls. You got Lucky Accomplice, Little Fox, Lona’s Lil Eats. I also really enjoy my kids' activities, all the things they're involved in. My son is really involved in soccer and my daughter in competitive dance, so I spend a lot of time on nights and weekends doing things like that. I've come back around to where I actually enjoy listening to music actively. Not passively. I don't really enjoy listening to music in a car or anything like that. But where there's a great set of speakers and just listening to music, I have grown to re-like that in the last five years. When you're too close sometimes to the industry and spend hours critically listening, those relationships can fall apart.
More about Ben Kesler
Title: Executive director, NPower Missouri
Age: 44
Family: Wife, Mary Beth; daughter, Delphina; son, Paxton
Education: Bachelor’s degree in contemporary music from Greenville University; graduate certificate in nonprofit management from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
