William Bench, Founder/President of the Board - Aquatic Life Institute

William Bench is a trader at Latour Trading LLC and the founder of Aquatic Life Institute.

In 2007, William decided to follow what would be later coined as an "earning to give" path. After graduation, William went to work on Wall Street, first at JP Morgan and then at Latour Trading. He quickly focused the vast majority of his donations on farmed animal welfare. As he kept looking for neglected areas to support within the movement, he realized there was a significant gap on aquatic animals; they represent the vast majority of farmed animals and yet very little was being done to help them. As a result, William decided to launch Aquatic Life Institute in February 2019 to address this need and help shape the future of the aquatic animal rights movement, shifting his activism from donating to direct work. William focused on building ALI over the next few years and launching its first programs: creating the Aquatic Animal Alliance, designing our first aquaculture welfare recommendations in partnership with our AAA members, and kickstarting our work with global certifiers. In his spare time, William also enjoys doing ironman triathlons (and hopes to complete Ultraman in 2023), and spending time with his two children.

William received his BS and MS in Mathematics from the Ecole Polytechnique and a MS in Financial Engineering from Columbia University.