About Ben Forta
I've been teaching for over 30 years. Via my books, lectures, and videos, I have had the privilege of teaching coding and technology skills to over a million people worldwide. And, when I have the time, I lead a local high-school coding and robotics program.
My day job is Adobe's Senior Director of Education Initiatives. My primary focus is on students with an eye towards creativity in the classroom, digital and visual literacy, and the role that Adobe services and tools play in the future of creation, communication, and collaboration. I get to spend a considerable amount of time teaching, talking, and writing about Adobe products, and providing feedback to help shape the future direction of the products.
I am also an author, with over a million books in print. I've written on SQL (including the best-selling SQL book of all time), classroom creativity with Adobe Express, Python, Regular Expressions, ColdFusion, Windows development, JSP, and more. My books page has details on these, many of which have been translated into 16 languages. And I have new books on the way — stay tuned.
Before joining Adobe (well, Allaire actually, and then Macromedia and Allaire merged, and then Adobe bought Macromedia, I get acquired for a living) I helped found a company called Car.com which provided automotive services (buy a car, sell a car, etc.) all online. Car.com (including Stoneage) became one of the largest automotive web sites out there, was written entirely in ColdFusion, and is now owned by AutoWeb (Auto-By-Tel).
I now live in Oak Park, MI. Before moving to the Midwest, I lived in London, England (I was born there) and in New York and California.
On The Road
I do a lot of traveling for work, presenting at conferences, visiting schools, meeting with educators, and collaborating with partners and customers around the world. Here's a running photo journal of events and places I've been, dating back to 1999.
Contact Me
The best way to reach me is through the contact form, or you can email me directly at ben@forta.com. I do respond to all messages, although sometimes it does take me a little while.
You can also find me on X (Twitter) and LinkedIn.