Malik Benjamin

Malik Benjamin has dabbled in dance, music, design and technology but his greatest love is supporting people who actively build communities and the cities around them. Through REVGEN, a real estate, economic and community development initiative, he mobilizes his powerful network of designers, developers, and entrepreneurs to work with community leaders, politicians and residents to collectively invest in economically challenged areas threatened by climate change.

Malik is a 2017 BMe Fellow, member of the inaugural Young American Leaders Program at Harvard Business School Class of 2015, former Knight Foundation Scholar, and Miami Foundation Fellow. He works closely with Elevate Energy, National Resources Defense Council, National Housing Trust, and the Energy Foundation. He remains inspired by all the awesome troublemakers that taught him to rebel, disrupt and build.

Project Description

REVGEN is a national initiative that builds cross sector, multi-stakeholder networks to implement radical, innovative, economic and real estate development projects for economically challenged areas threatened by climate change. Our partners include community based organizations, M/W/DBE real estate development companies, progressive municipalities and socially conscious education/research institutions. REVGEN’s strategy includes: Transferring community ownership to residents and business owners; promoting 21st century workforce skills in underemployed communities with an emphasis on skills needed for green business; promoting economic viability at the individual and community level; building economic partnerships between like-minded yet geographically separated communities; building tourism networks between under-visited creatively and culturally interesting communities; and building digital platforms to enhance, not replace, local systems.