Ben Rattray
Ben Rattray is the brain behind Change.org, a website that transforms the way people tell their stories and make change happen. There are a lot of petition websites, but Change.org is simple to use and supported by a team that provides media-messaging and engineering support.
Ben, 31, created a platform for me to make specific demands for banks to change their debit-card fees. This spring, Trayvon Martin's mother wrote an amazing narrative on the site that got her son's story out there, which helped build solidarity with her family and kept pressure on the police and attention on the case. That's huge.
Now Change.org is expanding into other countries, making its website available in different languages and finding solutions for people who live where the Internet might not be widely available or where protests are stopped by governments. I am so excited to see that. I can't wait.
Katchpole is a consumer-rights advocate