Ben C. Fletcher D.Phil., Oxon

Ben (C) Fletcher is Professor of Occupational and Health Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the UK. He is a Practitioner Occupational Psychologist, a Practitioner Health Psychologist and a Chartered Scientist. He was made an Academician of the UK Academy of Social Sciences in 2007 and is/has been a Board Director of a number of companies. He was also a Professor in the Fashion Design Department of Istanbul Bilgi University from 2011- 2014.

After his doctorate in Experimental Psychology at Oxford University, he began his academic career with the Medical Research Council at Sheffield University in the UK. He became Dean of the University of Hertfordshire Business School in 1993 and was a Founder Member of the Centre for the Improvement of Management Performance in Bucharest, Romania set up in 1992. His research has won various accolades including a Literarae Prize, and a UK National Award for knowledge transfer to the commercial world.

He has published extensively in academic journals on a wide range of topics from brain chemistry, behaviour change, through stress and health, to fashion adoption. As well as being the founder of FIT Science he has also developed, with Professor Pine, the Do Something Different approach to behaviour change for people who want, and do, improve themselves and the lives they lead, irrespective of their academic credentials.

He has written a number of books including the Flex: Do Something Different - How to use the other 9/10ths of your personality; Do Something Different: Love Not Smoking; The No Diet Diet; (Inner) FITness & The FIT Corporation; Clergy Under Stress; Work Stress, Disease and Life Expectancy, and the Do Something Different Journal.

Ben thinks that transformations in lives is harder, deserves more ‘credit', and is more useful for society than much that passes for education. He also thinks psychological science should adopt different criteria of success and quality - scientifically measured degree of change in the outcome measures, rather than theoretical confirmation and falsification.

The Do Something Different approach is currently being used in a range of health and community settings in Europe, and is having real impact improving people's lives and their well-being. It is also being used very successfully in organisations to help people make changes that are valuable to them and their employers.