Benjamin J. Lindquist

Ben Lindquist spent the past 28 years engaged in missional work advancing the growth of school choice nationally. He is a cofounder and executive partner of Arcadia Education. He can be reached by cell phone at 720-933-1699 or by email at bjlgenx@gmail.com.  

For eleven of those years, Lindquist served as a school founder, board chair, and director starting public charter schools and expanding CMOs with a focus on underserved communities. From 1998 to 2001, he served as co-director of the Chicago International Charter School, the largest public charter school network in Illinois. From 2010 to 2015, he served as founder and executive director of Exalt Education, which grew to span three campuses serving 850 students in grades K-8. 
‍

For ten of the past 28 years, Lindquist served in philanthropic grant making roles with the Walton Family Foundation, on the founding team of the Charter School Growth Fund, and at the Kern Family Foundation. In those positions, he provided planning, startup, capacity-building, and strategic planning assistance to K12 institutions, national policy organizations, think tanks, state charter school associations, and resource centers at various stages of development.
‍

From 2017 to 2020, Lindquist served as president of the Colorado League of Charter Schools. He holds a 2009 MBA from the Leeds School of Business at theUniversity of Colorado – Boulder and a 1996 bachelor’s degree in English with honors from St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict in CentralMinnesota. In 2021 and early 2022, he completed 12 courses towards a masters in executive ministry at Colorado Christian University. He lives in Lakewood, CO, with his wife and son. 
‍

Arcadia Education Group is a consulting firm that commenced operations in May 2022.  Its national mission is to support the flourishing of civil society by strengthening the operations and culture of schools, especially those dedicated to intellectual, moral, and aesthetic excellence. Arcadia provides targeted consulting to PK-16 schools and networks centered around four service area: talent search, business planning, team health, and operations. Lindquist leads Arcadia’s business planning team.