Note from Katie Puccio-Williams

Recently, someone asked me to reflect on a creative leader I'd worked with in the past whose leadership style I admired. Without hesitation, I said Ben Hughes. Ben was a rare kind of creative leader who was able to make space for the silly and the serious all at the same time while getting the best out of everyone on his team. Ben was an endless rolodex of cultural references and he was always down to talk shop about the latest album release, long-form article, or weird website everyone was discussing in Slack.

But more importantly than being a singular creative force, Ben was just an awesome person. I'll never forget when a bunch of us Stink people went to Hank's Saloon on 3rd Ave to support a co-worker's band right before the iconic (?) bar closed for good. That night, Ben was probably the most excited and animated I had ever seen him — partly with pride for our friend and her band, but mostly to share stories with us younger Stinkers about his fondest memories memories from his early 20s in the world's middest bar. But to Ben, in that moment, it was the greatest bar in the world and I had to agree. Every time I walk past the former Hank's Saloon, I think of Ben and now I always will.

— Katie Puccio-Williams