Software and biotech investor, philanthropist, a software engineer. He started and led Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team through the release of version 3.0. Slivka earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in Computer Science and a B.S. degree in Applied Mathematics from Northwestern University in the early 1980s. He also served on the Northwestern University board of trustees from 1998 to 2018.

He and his wife created Wissner-Slivka a Foundation to channel their philanthropic activities. Benjamin has active «angel» investments in AppSheet, Blaze Bioscience, Cyrus Biotechnology, dCentralized, DreamBox Learning, GlowForge, LockStepHQ.com, OneTrack.ai, and TwinStrand Biosciences, and he also regularly advises entrepreneurs.