Meet Ben Jan!
Professional background and where were you before you joined Zoology?
Before joining Zoology in August 2025, I was with UBC IT Engagement Services, which consists of Client Service Managers and Client Service Coordinators. Those roles would manage the relationship between their Client Unit and UBC IT Service Owners such as Systems, Desktop Services, AV, and Email. Depending on the kind of client service manager role or client services coordinator role, there would be different levels of support. Client Service Manager support is more strategic whereas Client Service Coordinators are more operational. Since 2016, I was embedded with the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Before that, I was the Client Service Coordinator for Athletics and Recreation.
Early on, in 2002, I graduated from Computer Sciences here at UBC. When I was an undergrad, I volunteered with the Intramurals league sports program which back then was called the UBC Legacy Games which eventually became UBC REC. I worked there as a summer student, working with the website database. When the summer student role ended, I started working as the computer systems coordinator. It was the only IT role within all of Athletics and Recreation. At the time UBC REC was under the AMS, largely working with intramural sports, all of that kind of sports and events around campus. For example, storm the wall, the triathlon, all the league sports, and all the various sport events. Over the years, the scope increased, including Recreation programming as well as all the fitness facilities. Eventually, I became the Assistant Manager, Computer Systems for Athletics and Recreation. Then the IT arm of Athletics and Recreation was centralized to UBC IT in 2014.
Did you have any passion for sports before joining UBC REC?
As an undergrad, when I was volunteering, I started off with UBC’s soccer department. At the time, there was a large volunteer force. Every year, around about 125 volunteers amongst leagues, events, and marketing departments. I started off with soccer because I played soccer and was recruited by my roommates. Soccer was what I played growing up, but later on I took an interest in hockey. I always wanted to play hockey but never ended up doing so as a kid. When I was in my 20’s, I decided to learn to play it. Three or four years later, with a group of colleagues and friends, we put together a hockey team that played together for almost 15 years. I’ve since joined another team that plays in Richmond from September until summer.
What brought you to UBC in the first place?
I grew up in Melfort, Saskatchewan and like most traditional Asian families, my parents wanted me to be a doctor. I applied to UBC and received an Outstanding Student Initiative Scholarship. At the time, my father was retiring from Agriculture Canada, and my parents had moved out to Surrey. During my first year at UBC I was taking pretty much a full science course load. However, my two best courses were English and Computer Science, while not doing well with the natural sciences. In retrospect, it made sense, I've always loved computers. It probably comes from my father’s job early in my life. His job was working on computerizing farming equipment. This exposed me to computers from the age of 7 or 8. When I was in my second year as an undergrad and needed to choose a major, I chose Computer Science. It was a career with a lot of opportunities as the gaming industry was booming at the time.
What have you enjoyed the most during these years working at UBC?
What fascinates me the most in IT is solving puzzles and coming up with solutions to make things easier for users. I do take a lot of joy in that.
For example, when I was an undergrad almost everybody needed a computer. So, when I was living in residence, I was helping other people with their computers. Internet was still fairly new back then. I remember being on dial-up, before cell phones, and the majority of people had a landline and had to connect the modem to the phone. Technologically, I am amazed with telecommunications thanks to high-speed internet. It is a huge innovation that had changed our lives. I grew up memorizing phone numbers and keeping a little notebook with the phone numbers I couldn’t. Now, my phone knows all my phone numbers. Instead of maps, I often do not know where I’m going, but my phone knows where I’m going.
How has your work experience evolved at UBC?
Each of the environments has been quite different and what varies is the support models. Sometimes it has been just myself providing all the IT support and other environments have been more structured, with a well-defined scope and the services we were supposed to offer. What all the jobs have had in common is the idea to create an IT environment that makes the experience better for everybody, focusing on efficiency and safety for everybody. In this role, I am aiming to bring my previous experiences to support the Zoology department’s teaching and research. To make all the IT services easy to access. In reality the ZCU is a concerted effort between 3 people: Jenny, Nick and myself.
What do you do in your spare time?
Well, definitely these days I like to stay active. My wife and I, we are trying to stay as active as we as we can. In Vancouver, we're so lucky that the climate allows the use of the outdoors pretty much all the time. Whether it's exploring the city of Vancouver or finding places to explore outdoors. I also golf in addition to hockey. Golf is largely seasonal. I'm a terrible golfer but always looking to get better. I mostly play the public Vancouver and Burnaby city courses. It isn’t easy to find an 18 hole tee time these days, so I often play the 9 holes, which takes about 2 hours at sunrise. Sometimes though, golf and hockey intersect when hockey games end late and then the next morning the golf playing starts early.
I have also done some beginner Mandarin courses, American sign language, and different kinds of culinary courses that used to be offered through UBC Extended Learning. All incredibly fun!