Ben Durbala was promoted to Scouting & Recruiting Analyst for Northwestern Football in March 2026 after spending seven months as a Scouting & Recruiting Assistant, earning a full-time promotion through his contributions to high school recruiting, transfer portal evaluations, player personnel operations, and recruiting initiatives.

Prior to joining Northwestern Football, Ben worked as a Financial Analyst at Bradford Allen, a Chicago-based commercial real estate investment and management firm. There, he managed leasing, budgeting, capital planning, investment underwriting, and strategic initiatives across a multimillion-dollar portfolio of commercial assets while collaborating with finance, accounting, treasury, brokerage, and executive leadership teams. He became the first intern in several years to earn a full-time return offer from the firm.

Ben earned a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance & Banking from the University of Missouri in 2024, graduating as a Dean's List student. He later completed a Master of Sports Administration with a specialization in Sports Analytics from Northwestern University, graduating in 2026 in the program's shortest available completion timeline while maintaining Dean's List honors throughout his graduate studies.

Before transitioning into player personnel, Ben began his football operations career as an Equipment Manager for the University of Missouri Football program during the 2022 season. Working directly with the first-team offense and quarterbacks, he supported daily operations for an SEC program that finished the season with a Cotton Bowl Classic victory.

A native of the Chicagoland area, Durbala combines a background in finance, business strategy, and data analytics with experience across football operations, scouting, recruiting, and player evaluation. His professional interests include roster construction, personnel strategy, recruiting operations, and the application of data to talent identification and decision-making.