A benefits owner is the person — usually in the operating business, not the delivery team — whose own performance targets move when an initiative's benefit is realized. Because their numbers depend on the benefit landing, they have a direct stake in adoption and in capturing the promised value, not merely in shipping the output.
Naming a benefits owner is the single most reliable safeguard against benefits going unclaimed. Programs routinely appoint a sponsor and a delivery lead but no benefits owner, which leaves the crucial final stretch — turning a delivered output into a captured benefit — as no one's explicit job. Without that role, benefits tend to be assumed rather than owned.