Ellen is Managing Director of Silicon Valley Connect, working with organizations and entrepreneurs on opportunities for “networked innovation”. She also spends much of her time actively managing a portfolio of over 50 startups either as an angel investor or advisory board member. Additionally, she is a member of the Board of Directors for learning technology company Instructure (NYSE: INST), commercial real estate finance company Walker & Dunlop (NYSE: WD), and social network for military and veterans company Rally point. She has been appointed as a Senior Advisor to the President of Arizona State University, named the “most innovative” US university by US News & World Report for four consecutive years, and co-chairs their Innovation Council.
Ellen spent the better part of a decade working with LinkedIn, including having served as Vice President of Strategic Initiatives, head of Corporate & Business Development and member of the Executive Team, and her original role as Advisory Board member when the company was first founded. Prior to LinkedIn, Ellen spent two years running a groundbreaking program at Stanford University, facilitating collaboration between industry partners, Silicon Valley, and the University research community by championing questions having to do with people, technology & innovation. Over her career, Ellen has held formal roles in venture capital (Softbank Venture Capital; NeoCarta Ventures; Draper Fisher Jurvetson), startups (WhoWhere, sold to Lycos; Softbook Press, sold to Gemstar; LinkedIn, LNKD), technology think tanks (Interval Research), large corporations (Apple Computer, AAPL; PriceWaterhouse Coopers), and universities (Harvard University; Arizona State University; Stanford University).