Ellen Siminoff | |
|---|---|
| Born | Ellen Friedman [1] 1967 (age 57–58) |
| Education | B.A., Princeton University MBA, Stanford University |
| Occupation(s) | Entrepreneur, Investor |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Known for | Yahoo! (founding executive) Shmoop (co-founder) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
Ellen Siminoff (born 1967, Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is an entrepreneur, board member and investor. [2] Frequently quoted in The New York Times as an Internet industry commentator, [3] [4] [5] [6] Siminoff was named one of Forbes magazine's Masters of Information in 2005. [7]
Along with her husband, David Siminoff, Ellen is co-founder and former chief executive officer of Shmoop. [8]
Siminoff obtained a BA in economics from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University, [9] where she met her husband David Siminoff while they were students at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. [10] She also has a Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies Software Engineering from Harvard University. [11]
Siminoff is a seasoned executive in the media and technology sectors, From 2007 to 2018, she served as president and CEO of Shmoop University, an educational publishing company. [12] Prior to this role, she was president and CEO of Efficient Frontier, a company specializing in dynamic Search Engine Marketing (SEM) management services, which was later acquired by Adobe. [13]
Siminoff was a founding executive at Yahoo!, [14] working at the company from 1996 to 2002. [15] She started by running corporate and business development, running mergers and acquisitions after the departure of J. J. Healy. [16] Later Siminoff moved to Senior Vice President of Entertainment and Small Business, with Toby Coppel and Jeff Weiner taking over corporate development. [17] Six months later, Yahoo announced on April 13, 2002, that Siminoff decided to leave the company but would stay through until the end of the year. [18] [16] Her departure was part of a high-profile exodus of Yahoo executives, including CEO Timothy Koogle, CFO Gary Valenzuela, sales chief Anil Singh, head of international operations Heather Killen, and marketing head Karen Edwards. [18]
Siminoff was former chairman and CEO of Efficient Frontier. [19] In July 2006 Bloomberg Businessweek noted that Efficient Frontier was the largest buyer of search advertising keywords on Google, [20] and in March 2008 Silicon Alley Insider named Efficient Frontier one of the 25 most valuable privately held companies in Silicon Valley, valued at an estimated $275 million. [21] Adobe Inc. bought Efficient Frontier for $400 million in 2012. [22] [23]
In 2012, she was appointed to Zynga Inc.'s board of directors. [24] In November 2012, Siminoff purchased 250,000 shares of the company. [25] She served on Zynga's board from 2012 to 2022, where she was a member of the Audit Committee and chaired the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. [26]
Ellen Siminoff became a director of Take-Two Interactive in May 2022, following the company's merger with Zynga. [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] [32]
Siminoff has been on the board of directors for Journal Media Group, [33] U.S. Auto Parts, [34] Mozilla Corporation, SolarWinds, Discovery Education and Zynga. [35] [36] [37]
She serves as executive chairman of BigCommerce (BIGC) [27] and Verifone, a global payments platform, Follett Software [38] and Take-Two Interactive (TTWO). [39] [27] She has also been involved with Stanford University's Graduate School of Business Advisory Board, [40] Princeton University's President's Advisory Council, [41] and Stanford's Hoover Institution Board of Overseers. [42]
They met at Stanford Business School in 1991 and fell in love while making a killing.
[David Karnstedt] later went on to run North American sales for Yahoo! And became CEO of a unified software advertising platform called Efficient Frontier, a company that would later sell to Adobe for $400 million.
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the completion of its acquisition of privately held Efficient Frontier
Former board members who are no longer directors include: [...] Ellen Siminoff, president and CEO of California educational website Shmoop University