Ellen Siminoff (born 1967,

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

) is an entrepreneur and investor. Frequently quoted in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' as an Internet industry commentator, Siminoff was named one of ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

'' magazine's Masters of Information in 2005. Along with her husband, David Siminoff, Ellen is co-founder and former chief executive officer of

Shmoop Shmoop University Inc. (popularly known as Shmoop) is a for-profit online educational technology company that specializes in test preparation materials, mental health tools, and learning content for K-12 schools. Shmoop offers free study guides ...

.Ringle, Hayley
"Silicon Valley edtech company founded by former Yahoo executive moves HQ to Scottsdale: Affordable talent a driving factor in company relocation, exec says,"
''Phoenix Business Journal'' (July 1, 2019).

Life and education

Siminoff obtained a BA in economics from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the n ...

and an MBA from Stanford University, where she met her husband David Siminoff while they were students at the

Stanford Graduate School of Business The Stanford Graduate School of Business (also known as Stanford GSB) is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of Stanford University, a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. For several years it ...

Career

Yahoo!

Siminoff was a founding executive at

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...

, working at the company from 1996 to 2002. She started by running corporate and business development, running mergers and acquisitions after the departure of J. J. Healy. Later Siminoff moved to Senior Vice President of Entertainment and Small Business, with Toby Coppel and

Jeff Weiner Jeffrey Weiner (born February 21, 1970 in New York City, New York) is an American businessman. He was the chief executive officer (CEO) of LinkedIn, a business-related social networking website. He started with LinkedIn on December 15, 2008, as I ...

taking over corporate development. Six months later, Yahoo announced on April 13, 2002, that Siminoff decided to leave the company in order to spend more time with family, and would stay through until the end of the year. Her departure was part of a high-profile exodus of Yahoo executives, including CEO

Timothy Koogle Timothy Andrew Koogle (born July 5, 1951) is an American executive who served as the first CEO and President of web company Yahoo! between 1995 and 2001. He served as the company's chairman from 1999 to 2003. He was named to the Top 25 Executives ...

, CFO Gary Valenzuela, sales chief Anil Singh, head of international operations Heather Killen, and marketing head Karen Edwards.

Efficient Frontier

Siminoff was former chairman and CEO of Efficient Frontier. In July 2006

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

noted that Efficient Frontier was the largest buyer of search advertising keywords on

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

, and in March 2008 ''

Silicon Alley Insider ''Insider'', previously named ''Business Insider'' (''BI''), is an American financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Insider''s parent company Insider Inc. has been owned by the German pub ...

'' named Efficient Frontier one of the 25 most valuable privately held companies in Silicon Valley, valued at an estimated $275 million.

Adobe Inc. Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the cre ...

bought Efficient Frontier for $400 million in 2012.

Mozilla

On March 24, 2014, Siminoff and two other board members of the

Mozilla Corporation The Mozilla Corporation (stylized as moz://a) is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation that coordinates and integrates the development of Internet-related applications such as the Firefox web browser, by a global community of op ...

resigned from the board in advance of

Brendan Eich Brendan Eich (; born July 4, 1961) is an American computer programmer and technology executive. He created the JavaScript programming language and co-founded the Mozilla project, the Mozilla Foundation, and the Mozilla Corporation. He served ...

's appointment as CEO of Mozilla. Eich was noted for his donation of $1,000 to

California Proposition 8 Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a constitutional amendment, state constitutional amendment intended to ban same-sex marriage; it passed in the California state elections, November 2008, Novem ...

, which called for the banning of

same-sex marriage in California Same-sex marriage in California has been legal since June 28, 2013. The U.S. state first issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples on June 16, 2008 as a result of the Supreme Court of California finding in the case of ''In re Marriage Cases'' ...

. Eich resigned from Mozilla 11 days later, on April 3, 2014.

Other board positions

Siminoff sits on the board of directors for

Journal Media Group Journal Media Group (formerly Journal Communications) was a Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based newspaper publishing company. The company's roots were first established in 1882 as the owner of its namesake, the ''Milwaukee Journal'', and expanded into br ...

U.S. Auto Parts The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territor ...

, and

Zynga Zynga Inc. () is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its missio ...

. Siminoff formerly was a board member at

SolarWinds SolarWinds Corporation is an American company that develops software for businesses to help manage their networks, systems, and information technology infrastructure. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas, with sales and product development of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siminoff, Ellen Living people American computer businesspeople American technology chief executives American technology company founders American women company founders American company founders American women chief executives Businesspeople from Milwaukee Princeton University alumni Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Yahoo! employees People from Los Altos Hills, California 1967 births 21st-century American women