Ellen Siminoff

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]

Ellen Siminoff
Born	Ellen Friedman[1] 1967 (age 57–58) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.
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	David Siminoff ​ (m. 1994)​
Children	2

Along with her husband, David Siminoff, Ellen is co-founder and former chief executive officer of Shmoop.^[8]

Life and education

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]

Career

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]

Yahoo!

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]

Efficient Frontier

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]

Zynga

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]

Take-Two Interactive

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]}

Other board positions

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]