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]
Siminoff has been on the board of directors for Journal Media Group,[32] U.S. Auto Parts,[33] Mozilla Corporation, SolarWinds, Discovery Education and Zynga.[34][35][36]
She serves as executive chairman of BigCommerce
