Ellen Konar, Ph.D.

Dr. Ellen Konar is an entrepreneurial executive with a track record of game changing innovation, marketing and analytics for successive market-making companies. In 2009 and 2010, Ellen was the Director of Consumer Marketing and Research at Better Place, a venture backed start up providing services and infrastructure to accelerate a global transition to electric vehicles (EVs). At Better Place, she built and managed the global marketing and research team responsible for marketing strategy and execution including branding, online and social media marketing, and market analysis to support a $350M series B investment.

Prior to her role at Better Place, Dr. Konar was director of Google Customer Labs, responsible for global advertiser, publisher and consumer research. Her cross-functional team was awarded the prestigious Google Executive Management Group (EMG) Award for their three-year program on web analytics, trends and disruptive forces. Subsequently, she developed and authored patents for multiple innovative, interactive ad and brand measurement products. Responsible for advertiser happiness, Ellen's team flagged, analyzed and ultimately resolved a advertiser "code red" while reducing support costs.

She is a former Intel Fellow and Marketing Director of corporate marketing strategy, branding, worldwide consumer and business marketing campaigns and market research. Her appointment as an Intel Fellow, the first outside the engineering ranks, recognized her achievements in market intelligence and contributions to Intel's breakthrough branding and marketing programs en route to its rise to the top five global consumer brands and $33 billion in annual revenues.

Dr. Konar built a strategic consulting company and has held teaching and research appointments at Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and the University of Western Ontario. She held individual contributor and then management positions in IBM's Sales and Marketing and Human Resources functions during IBM's tenure as the best-managed and most profitable company in the world.

Dr. Konar has also served on several boards and as an advisor to organizations including Rackup, Momentum Market Intelligence, Israel21C, Stanford Hillel, YMCA Palo Alto, and Mindset Works. Among her personal passions are tennis, book making and residential design.