Ellie's Story

Transformation, By Design

Ellie Gates has had a storied career. Beginning as a temporary admin assistant to an HR Administrator to the head of People and Culture, her journey has given her a breadth of experience from Series C Start Ups to Multi-Billion Dollar Organizations in High Tech on a global stage. ​

Ellie's Story

Transformation, By Design

Ellie Gates has had a storied career. Beginning as a temporary admin assistant to an HR Administrator to the head of People and Culture, her journey has given her a breadth of experience from Series C Start Ups to Multi-Billion Dollar Organizations in High Tech on a global stage.

Ellie's Journey:

Ellie has 20+ Years leading various human resources teams and functions across these amazing organizations:   

Logo 1

Staffing & Employee Relations Manager

Key Responsibilities

  • Managed HR for five states
  • Built out recognition program
  • Built the Ethics Program for the company post bankruptcy/fraud with NY University
Logo 2

Sr. HR Manager

Key Responsibilities

  • Managed all of North America's NetOps teams
  • Assisted in developing Management Training
  • Enhanced Data Integrity through joint project with HROPs
Logo 3

Sr. People Partner & Manager Windows Mobile

Key Responsibilities

  • Supported Marketing & Services VPs
  • Point Person for HR development sites (China & Israel)
  • International M&A Integration Team
  • Developed Employee Recognition Program
Logo 4

Global Director of Talent Acquisition & Management

Key Responsibilities

  • Saved $1M by in sourcing recruiting
  • Built out Global Management Program
  • Integration Team for Adobe Acquisition
  • Top Talent Retention
Logo 5

Head of Global Learning and Performance

Key Responsibilities

  • Trained over 1,200 managers with 60 senior leader facilitators
  • Recognized by Josh Bersin as "Exemplar for leaders-teaching-leaders program design"
  • Received Adobe Founder's Award - Exceptional Impact (2012)
  • Architected Adobe's Check-In Process & Led Rollout Team
  • Took Live training virtual to scale with 95% NPS
Logo 6

Global Head of Talent Management

Key Responsibilities

  • Built out MBA & Undergrad Rotational Program 
  • Created Box-Einstein - On demand scalable learning platform & Content
  • 95% Post-IPO Retention of Top Talent
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VP of People and Culture

Key Responsibilities

  • Built out Initial HR Systems & Function RoadMap
  • Implemented Talent Management System
  • Created 2-year roadmap for HR Leadership
Logo 8

Teaching Professor, OLIA

Key Responsibilities

Teach at the Masters & Undergrad Levels

  • Business, Critical, and Inclusive Leadership
  • Improving Employer-Employee Relations
  • Individual, Team & Organizational Development
  • International Business
Logo 9

Managing Partner, Founder

Professional Impact

  • 10+ Years in Business
  • 100+ Companies Served
  • 25,000+ Leaders Impacted
Staffing & Employment Relations Manager
Led large-scale technical and leadership hiring, multi-state HR operations, ethics programs, and post-bankruptcy organizational recovery.
Sr. HR Manager
Oversaw HR strategy for North America’s NetOps teams, strengthened leadership training, and improved data integrity across HR operations.
Senior People Partner & Manager Windows Mobile
Supported global VPs, led international HR development initiatives, and drove cross-border M&A integration.
Global Director of Talent Acquisition and Management
Built global leadership programs, retained top talent, and led workforce integration during the Adobe acquisition while saving $1M in recruiting costs.
Head of Global Learning and Performance
Designed and scaled award-winning leadership programs, trained 1,200+ managers globally, and architected Adobe’s performance management transformation.
Global Head of Talent Management
Launched rotational programs, built scalable learning platforms, and achieved 95% post-IPO retention of top talent.
VP of People and Culture
Established foundational HR systems, implemented enterprise talent management, and created a multi-year people strategy roadmap.
Teaching Professor, OLIA
Teach graduate and undergraduate courses in leadership, organizational development, and global business strategy.
Managing Partner & Founder
Partner with CEOs and executive teams to build leaders, align strategy, and turn around performance at the enterprise level.

The Big Transformation

Ellie is a self-described Visionary, Change, People Leader.  In most of her companies she sought to understand, redesign, and improve programs. She is most notably recognized as the chief architect behind Adobe’s Check-In Process – 2013. The request from her head of HR for Ellie to take on this transformation came after a successful reimagining of Adobe’s management development programs which increased employee engagement ratings over 10+ points regarding management effectiveness.  Ellie earned the top award at ADOBE, The FOUNDERS AWARD, in 2012 for her work on the Global Management Development Program – Management Essentials, she rolled out globally.

After this resounding global success, Morris asked her with a small team to completely reimagine performance reviews at Adobe. Adobe was the FIRST tech company to scrap the annual review process, and her work on “Check-in” set a standard and precedent for many organizations to follow. Ellie consulted with Marcus Buckingham & Ashley Goodall at Deloitte, regarding their transformation, and was asked to speak at several HCI conferences, and California University Berkley’s CHRO Program regarding her transformational work on the review process.

Global, Online Learning

In addition to annual review, Ellie has also been noted for her ability to transform live-learning events to both asynchronous and synchronous online learning events for companies such as Adobe, Box, and Ancestry. Her “on-demand” approach to learning and “bite-sized” learning was ahead of the industry and has provided her clients with exceptional content that can be consumed as needed and enhanced with live facilitation from senior leaders within the company. Josh Bersin, HR Industry Analyst, commended Ellie’s work on her “leader’s teaching leaders” approach as an exemplar for others to follow.

 

Transforming Tomorrow's Leaders

Ellie decided to leave corporate America in 2016 and began preparing the next generation of business leaders by serving as an Assistant Professor at Nelson University for over seven years, and is now a full-time Teaching Professor at The University of Colorado at Boulder in the Leeds School of Business. She is taking her infectious passion and working to transform tomorrow’s leaders into powerful transformational change agents and leaders.

Empowering Transformation through others

As BusinessTechne approaches its 10th year in business, we wanted to highlight the journey.

Ellie began her consultancy in 2016, with a mission: to build capability in leaders, teams, and organizations. She wanted to take all of her experience in corporate America and provide small- to mid-sized organizations, as well as non-profits and government organizations the benefit of her experience and learning. 

2016-2017 Partnered with several organizations and HR Leaders with their performance transformation.

2017-2019   Built custom Management Development Programs for Non-Profit Organizations that mirrored Management Essentials

2018-2020   Built city-wide Leadership programs for Chambers of Commerce. Was awarded the Chamber of Commerce City award for Leadership in 2021 for these efforts.

2021-2023  Built executive leadership programs for Ancestry.

2023-2025   Expanded her Executive Coaching and Insights Practice across numerous high-profile organizations.

2026+  Enhance organization’s ability to Craft Strategy, Forge Leaders, and Navigate Change. Pivoting to focused areas of development to equip and empower over 1,000 organizations in the next decade.

Educational Experiences:

May 2025

Graduated with Doctorate – Strategic Leadership, Concentration in Strategic  Foresight.

Aug 2022

Graduated with third Master of Arts – Bible & Theology

May 2011 

Graduated with a second Master of Arts in Global Organizational Leadership        
(Operation Impact – International Master’s program – England, Mexico, Ghana)

Mar 2005

Certified as Hudson Institute Human and Organizational Systems Coach.

May 2000

Graduated with a Master of Arts in Business Administration

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Certifications:

2025

Renewed Sr. Professional in Human Resources, SHRM

2013

Certified Insights Discovery Practitioner, Insights®

2008

Certified Senior Professional of Human Resources, SHRM

2005

Certified as Hudson Institute Human and Organizational Systems Coach.

1998

Instructional Design Certificate, ASTD

1997

Certified Professional in Human        Resources, SHRM

1996

Certified Facilitator, ATD

1995 

Human Resources Certificate, UCLA

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