Ellen Petry Leanse
Ellen Petry Leanse (born Ellen Petry August 12, 1958) is an American author, businesswoman, educator, entrepreneur, and online community pioneer. Leanse has spent 35 years working with leaders at Apple, Google, Facebook, as an entrepreneur, and with dozens of startups. She's a writer on topics of workplace dynamics and a Stanford instructor. Her work has spanned entrepreneurship, corporate leadership, investing, and strategy consulting.
An alum of Apple (1981 – 1990), she launched the company's first online activity through the User Group Connection, an initiative she founded at Apple in 1985.
She was employed by Google from 2008 through 2010 and created a social list-making app Lists by 222do for the initial launch of the Facebook development platform (2007).
In 2015, Business Insider published her LinkedIn article about the word "just" and its use across genders. The post received more than three million views. It was originally published via Women 2.0,[1] an organization she advised from 2012 through 2016.
She spoke on "Happiness by Design" at TEDx Berkeley in 2016.
Leanse is an instructor at Stanford University and teaches through the university's Continuing Studies program.
Leanse is a contributing writer to Arianna Huffington's Thrive Global platform.
