User:Ellen Petry Leanse

Greetings.

I am a longstanding veteran of the tech industry who now works at the crossroads of neuroscience, wellbeing, and Buddhism. A native of Ohio, I've lived in Silicon Valley for most of my years since 1961, when my family located to San Jose. My work today is as a leadership coach, a teacher (I offer several classes through Stanford Continuing Studies), an author of articles and a recent book, and a keynote speaker.

I joined Apple in 1981 as a recent college graduate and spent nearly nine years in various product and evangelism roles there. I founded the Apple User Group Connection in 1985 and launched Apple's first online presence later that year. I ran and grew that organization until I left Apple in 1990 and began a part-time consulting practice as I raised my family. Since then I have launched an early application on the original Facebook platform, led a marketing group at Google, and worked in a variety of strategic, investment, and consulting roles in the Valley and beyond.

My purpose in becoming a User is to establish and keep an accurate presence here, contributing to pages for organizations I work and speak for as well as to my own pages, if needed. I intend to learn and comply with the community guidelines and will respond to input or requests for better compliance. Thank you for your consideration, Ellen