Leaders look to Ellen Yui for help disrupting markets, ideas, and themselves.
“Her advice is timeless, as it’s grounded in being true to your vision and mission… and to yourself.”
Kate Simpson
President, Academic Travel Abroad
Championing Disruption
Breaking the agency model, in 1991, Ellen Yui disrupted PR in form and function with the then-radical idea for a virtual organization where transparency, ethics, and work-life balance were put at a premium.
Inspired by her belief that both clients and creatives could be better served, and driven by her impending motherhood, she built project teams tailored to client needs with the seasoned creatives who actually pitched the business, and who, in turn, could arrange when and where they worked around other passions, from artistry to avocations to family.
Today, Ellen works to deepen strategic communications by marrying her business acumen with her deep-seated belief that all life pursuits — from the personal to the professional to the profound — should spring from the soul. She attributes her success and that of her clients to an understanding that soulful and soul-filled pursuits for the individual or the collective lead to truth, transparency, clarity, and results.
Anchoring in Soul
Known for big ideas, unbridled creativity, bold advocacy, and a deep inner life, Ellen spots trends early and swiftly perceives the strengths of offerings, concepts, and ideals. She reads people and potential easily, be they individuals or groups, and quickly empowers them with the courage, strategies, and tools to share their unique gifts.
She has coached numerous executives on strategic, purposeful leadership and legacy-building. From C-Suite executives to college co-eds, professionals of all ranks have turned to Ellen for guidance crafting their personal brands. She teaches how to hear your soul and chart a career anchored in joy.
“Ellen has a fantastic business acumen. She picks up a business's problems outside her domain expertise at an astonishing rate. She quickly understood my start-up's business of digital agriculture and was able to offer insights on how I could diversify my business.”
Shiang-Wan Chin
CEO, FarmVal
Sharing Gifts
Believing that the gifts you share come back to you tenfold, Ellen serves as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Cornell’s Johnson School of Business, where she advises emerging entrepreneurs and has participated as a judge of Cornell’s pitch deck and business plan competitions. She has also coached entrepreneurs at Boston College.
She has shared her philosophies on conscious communications, entrepreneurialism, and anchoring in soul widely, as a guest lecturer at Cornell University, Boston College, and The University of Stavanger, Norway, as a guest speaker at trade and professional conferences, and in a variety of publications.
As a Trustee of the Fund for Education Abroad, she works to promote justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in international education. She supports a number of nonprofits with pro bono consulting and PR services and volunteers in her local community in a variety of capacities, including as a board member of local school organizations and as a reviewer of the Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington.
“Ellen has been instrumental in helping me to fine-tune my personal brand. She helps not only articulate people's professional experience, but also to foster a true sense of self and encourage passion to shine through.”
Aaron Strauss
Policy Analyst, New York City Mayor's Office of Operations
Centering in Family
Ellen honed her craft at Edelman Public Relations, Hill and Knowlton, Gray and Company, Edward Aycoth Worldwide, the National Soft Drink Association, on Capitol Hill, and in the US Department of State.
She holds a BA in Political Science from Boston College and Le Diplôme du Baccalauréat from the Lycée D'État LaMartine in Mâcon, France. She was awarded certifications in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by Johns Hopkins University and Luminous Warrior’s Path of Power for mind-body-spirit integration.
Central to Ellen are her beliefs in unity consciousness, the power of love, and the centering force of family, all of which led to the two family-owned and -operated businesses she leads. In addition to YUI&Company, she serves as a principal in YuiDesign, Inc., a leader in commercial kitchen design that serves many of the world’s greatest chefs and hospitality luminaries and which she manages alongside her husband, Jimi.