Ellen Balaguer Headshot
Philanthropist/Board Member • Retired Global Managing Director at Accenture
Leeds Advisory Board

Ellen was a senior executive with Accenture for 27 years and is now retired. During her tenure at Accenture, Ellen held a variety of roles, the most recent of which included Global Managing Director for HR & Learning Services and Global Managing Director for Innovation and Offer Management for the Outsourcing business.

While at Accenture, Ellen spearheaded many top strategic growth initiatives for the organization and led some of the largest and most complex deals done on a global basis. She also successfully turned around several distressed business units and drove significant growth in several areas of both the outsourcing and consulting businesses.

Ellen served on several Accenture corporate boards including the Global Leadership Council, the Global Investment Committee, various corporate strategic growth plan initiatives, Accenture Development Partnerships and several corporate citizenship initiatives.

Since retiring from Accenture, Ellen is now a philanthropist/board member, and works with a number of education and conservation organizations and nonprofits in the U.S. and around the world.  She is an active member of the Leeds Advisory Board (an emeritus board chair), the secretary of the CU Boulder Enterprise Corporation (CUBEC) Board and advisor/board member at the Business School at the University of Colorado Denver campus. She has served as both a board member and officer at the Jane Goodall Institute, the Florence Crittenton School Denver, and the Colorado Ballet. She is an investor and strategic advisor to several EdTech startups. She is a founding member of the Technical Impact Circle at World Pulse and a member of the Industry Advisory Board for ActivateWork. In 2023, Ellen was named an Influential Leader by AACSB International, a testament to her track record of creating positive impact through leadership that is compassionate, curious and resilient, with a focus on purpose, people and planet. 

Ellen strives to be a wholistic investor in the organizations with which she works contributing considerable time toward mentorship and guidance across strategic, operational, talent and fundraising initiatives. She finds mentoring students and young business-people very rewarding.

Ellen attended the University of Colorado at Boulder where she earned both a BS in Finance and a BA in Psychology in 1982. In 2012, Ellen was the Leeds Undergraduate commencement speaker and was also the recipient of the Leeds Distinguished Alumni and Service Award in recognition for her service to the school and exceptional achievements in business. She will serve as the 2023 Leeds Graduate commencement speaker. In 1982, she was the student recipient of the University of Colorado Thomas Jefferson award. Ellen and her family live in Denver and travel extensively on a worldwide basis.