Founder & Chief Inspiration Officer
Founder of leadership consulting firm, The You Business®, Elise Lelon advises C-suite executives, entrepreneurs and professionals during times of critical strategic transition in their careers and companies. Among her clients are Morgan Stanley, Cisco, Goldman Sachs, AMC, The International Securities Exchange, and Sotheby’s International. She has been a guest speaker at institutions like Harvard Business School, Columbia University and AVT Business School in Denmark. In addition to her corporate and individual consulting work, Elise launched AWE, The Association of Women Entrepreneurs & Executives, an organization committed to inspiring and supporting greatness in the businesses, leadership and lives of women. By year's end, AWE will have chapters in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Prior to founding The You Business® and AWE, Elise served as Managing Director at Bernstein Investment Research and Management in New York City. She began her finance career as a sell-side equity research salesperson at Sanford C. Bernstein, advising large institutional clients in the U.K. and continental Europe. Previously, Elise worked in a variety of capacities at General Electric and NBC, where she was trained as a Black Belt in Six Sigma. Before entering the business world, she conducted both clinical and research work with patients suffering from severe psychology at Massachusetts General and McLean Hospitals,where she also managed a department of clinicians and researchers. Elise earned her B.A. in Psychology from Brown University, her Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard, and her MBA from Harvard Business School.
Elise is currently writing a book on entrepreneurship and writes for the The Huffington Post. She regularly appears on national television shows as a business expert on everything from CEO compensation to the unemployment crisis. Elise teaches a graduate course at New York University on the business and psychology of social entrepreneurship.