Employed by KNN Public Finance since 1985, Ellen defines the term “loyal staff member.” When she began her tenure with the firm, founding partners Bob Kelling, Mark Northcross and Ray Nobriga had a local clientele that consisted mostly of California cities and ABAG (the Association of Bay Area Governments). Ellen helped to coordinate the firm’s office move from the original headquarters in San Francisco’s Embarcadero Center to nearby Market Street and then helped open an expansion office located in Pleasanton. She also coordinated the consolidation of KNN’s two offices into its current Oakland location in the early 1990s.

Ellen’s responsibilities have increased to coincide with the growth of KNN’s clientele and staff. Following her college graduation, she began with the firm as a receptionist and quickly gained word processing skills to manage the production of official statements for the firm’s clients. Over the last 24 years, Ellen’s responsibilities have grown to include the organization, planning, and production of official statements, continuing disclosure reports, proposals, and other complex documents. Additionally, she tracks all financial data that is reported to Thomson Reuters to establish the national and state rankings of financial advisory firms.

Ellen graduated from Saint Mary’s College in 1985 with a B.A. in Communications and a minor in Business Administration. She earned her M.A. in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix in 1990. Making the most of her BART commute from Pittsburg to Oakland, Ellen keeps up on the latest best sellers, with mystery and suspense novels at the top of her reading list. She is a big fan of her son’s high school basketball team and enjoys her daughter’s varied interests in music. She also enjoys cooking and baking, with many of the goodies somehow finding their way into KNN’s kitchen!