Professor Ellie Gates is an Assistant Professor of Business bringing over 20+ years of industry experience to the classroom. She has been teaching since 2017, specializing in the core management classes such as Strategy, Business Law, Management Communications, Ethics, Organizational Behavior, and International Business. Gates serves as the program coordinator for both the Management and Bachelor of Arts, Business Programs.

Industry Experience:

Professor Gates built her career in high tech as a rising leader and senior executive in People & Culture (Human Resources). Her industry experience spans work in large global high-tech companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, T-Mobile, and Verizon to smaller startups such as Snowflake, Omniture and Box. She has coached and developed hundreds of leaders across the globe from Australia, China, India, Israel, and Europe through her Management & Leadership programs. Gates is best known for her development of Adobe’s “Check-In” performance review process, which shifted the industry to real-time expectations, feedback, and development conversations. She also authored a book chapter in The Talent Management Score Card on Leader’s Teaching Leaders illustrating how senior leaders engaging in the mentoring/development of younger leaders increased management effectiveness scores by over 10-15 points.

Business Owner:

In addition to teaching full time, Professor Gates is the Principal Consultant and Chief Strategy Officer of BusinessTechne—a business consultancy specializing in strategic foresight and business strategy. Ellie has developed executive leadership programs and led strategic planning retreats with businesses and non-profit organizations helping them understand current and future trends, envision, strategize, and plan for multiple futures. Ellie has been consulting for the last 10 years. Some of her clients include Ancestry.com, Avodah AI, Ellie Mae, M.A.D.D., Mission Mutual, Seed Company, & Sprinklr.

Academic: 

Ellie will graduate with her Doctorate in Strategic Leadership from Regent University in May 2025. Throughout her program, she has developed thought leadership in social change, strategic foresight, organizational design and culture creation, along with Leader and Followership. She has taught at the undergraduate level for the last seven years and will be expanding her class loads to include graduate classes in 2025. Ellie has earned three master’s degrees, M.A. in Bible and Theology (2022), M.A. in Organizational Leadership (2008), and her MBA (2000). She also holds a BA in Psychology, and certifications in Human Systems Coaching (2005) from the Hudson Institute.

Fun Facts:

She has been married to Ken for over 32 years and they have three adult children, 21, 22, and 23 – all graduates of SAGU.

For more information, see Ellie’s LinkedIn page.