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Ellen Smith
Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting │Energy, Power & Utilities Practice
Professional Background
Ellen Smith is a highly accomplished and seasoned Senior Managing Director at FTI Consulting, where she plays a crucial role within the Energy, Power, and Products practice in the Corporate Finance segment. With over 30 years of extensive experience, Ellen has carved out a niche in commercial and operational due diligence, business advisory, and litigation support services focused on the energy sector. Her vast expertise particularly shines in the physical operation, maintenance, and design of electric systems, enabling her to navigate the complexities of NERC CIP cyber security requirements adeptly.
Ellen's career trajectory is marked by significant leadership positions in some of the world's most recognized companies. Before assuming her current role at FTI Consulting, she served as the Chief Operations Officer at National Grid U.S., where she successfully led various initiatives aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and strategic alignment within the organization. Prior to that, she held the position of Vice President of Refinery Optimization at Hess Corporation, where she was instrumental in driving operational excellence and refining strategies that contributed to the company’s success.
Navigating the world of energy systems, Ellen also held the title of President of Pratt & Whitney Power Systems, and spent two fruitful decades at GE Power Systems, where her primary focus included third-party operations and maintenance, managing turn-key power plant projects, and implementing Six Sigma methodologies for process improvement. Her rich background in engineering complements her experience in corporate governance, positioning her as a well-rounded expert in her field.
Education and Achievements
Ellen's educational foundation is robust and significant. She completed her Regents Diploma at Onteora High School before advancing her academic pursuits at Union College, where she earned both a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering (BSME) and a Master of Science in Engineering (MSE). This educational background laid the groundwork for her successful career in the engineering and energy sectors, equipping her with the technical skills and knowledge necessary to excel in her various roles.
In addition to her impressive professional journey, Ellen is deeply committed to community and organizational leadership. She serves as a Board Member at Sunrun, advocating for sustainable energy solutions and innovative practices within the renewable energy sector. Ellen has also had significant influence as a trustee at Union College, actively contributing to the development and growth of future engineering and business leaders.
Her dedication to promoting women's leadership in the workplace is evident in her leadership role on the Global Steering Committee for FTI Consulting's Women's Initiative (FTI WIN), where she spearheads the Boston program. Ellen's excellence in her field has not gone unnoticed; she was recognized as one of the Top 50 Women in Power in 2003, which is a testament to her leadership and influence in the energy and consulting industries.
Areas of Expertise
Ellen specializes in a variety of areas that collectively highlight her multifaceted expertise:
- Operational/Commercial Due Diligence: Ellen effectively assesses the feasibility and best practices within operations, ensuring that both strategic and technical evaluations are thoroughly conducted.
- Independent Business Reviews: She is adept at performing comprehensive reviews that provide crucial insights into organizational performance and strategies, facilitating informed decision-making.
- Transformation Leadership/Projects: Ellen leads transformative initiatives that focus on innovation and operational improvements tailored to the evolving dynamics of the energy sector.
- P&L Management: As an experienced leader, she has a proven track record in managing profit and loss statements, ensuring that organizations meet financial objectives.
- Business Strategy/Development: Ellen excels in aligning business strategies with market demands, fostering growth initiatives that drive organizational success seamlessly.
- Building Global Operating Teams: Her ability to assemble and nurture global teams has led to enhanced operational effectiveness across various businesses she has been a part of.
- Cyber and Physical Security: With an emphasis on comprehensive security measures, Ellen ensures that organizations are well-prepared to manage risks related to cyber threats and physical infrastructure vulnerabilities.
- Implementing Business Process Improvement: Her extensive background with Six Sigma and Balanced Scorecards reflects her commitment to efficiency and excellence in operational practices.
Conclusion
Ellen Smith is a true pioneer in the energy and consulting sectors, endowed with an impressive blend of technical expertise, strategic foresight, and a commitment to leadership. Her substantial contributions, both in her professional roles and in community initiatives, highlight her dedication not just to her craft but also to nurturing the next generation of leaders. With a solid educational background from Union College, combined with extensive professional experience and a focus on women in leadership, Ellen continues to inspire others in her field and beyond. Through her work at FTI Consulting and other organizations, she is at the forefront of shaping the future of energy, sustainability, and operational excellence.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.