Profile

Ellen Taus

Former Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer

Ellen Taus, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, joined the Rockefeller Foundation in April 2008. Ms. Taus oversaw the Foundation’s audit, tax, budgeting, insurance and cash management functions.

Prior to joining The Rockefeller Foundation, Ms. Taus was the Chief Financial Officer of Oxford University Press USA, where she oversaw the organization’s business operations in the United States. From 1999 to 2003, Ms. Taus served as CFO for the Electronic Publishing Division of the New York Times Company after having been the company’s Vice President and Treasurer for three years. Earlier in her career, she worked in corporate finance for RH Macy and was the CFO for the American Museum of the Moving Image.

A graduate of Northwestern University with a B.A. in Economics, Ms. Taus holds an M.B.A in Finance and Marketing from Columbia University. She currently serves on the Stewardship Committee of the Audubon Society of New York and is Treasurer and a member of the Board of Directors of Common Ground, a New York-based housing and homelessness prevention organization, and of Comprehensive Development Inc., a New York City education organization.

Authored Content

  • May 18 2017
    Blog Post Making Risk Routine “Philanthropy is risk capital.” If you work in philanthropy, you’ve likely heard that phrase many times. But a survey conducted by Open Road Alliance in 2015 clearly showed that as a sector, we’re not great about discussing risk, with 76 percent of funders reporting that they don’t ask grantees to talk about project risks in proposals. […] Ellen Taus, Pamela Foster