Biography

Ellen J. Schapps has over 20 years’ experience in the corporate arena, beginning her career in advertising, in both Media and Account Management.  She has extensive product management experience and was the first female Vice President of Marketing at the consumer household products division of American Home Products (now Pfizer), where she had profit responsibility for many well-known national brands such as Woolite, Pam Cooking Spray, Black Flag Insecticides, Wizard Air Freshener, Easy-off Oven Cleaner and Old English Furniture Polish.  Ms. Schapps is an active political fundraiser, having raised money for a variety of Senatorial, Congressional, Gubernatorial and Presidential campaigns.  She served as Finance Co-Chair in Connecticut for 2 Presidential campaigns and was on the National Advisory Board of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), the Women’s Leadership Forum (WLF) and was a member of President Obama’s National Finance Committee (NFC). She was appointed by President Obama to serve on PACA, the President’s Advisory Committee for the Arts, for the Kennedy Center.  She was also an associate adjunct professor of Marketing at Pace University Lubin School of Business. 

Ms. Schapps taught a variety of courses including New Products Marketing, Advertising and Media Planning and their capstone course, Advanced Marketing Management.  She has a B.A. in Psychology from Skidmore College and an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business (Beta Gamma Sigma) where she currently serves on the Board of Overseers.