Ellen Owens is President & CEO of Karcsay Consulting Group (KCG), a boutique firm focused on supporting small and medium-sized businesses with digital and organizational transformation. Some of Ellen’s favorite projects include supporting nonprofit organizations through a merger, acquisition, or developing strategic alliances. In addition, Ellen supports organizations by developing change readiness and management plans, assessing organizational capacity, and process improvement.   

Ellen describes her career path as “eclectic,” starting in healthcare and then moving to community-based nonprofits. This was followed by eight years with Avnet, a Fortune 500 company that designs and distributes technology solutions globally.  In her first year as the Global Director of Mergers and Acquisitions Integration, Avnet was on track to acquire 11 companies. Ellen leveraged her previous experiences and gained valuable experience to develop and launch a standardized integration process globally.  Ellen first met Jim Jeffries and the M&A Council while in this role. She has participated in the training, achieved her CMAS credential, and has found a niche in working with nonprofit organizations that are looking to form strategic collaborations and focus on building organizational capacity to achieve the organization's mission and purpose.

Ellen believes that every organization, regardless of size or type, should develop a discipline around understanding processes and people before products.  In practice, you must first clarify your desired business processes along with the people and talent responsible for them and then match the solution enabling that process.

Ellen lives in Tempe, Arizona, with her husband and enjoys baking, biking, running, swimming, and hiking.