Ellen Bender is President and CEO of Bender Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm dedicated to helping health care organizations develop and implement strategies for sustainable change. Widely recognized as a health care leader and visionary in Massachusetts, Ellen brings her years of success and accomplishments to bear as an advocate for building a strong, vibrant, and sustainable health care industry.

Prior to founding Bender Strategies, Ellen served as Director of Health Care Strategies at the Boston law firm of Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP. As one of the few non-lawyer professionals at the firm, she was instrumental in the establishment of Brown Rudnick's Health Care Practice Group in 1991. She also played a major role in the development of the Health Care Practice Group into one of the largest and most widely respected health care legal practices in the region.

Ellen Bender has many years of experience in the Massachusetts hospital and health care industries, as well as in the public sector. Prior to her tenure at Brown Rudnick, she served for six years as Director of Regional Support Services at University Hospital in Boston. Prior to that, she was Associate Executive Director of the Massachusetts Federation of Nursing Homes, and Director of Community Affairs at Massachusetts General Hospital. Ellen began her health care career in 1972 when she worked at the Massachusetts State House, serving on the newly-formed Health Committee. She has also held a number of policy positions at both the local and state level, having served two governors on the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women.

Ellen Bender's health care expertise coupled with her strong public sector background has earned her bipartisan recognition, respect and cooperation. This enables her to help her clients bridge the often-daunting gap between the worlds of government and business.

She has also distinguished herself for an ability to create advantageous joint ventures between for-profit and not-for-profit health care entities - including major health care institutions, long-term care organizations, mental health care providers and physicians groups - enabling them to build a solid foundation for growth and change within today's dynamic and ever-changing health care industry.