
Eileen Gittins
Founder, CEO, President at blurb
TED Attendee
San Francisco, California, United StatesAbout Eileen
I am a…
Blogger, Brainstormer, Connector, Entrepreneur, Idea generator, Marketer, Photographer, Potential employer
Bio
Eileen Gittins has been at the intersection of the internet, consumer and enterprise software, search, and digital photography throughout the course of her 20+ year career. A passionate advocate for enabling technologies that offer new ways to do valuable things, Ms. Gittins is democratizing publishing via Blurb.
Ms. Gittins has served as CEO of several pre-IPO venture-backed companies in Silicon Valley, including Personify -- an ecommerce data mining and analytics company, and Verb – a context-based search engine company. Personify and Verb were acquired by Accrue and Attenza respectively. At Qbiquity, a viral marketing platform company, Ms. Gittins served as Board Chairman and interim CEO; Ms. Gittins was instrumental in negotiating the merger of Qbiquity into Collabrys. As CEO, she has raised over $70MM in venture capital throughout her career.
Earlier in her career, Ms. Gittins was VP and General Manager of Wall Data’s Salsa Products) Division (consumer database software), co-founder and VP Marketing and Sales at Pivotal Corp, an Eastman Kodak spin-out (workflow management software), and held various business development, sales and marketing management positions within Kodak's Business Imaging Systems group in London, San Francisco, Seattle and Rochester, New York.
Ms. Gittins has extensive experience in enterprise software applications including data mining/analytics, CRM, online marketing, search, databases and data integration, imaging systems, and workflow management in addition to consumer applications in the desktop database field and digital photography. She is also an experienced public speaker and panelist, and has been the subject of feature articles in publications as varied as the Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and Fortune Magazine.
In her spare time she still photographs, is a voracious reader, avid traveler and former competitive swimmer who occasionally dips back into the pool.
I'm passionate about
People who are passionate, good design, photography, new ways to do old things
An idea worth spreading
Ban the word "try" and replace with "do." (full marks to Yoda on this one)
Areas of expertise
attracting and motivating talent, building companies, creating new models, Marketing + Communications, Photography, Storytelling, Strategy Development
Things you might not know
darkroom printing