Jonathan Ellenthal

Business adviser, Business leader, Business mentor, Concerned citizen, Designer, Entrepreneur, Inventor, Marketer, Parent, Startup

Jon Ellenthal currently serves as the CEO of Walker Digital Management, LLC. Walker Digital is a private innovation and development company that builds commercial solutions to problems that affect large numbers of consumers. Our approach to problem solving starts with humans not technology and then designs what people need to make their experience better. To do so requires a deep understanding of the consumer’s motivations and emotions - in the context of a particular commercial setting. The company specializes in building solutions that work with large-scale networks such as cell phones and the Internet. Walker Digital has used this approach to create multiple successful start-up companies that today serve almost 100 million customers across several industries. The company and its founder Jay Walker are best known for creating Priceline.com, which brought a new level of service to the travel industry. Today, Priceline is a profitable, multi-billion dollar public company with tens of millions of customers around the world. Mr. Ellenthal came to Walker Digital from the Synapse Group, Inc., where he was the CEO. As a member of the launch team, he helped take Synapse from a startup in 1995 through its early stage development. He led the transition team during its acquisition by Time Warner, and he stayed on to run the company until 2007. Synapse is now the largest third-party seller of consumer magazines in the United States. Synapse pioneered a disruptive business model that transformed the sales of magazines from a product (one year at a time) to an ongoing service (with no predetermined end date). The result dramatically improved customer economics (longer customer relationships) and the quality of the customer experience (no renewal notices and invoices). Prior to Synapse, Mr. Ellenthal was EVP of Cooperative Marketing Concepts, a marketing business that represented Federal Express to the consumer catalog industry. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Mr. Ellenthal is a board member for his chapter of the Young Presidents’ Organization and is a Trustee of the Wilton YMCA. Mr. Ellenthal lives in Wilton, CT with his wife Suzanne and two sons Zachary (15) and Alex (13).

Ideas; understanding a problem before trying to solve it; understanding consumer behavior; winning teams; feeling inspired and inspiring someone else; authenticity.

The biggest threat to America's economy, position in the world and long-term growth is our diet.

Business Development, Consumer marketing, Defining problems, Direct Marketing, General Management, Optimism, pop culture, Professional sports (fan), Solving problems

I can completely flip my tongue over to the left (not to the right though). Seems pretty rare based on my informal research. Don't know what it means.