Meet our President and CEO
Ellie Bertani, President and CEO of GitLab Foundation, opens up below in a Q&A about her values, experience, and hopes for the GitLab Foundation.
Prior to joining the GitLab Foundation, Ellie spent ten years in the private sector, with roles at Wells Fargo and Walmart. Much of her work focused on frontline worker economic stability and mobility, and included work on instant access to earned pay, scheduling predictability, removing hiring barriers, and developing internal learning and career pathing programs. In 2020 Ellie was awarded Walmart’s highest recognition, the Sam Walton Entrepreneurship Award, for the development of LiveBetterU, the largest free educational benefits program in the US, and Walmart’s most successful diversity and inclusion program.
Earlier in her career, Ellie spent nearly ten years in the nonprofit and public sectors, including positions with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. State Department, Third Sector Capital Partners, and Rotary International. She received her Master of Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and her MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management. She loves comedy, karaoke, and being kept on her toes by her husband and three crazy boys.
What do you hope to achieve at the GitLab Foundation?
We have some ambitious goals. What I love about our vision and mission is that they are specific. They will be difficult to attain but we believe they are attainable. And it’s a really meaningful contribution to the world around us.
Our main activities will be focused around education and training. We will think a lot about how we reduce barriers to training, education and jobs. There will be work at a person-to-person level as well as at a systems level.
I also have a few personal goals for our Foundation. I care a lot about building a great internal culture - about keeping people motivated about their work. I also hope that we become a well-respected foundation in the ecosystem of other philanthropic work. We hope to attract great partners and interest that will drive impact.
What words of advice do you have for leading impact and change?
Leadership has been a long journey of discovery for me. I have not had a straight line in my career, I’ve moved between different industries and had the opportunity to observe a lot of leaders around me. I’ve had a very fortunate and privileged life, but ever since I was a little girl it’s frustrated me that different people have different opportunities; I’ve had a sense of the inequality in the world around me. Since leaving college I've been focusing on addressing this imbalance and I’ve put myself in positions where I can make a difference.
My belief is that every person in every role can make an impact. Most important for me is realizing that any meaningful change in the world takes a team, and not just an individual. On a team everyone can contribute. Nothing will replace great talent and great people in your work.
How do you maintain balance between work and life?
Here’s some of the tough things I’ve learned. I’ve learned that when I'm excelling at one area I often feel like I’m neglecting another area. When I feel like I’m crushing it at work, I feel like I’m neglecting my three boys or my husband. When I’m all in on the after-school activities for my kids, I worry that I'm not keeping up with work. It’s not easy and there's only so many hours in the day. For me the key is aggressive prioritization. That takes self discipline and also the discipline to set healthy boundaries.
What is the most valuable piece of advice that your mentors have shared with you?
One of my favorite mantras is one that Melinda Gates used to share when I worked at the Gates Foundation, where she said, ‘To whom much is given, much is expected.’ It is really centered around this sense of privilege and responsibility to give back. It has resonated with me ever since I worked in her organization.
