Prior to joining Lime, Andrea Ellis received a Bachelors Degree from the University of Pennsylvania and earned a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. She began her career with Goldman Sachs as a professional in both their Trading and Investment Banking divisions. Ellis also worked with Restaurant Brands International Inc. for over five years, where she held a series of leadership positions including the Head of Investor Relations and Global Finance, Chief Financial Officer of Tim Hortons, Head of Front of House Product Management and General Manager of Popeyes’ Central Division.
Ellis joined San Francisco-based Lime in 2020 and is helping the company scale from start-up to become a public company-ready enterprise in 2022. True to intention, in November 2021 Ellis led Lime through their $523 million raise in convertible debt and term loan financing, money that Lime CEO Wayne Ting publicly stated is the next step on the company’s path to going public. Despite challenges of the pandemic (Lime shut down their business in all but five markets), Ellis helped oversee the business’s rebound and international expansion, with Lime launching in 80 new cities in 2021, 67% growth from 2020. Through Ellis’s leadership, the Company has focused its efforts on scaling a sustainable business, and is on track to be EBITDA positive in 2022. Scaling up the Finance operations in a significant way, Ellis now leads a global team of 100+ individuals across Finance, Investor Relations, Business Information Systems, and HR / People. In doing so, Ellis has emphasized the hiring women and people of color, with approximately 70% of her Finance team comprised of women. On the heels of her success at Lime, Ellis joined other executives on Crain’s Chicago Business 40 Under 40 list and Chicago Business Journal’s 2021 Women of Influence list. Both are lists of Chicago’s high-achieving leaders of various disciplines that are also deeply involved in civic and philanthropic life.