Eleanor Laurans

Eleanor’s career has spanned the for-profit, nonprofit and public sectors. She currently splits her time between teaching strategy at HBS and leading Workshop, a venture studio that is building new businesses in climate and education.

After graduating from HBS in 2006, she and her husband founded SimpliSafe -- a disruptive innovation that has grown from the couple’s kitchen counter to become one of the largest home security companies in the country. Today the company proudly protects millions of Americans and employs over a thousand team members. After a growth equity investment from Sequoia Capital in 2014, Hellman & Friedman acquired a majority stake in the company in 2018. Eleanor led strategy for the company for its first 13 years and continues to serve on the board of directors.

Eleanor has also spent the last 20 years working to improve outcomes and equity in education. Most recently, she served for four years as the Chief Financial Officer for the Boston Public Schools, where she oversaw the district’s $1.4B budget. During her tenure at BPS, Eleanor brought stability to the district’s budget with multi-year financial planning, helped build innovative new tools to more equitably allocate resources, and dramatically increased transparency of where dollars are spent.

Prior to BPS, Eleanor spent eight years as a consultant in the Education Practice of the Parthenon Group. Eleanor has also worked in the New York City Department of Education and as a consultant at Bain & Company. She graduated as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School and with honors from Yale University.