Ellucian CEO and leadership

Laura K. Ipsen is president and chief executive officer of Ellucian.

Laura has more than 25 years of experience as a technology executive, working to drive transformation in the public and private sectors and spur adoption of comprehensive solutions in high-growth industries.

Laura joined Ellucian from Oracle Corporation, where she most recently served as general manager and senior vice president for Oracle Marketing Cloud-leading all customer-facing aspects of the business, including sales, account management, marketing, and customer services. Previously, she served as corporate vice president of Microsoft’s worldwide public sector organization, where she led a team of more than 2,000 sales and marketing professionals serving government, education, and non-privatized healthcare customers in more than 100 countries.

Laura’s experience also includes more than a decade at Cisco Systems, where she led an effort to transform how the world manages energy supplies and build smart-grid solutions for utilities around the world. Prior to that, she established and managed Cisco’s global policy and government affairs division, where she led the company’s public policy agenda as it related to the Internet and global adoption of broadband access. Laura has also held leadership roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Acer America, and Hitachi Data Systems.

Laura previously served as a member of the board of directors of Monsanto from 2010 until 2018 when it was acquired by Bayer and is a former chair of the board of the Washington, D.C.-based Information Technology Industry Council.

Laura holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the Woodrow Wilson School of Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia and studied Arabic at Yarmouk University in Jordan. She is also a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum, Silicon Valley Chapter.

As the General Manager of CA Services and Education, Chris Collins leads the Global CA Technologies Professional Services and Education organizations. The team is focused on helping customers maximize and extend the value of their technology investments with expert consulting, deployment services, comprehensive training, managed services and proven best practices based on thousands of implementations. Chris helps establish strategies for business growth as well as for quality and efficiency in scoping, pricing, resourcing and implementation. He also helps the Services team work in lock step with other CA Technologies groups such as Sales, Presales, Education, Development, Support and the Customer Solutions Group, and with CA Technologies partners. Chris joined CA Technologies in July 2006. Chris has been the GM of CA Services and Education for 2 months. Prior to his current role, he led the CA Services team in NA, where he was instrumental in applying Services' accredited methodology and best practice knowledge to drive sustained and profitable growth. Chris also has International experience from his tenure as VP of EMEA professional services which he performed out of London. Chris started his career at CA serving as VP and area manager in the western United States before taking on responsibility for EMEA. A decisive leader with more than 20 years of proven success leading high-volume, deadline-driven teams, Chris is a strategic business development professional who builds and leads organizations and defines and implements effective sales and services strategies. Prior to joining CA, Chris was an early pioneer of SaaS computing and managed services at Mercury Interactive, and held senior IT, customer service and engineering positions at Mercury and Tandem Computers. Chris was a part of two start-ups in Silicon Valley, one of which was sold to a small technology firm and the other to Gemstar-TV Guide. Chris was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay area. He currently lives in San Jose, where he resides with his wife, Tammy, and their four children, Nicholas, Noah, Elliott and Gabriel. Chris enjoys skiing, golf, cycling, water sports, and spending time with his wife and children.

Harshan Bhangdia is a Chief Financial Officer at Ellucian. He has worked as Acting Chief Financial Officer at Quintiles Ims Inc, VP/Controller at IMS Health, and Vice President/Controller at Quintiles Ims Inc. Harshan attended Lubin School of Business and Wagner College.

Alice Wild is an Executive Assistant for the President & CEO, SVP & CFO and SVP, Corporate Development at Ellucian and is based in Fairfax, Virginia. She has worked as Advising Coordinator, Academic Advising and Career Development at James Madison University - JMU; American Academy of Physician Assistants at American Association of Port Authorities; and Executive Secretary & Events Coordinator to the President/CEO at Advanced Technology Group (ATG). Alice attended Computer Learning Center and George Mason University between 1977 and 1980.

Andy Bynum is a Chief Information Officer at Ellucian and is based in Reston, Virginia. He has worked as Account & Marketing Executive at Intermec by Honeywell, Senior Consultant at Sirco Industries Inc., and Commissioned Officer at Marine Corps Recruiting. Andy studied at University of Kansas.