John M. Ellis

John Ellis is The Heinz Endowments’ vice president of Communications. He moved to the organization in 2014 from The Pittsburgh Foundation, the region’s major community foundation, where he worked for almost 10 years as vice president of Communications. Previously, his career spanned more than 20 years in corporate communications and public affairs, primarily with the international airline industry, and before that he worked as a newspaper journalist and editor in the UK.

John was responsible for building integrated media relations, marketing and public affairs programs at The Pittsburgh Foundation that succeeded in heightening public awareness around critical community issues and strengthening the engagement of key constituents in the organization’s work.

Prior to moving to the U.S. in 2000, John ran his own communications firm in London, England, which operated as one of Europe’s largest commercial aviation communications and public affairs specialists.