Our Advisors
Howard N. Ellman
Howard N. Ellman is a shareholder, director and founder of Ellman Burke Hoffman & Johnson, a San Francisco legal firm specializing in Real Estate, Land Use and Environmental Law. Howard has practiced law for more than 30 years, concentrating in the areas of real estate and environmental law. Mr. Ellman handles transactions and litigation involving such diverse matters as property transfers, development, environmental regulation, endangered species, land security, debtor/creditor rights and water law.
Mr. Ellman has served as lead counsel on numerous high-profile projects, including representing AT&T in complex real estate aspects of the telephone divestiture in 11 western states. A recognized expert in his field, Mr. Ellman has spoken and taught extensively on the topic of real estate and land use law. He has been an adjunct professor at Stanford University School of Law, where he taught advanced real estate problems. He has also been a visiting lecturer for the University of California at Berkeley School of Law, Boalt Hall, Golden Gate University School of Law and John Muir College at the University of California at San Diego. He is a frequent lecturer and panelist in continuing legal education programs sponsored by California Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB), the University of California Extension, American Law Institute/American Bar Association (ALI/ABA) Joint Committee on Legal Education and Practising Law Institute (PLI).
Mr. Ellman earned his law degree from Stanford University J.D., 1959. He received his Certified Public Accountant (CPA) Certificate from the University of Illinois Committee on Accountancy in 1957. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Northwestern University. He is a member of the State Bar of California, the Bar Association of San Francisco, and the Northern California Water Association.
Ted Cohn
Ted is an 18 year veteran of Silicon Valley technology firms and consumate entrepreneur. He most recently co-founded and served as Chief Operating Officer at UGOBE. Multitalented, Ted has worked as principal engineer through executive management at a number of well known companies including Apple, NeXT Computer, Excite/Webcrawler, RasterOps, Radius, Catapult Entertainment, TenSquare and Bridgespan. Mr. Cohn previously founded SurveySez Corporation that pioneered automated online surveys in the web app space, and served as Director of Engineering and employee no. one at TenSquare. Ted enjoys developing products, technology and services that improve people's lives. His background extends into areas of product development, computer graphics, database systems, systems architecture, Internet/web technologies, financial planning, strategic planning and business development. He has a passion for building successful, collaborative teams, has co-authored two patents, received several awards and holds a B.A. degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
