Elizabeth Elting

After graduating from Trinity College, Elting interned in Caracas in the finance department of a cement company and then worked at a language services company in New York City, and interned at Moody’s Investors Service during graduate school. Very briefly after graduation, Elting worked in the proprietary trading division of a French bank; however, she quickly grew dissatisfied with the “boys’ club” atmosphere and the expectation that she would perform administrative and secretarial work alongside her official responsibilities, and left to found her own company.

In addition to her work in business, Elting is the Founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation, through which she has partnered with the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women Campaign, where she also serves as co-chair of the New York branch of the movement. The partnership is dedicated to spreading awareness and education regarding the factors that can affect women’s cardiac health as well as promoting future research and encouraging more women to go into STEM fields like medicine and engineering, with the aim of not only improving women’s representation in those fields, but also producing future breakthroughs and discoveries for women’s health.

Elting is also involved with the National Organization of Women, Women in the World, CFW Careers for Women, the Women’s Leadership Council’s Founders Council at Trinity College, and NYU Stern Women in Business. Elting has awarded scholarships to women at Trinity College, helped the NYU Stern School of Business attract, enroll and support more women, mentored women at Columbia Business School, and continues to foster entrepreneurship opportunities for women through the Elizabeth Elting Foundation. Additionally, Elting’s Elting Family Foundation provides financial support for researchinto a rare kind of lymphoma called Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia. Elting is a regular contributor at Forbes Magazine, where she writes about issues facing women in the workplace and how women can navigate their careers to success. In addition, she regularly lectures at Columbia Business School regarding entrepreneurship and growing a company.

Since leaving TransPerfect in 2018 following a lengthy legal battle with co-founder Phil Shawe that resulted in a buyout, Elting has been serving as Founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation, focusing on advocacy for women in the workplace. Her advocacy work has received recognition from the National Organization of Women.

Elting left TransPerfect in 2018. She currently serves as Founder and CEO of the Elizabeth Elting Foundation.

In May 2018, the Delaware Supreme Court upheld a decision causing the sale of Elting's 50% ownership of TransPerfect to cofounder Phil Shawe for $770 million, which closed the same month.

Having spent several years working in the translation industry, Elting felt there was a need for a service-minded enterprise that could deliver complex projects quickly and accurately. To that end, Elting co-founded TransPerfect in 1992 out of an NYU dorm room. Elting served as co-CEO of TransPerfect for almost 26 years, during which it became the world's largest provider of language and business solutions. Headquartered in New York City, the company has over $600 million in revenues and more than 4,000 employees in over 90 cities around the globe.

Elting was born in Westchester County, New York to Everett Elting, an advertising executive, and Judy Elting, an educator. Her family traveled frequently, including long-term residences in Portugal and Canada, where Elting first developed interest in studying languages. In Toronto, a young Elting worked at many jobs over the years including as an usherette for the Toronto Blue Jays. She speaks English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin and earned a BA in Modern Languages and Literatures from Trinity College in 1987, and her MBA from NYU Stern School of Business in 1992.

Elizabeth Elting (born February 15, 1966) is an American businesswoman, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. She co-founded, and for over 25 years served as Co-CEO of TransPerfect, the world's largest language solutions provider. In 2016 and 2017, she was named to Forbes magazine's list of the Richest Self-Made Women, with a net worth of $420 million.