Business Career & Personal
Ellis is a partner in Rice Financial Products, Inc. and vice chairman of the Tagos Group. Ellis co-founded Apex Securities, Inc., an investment banking firm which merged in 1998 with Rice Financial Products Company, a municipal interest rate swap company. Ellis is of counsel for Reaud, Morgan & Quinn.
Ellis serves on the board of the University of Texas School of Law Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations, the board of the Barbara Jordan Freedom Foundation, and the board of Lyndon B. Johnson Foundation. He also chairs the Board of Directors for the Innocence Project, Inc. of New York, and co-chairs the Commission to Engage African Americans on Energy, Climate, and the Environment. Ellis previously served on the board of the National Commission on Energy Policy, the U.S. Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, and the Center for Policy Alternatives.
Ellis helped to negotiate bringing Lucy (Australopithecus), a natural history exhibit, to Houston. Ellis led a delegation to the National Museum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to bring Lucy's bones to the United States and the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Lucy, who lived 3.2 million years ago and is perhaps man's earliest known ancestor, was discovered in 1974.
Ellis is an avid cyclist, who has authored "Complete Streets" legislation to improve safety for motorists and cyclists, and sponsored or taken part in numerous cycling events, like the MS 150, in Texas and across the country.
Ellis is an art collector and has a collection of African art.
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