About Richard Ellis

Richard Ellis, Founder and President of 12 to 20, has been interacting with teens since his college days as a teen crisis intervention counselor and a youth education advocate. His efforts to create an education solution for all teens in his university town resulted in an alternative high school program being developed. Furthermore, his graduate work in counseling psychology was aimed at finding methods of helping teens and young adults cope with drug and alcohol problems.

He has over 20 years in the entertainment industry (executive positions at Warner Music Group, Sony Music, BMG, Time Inc, Musician Magazine, Contemporary Productions) creating unique marketing programs to reach teen and college age consumers. His desire to infuse marketing programs with messages of youth empowerment has paid off with successful campaigns involving MADD, SADD, Amnesty International, Do Something and the U.S. government’s Anti-Drug initiative (ONDCP).

And in order to maintain a knowledgeable edge on how teens think, feel, and act, 12 to 20 created a strategic relationship with Teenage Research Unlimited (TRU), the nation's leading teen research organization.

Richard Ellis currently serves on the advisory councils for mpower, the National Mental Health Association’s initiative to reach young people through their love of music, and The Institute for International Research (IIR) Teen Conferences, and is a member of the board of directors of Project Echo, which helps secondary school students create and run their own businesses.