Maplewood Matters

Managing with Insight
Ellen Zimiles brings her passions to the forefront
by Liza Morse

When you ask Ellen Zimiles' family, friends and colleagues about her, you become accustomed to hearing words like "brilliant," "determined," "amazing" and "powerhouse."

When you get to know her, you find out why.

Not only does Zimiles serve as CEO of her own company, Daylight Forensic and Advisory, she is also a tireless advocate for children with autism and owns Words, Maplewood's independent bookstore, with her husband, Jonah.

It's all in a day's work for Zimiles, a Brooklyn native who moved to Maplewood in 1990 when pregnant with her daughter Elizabeth, now a college sophomore. She also has a 14-year old son, Daniel, who has autism.

"She is really a testament to how doing the right thing and pursuing the right values leads to success," said her husband, Jonah Zimiles.

Before launching Daylight, Zimiles worked for more than two decades as a litigator and investigator, including ten years as a federal prosecutor. She was also a principal at a Big Four accounting firm for ten years, where she coordinated the company?s forensic practice.

Along the way, Zimiles earned a reputation as one of the nation's leading experts on counterstrategies to money laundering. Her work peaked the interest of a private equity firm that eventually approached her about setting up her own company.

With that financial backing, in June 2006 she co-founded Daylight, an independent forensic-investigations and regulatory-compliance consulting firm. The company now employs 100 people and has offices in New York, Washington, Miami and London.

Daylight helps firms from the financial, healthcare and other sectors root out both internal fraud and criminal activities from other sources. It also sets up programs for companies to combat money laundering and to provide employees with training in ethics. Daylight's client list includes many Fortune 500 companies; former New York Governor Mario Cuomo chairs the firm's board.

Zimiles has also made a point to employ people with autism at Daylight.

"She runs an incredible business that helps a lot of institutions," said Lynn Federman, a South Orange resident who headed money-laundering prevention for two multi-national financial institutions. "She is one of the most respected professionals in the country in her area. You can always rely on her judgment. She really is at the top of her field."

Zimiles has embraced being an entrepreneur.

"I love it. I don't want to do anything different," said Zimiles. "You have to be hands on in every aspect."

When Zimiles is not working, she devotes herself fully to her family and to the local autism community.

One summer day in 2008, Zimiles came up with an idea that would eventually bring her passions together.

"I was walking up Baker Street and I saw that Goldfinch, the local bookstore, was for sale," said Zimiles.

She walked home and told her husband, who had left his job as a lawyer six years earlier to manage a home education program for their son, that they should buy the store.

They could not only preserve Maplewood's independent bookstore, she argued, but it was also the perfect environment to employ people with special needs. From her perspective, there was no down side.

"When I came home and brought the idea to Jonah, he was taken aback. Neither of us had any retail experience," said Zimiles. "After a little while, however, the idea took hold, and Jonah was on board wholeheartedly."

They bought the store that November, moved it to a larger space on Maplewood Avenue, and opened for business on January 20, 2009. Her husband, who recently completed his MBA, now runs the day-to-day operations of the store.

And, just as Zimiles had envisioned, Words doesn't just sell books, it also serves as a haven for people with special needs, and a job-training site for people with autism.

"Words is a great place to bring my child with autism and my typical child as well," said Maplewood resident and Zimiles family friend Pam Kattouf. "What I admire most about Ellen is that she's very forward thinking. Most people who have children with autism are thinking about what to do now. She's thinking about the future."

Zimiles doesn't necessarily see herself as the brilliant powerhouse that everyone else describes. She just considers herself to be the other half of an unusually felicitous partnership.

"I have a very good husband," said Zimiles. "We are an absolute team. We see things the same way."

Liza Morse is a South Orange-based freelance writer who loves visiting Words with her two young children.

Jonah and Ellen Zimiles in their Maplewood bookstore, Words.

Brought to you by